Okay, I'll admit it. Despite being coaxed with tales of vastly improved fitness, stories of how fun it all is and how overcoming a fear of heights would empower me, the real reason I went to Urban Climb in the first place is because my friend told me there would be lots of fit climbing guys there with their shirts off. Fortunately, there were. Even more fortunately all the other things were true too (and in addition to the fit guys there were lots of friendly girls also fit, if you are interested).
Urban Climb is on Montague St in West End with one of those City Bike racks conveniently located across the road, there is also a city glider bus stop right outside. For the novice you needn't fear – the friendly staff show you the ropes (literally) and you can hire everything you need to get started (shoes, harness and chalk bag).
It's pretty easy to learn how to belay (hold your friend on the rope while they climb) and there is an auto-locking system for additional safety. In addition they play reasonably loud music, which I found helped to drown out the volume of my screams of terror when I realised how high up I had somehow gotten. I recommend not trying the overhanging routes until you feel a bit more confident, the swinging out into the air feeling was horrible until I got used to it (it's rad fun after a while though!).
For the more experienced climber there has been a recent(ish) upgrade and there is now a huge bouldering cave and another climbing wall. Urban Climb also has a gym and offers yoga and other (learn to climb/upgrade your skills and fitness type) classes. Kids birthday party and other groups seem to come along fairly regularly as well; if the screeching and laughing is anything to go by, they thoroughly enjoy themselves.
The climbs at the gym are also conveniently colour coded, so you can start with something easy (yellow or blue) and make your way up to the (rather impossible looking) black. I am trying my first few reds, with little success, at the moment. Luckily, when it all gets too hard you can sit back with a coffee and a nibble from the coffee cart and enjoy watching those fit, shirtless men climbing. Bliss.
