At the Spartan Recreation and Aquatics Center, the climbing wall offers more than just climbing. Students who are involved with the SRAC program learn risk management, leadership and team-building skills.
Sharing the same values and motivation as the Outdoor Adventures club, the students who climb at the SRAC use the motto, “Wander. Connect. Grow.”
When Outdoor Adventures coordinator Tony Dianda started working at SJSU last year, he knew he wanted to help students build relationships and get them out of their “city-mindset.”
Having studied biology at UC Santa Cruz, Dianda said he noticed everyone was more “outdoor-aware” back at his college and he wanted to integrate that into his programs at SJSU.
Dianda leads the Outdoor Adventures program as well as the climbing programs, where he hired student staff members to interact with new climbers and build their interpersonal skills.
Compared to other gyms, Dianda said, at the SRAC climbing wall, he and his staff members encourage climbers to engage with each other by asking them to put their phones away and remove their headphones.
“Throughout life it becomes more and more challenging to meet new friends and this is an easy way to do it,” Dianda said. “Our staff is trained to be like ‘friend-wingmen,’ helping people make friendships.”
Finance senior Sean Nguyen started climbing in 2016 and when the SRAC opened, it gave him the opportunity to become more immersed in the sport and meet students with the same interest.
“I became friends with some of the climbing wall staff because I would be there often and just talk about routes on the wall or advice on how to do something,” Nguyen said.
The Studio Climbing in downtown San Jose offers student specials once a month and Nguyen said he used to go to their gym, but memberships cost about $90.
At the SRAC, students can check out harnesses, belay devices, climbing shoes and even participate in climbing classes for free.
Dianda has 15 student staff members who operate the wall, manage the safety of the top-rope wall and teach belay classes. The belayer is the person who stands on the ground and controls the rope for the climber.
Students who want to climb the top-rope wall, which requires a belayer, can take an online orientation and once they pass the quiz they can climb at any time during SRAC operating hours.
The orientation helps students understand the safety policies of SRAC climbing, which includes a 13-foot boulder and a top-rope wall with a 30-foot section and 45-foot section.
“In the climbing world, there’s all sorts of different ways to belay a climber, tie your knots, how to do all these other smaller components, but there’s an international standard that’s deemed as the safest way,” Dianda said.
The safety of climbing is important to Dianda, but he wants the policies to help students develop good habits so when they’re out climbing on their own time, they won’t do something dangerous.
Sociology senior Bea Dizon said she was hired just before the SRAC opened and enjoys teaching belay classes and ensuring everyone’s safety.
“We also like to have fun and initiate climbing games on our boulder with those that come in,” Dizon said.
Dianda said the climbing staff have been working for a short time, but they seem to be constantly improving their
leadership skills.
“We hope that all of our students, either a participant or a staff member, get to tie [the skills] into their day-to-day lives and into their careers eventually,” Dianda said.
After seeing the success in his student staff members, Dianda hopes the climbing program will continue to grow.
He said the sport club, located in the event center, is currently being renovated, but when it reopens, a part of the weight room will be dedicated to the climbing and outdoor adventure programs.
Dianda hopes to have courses where students can learn outdoor-related skills such as how to fix a flat tire, how to use a map and compass and night photography. It will allow students to learn those skills if they can’t spend money on the Outdoor Adventures trips.
