The Climbing Academy

New website and blog

2008-11-14T00:42:00.000-08:00

We've been working hard to get the new website and blog up this week, and transfer the archive so it's all under one roof. It's now active so just click on the link below...

Undercover Rock

2008-11-06T23:12:00.001-08:00

Don't forget that UCR have their climbing festival tomorrow (Saturday 8th).

This fun filled annual event includes a roped competition, the 2nd round of their boulder series and a gear shop by Dick's Climbing of Old Market, and is always one of the highlights of Bristol's climbing calendar.

The fun starts early, lasts all day and there are loads of prizes to give away.

http://www.undercover-rock.com
http://www.dicksclimbing.com

Plaster

2008-11-05T10:12:00.000-08:00

Our plasterer, Lee, has done an amazing job, having worked his way through a total of 84 bags of plaster. His attention to detail was 2nd to none and the finish is incredible. We'll get painting then...

Toilets

Reception and locker area

Kitchen

Paint

2008-11-01T11:40:00.001-07:00

Kev has putting some paint on the walls in the last week and what with the new lighting, it's starting to come alive.

Going Supersonic

2008-10-24T11:34:00.000-07:00

So the last section of wall is now almost complete, bar a few boards, and the whole centre is taking on a different feel altogether.

As you can see it's fairly steep and should prove a great spectacle for comp finals and for anyone chilling out in the cafe.

The rhs is fairly constant at 60 degrees while the left will form a more complex cave stucture.

Meanwhile on the darkside, The Escalator wall is now complete, with just a bit of I-beam boxing in to finish the woodwork off.

Elsewhere there's also lots of activity. The plastering is in full swing as is the floor laying, and all the new lighting fixtures are being attached to the ceilings.

All the walls are due to be undercoated this weekend so the whole place should soon take on a more ghostly feel.

1st Routes

2008-10-21T15:14:00.000-07:00

We set our 1st problems today to get a few photos taken. My good friend Dave 'The Boff' Pickford popped in to snap off a few shots for us before I stripped the routes down again ready for painting.

Dave's getting a deserved reputation for both his photography, lectures and for his excellent journalism. He's got a few up and coming lectures in Bristol - Adventure Photography at the Hen and Chicken in Bedminster on Nov 19th and Madagascar (for the Wilderness lecture series) at the University Chemistry lab on Nov 26th. Both start at 7.30pm.

You can see more of Dave's photos at www.davidpickford.com and www.planetfear.com

Toilets

2008-10-21T14:42:00.000-07:00

Toilets have got to be one of the most important parts of any project to get right, that's why we have built ours as solid rooms within rooms with proper heavy doors. There's nothing worse than a flimsy cramped cubicle to make you feel vunerable and self concious.

The cubicles are well oversized too, so they can be used as private changing rooms, and we are fitting underfloor heating to make the experience much more pleasant too.

Lighting

2008-10-21T12:28:00.000-07:00

Lighting is such an important part of the climbing centre that we've researched all the options very thoroughly and decided on Phillips Activiva Active lamps.
Since 2002, Phillips has been working with leading universities to understand just how light affects us, physically and psychologically. The focus has been the highly complex relationship between light and well being and the Activiva lamp is a result of this research.
The Activiva Active is a new lamp based on tried and tested technology, in which the amount of blue light has been optimized to provide extreme cool light with 85% more blue light than existing cool daylight lamps. These not only provide high quality lighting in line with the latest standards, but also directly affect the way people feel by making them more alert, awake and energized.

Timber Origami

2008-10-15T14:57:00.000-07:00

We've been cracking on with, and have now finished the framework for the last sections of wall. It's difficult to make a shape of the origami-like structure but it will soon be apparent with ply pannelling - needless to say it's the jewel in the already impressive crown...

The Phat 45 wall is all finished and were just putting in all new electrics for the lighting system.

5 and 14 year membership update

2008-10-13T09:08:00.000-07:00

One of the people who's taking a long membership asked if we would allow them to be transferable. It seemed like a perfectly reasonable thing to do so we've said yes. So, now, if you take one of our 5 or 14 year memberships and you end up leaving Bristol or stopping climbing for some reason, you can sell it on to someone else. Makes it even more of a bargain!

Climbing Wall Solutions

2008-10-11T13:52:00.000-07:00

Big Ron Barraclough popped by this week for a look at the wall, very dapper in lilac and sporting his freshly sign-written van. Formerly part of the team trying to set up Climbing Works Bristol, Ron's attempts were thwarted by a mixture of council and landlord nightmares. Fortunately his Climbing Wall Solutions business is going from strength to strength. So if you need a great climbing wall for your sports centre, school or just your double garage then give Ron a call or drop him an email to discuss your requirements.
Ron was impressed with the constuction so far and as one of the top routesetters in the country, expect to see his gymnastic handywork appearing on the walls of The Climbing Academy now and again.

A very special offer

2008-10-06T09:27:00.000-07:00

With the climbing surfaces nearly finished and a target opening date of November 15th, we are ready to offer a limited number of very specially priced, long term subscriptions to The Climbing Academy.
Our 5 year subscriptions are on offer at £1,250 a discount of around 35% on 5 yearly memberships.
We’re also offering a 14 year membership (the length of our lease) at £3,000 a discount of around 45%.
If you’re interested in either of these, please contact me by email on r.emerson@ukonline.co.uk and I’ll call you back to discuss how it will work.
We have a limited number of these subscriptions and we’ll sell them strictly on a first come first served basis.
Speak soon
Rich

Phat 45

2008-10-02T15:36:00.001-07:00

We've been working on the Phat 45 wall today and should have it complete tomorrow. It starts with the magnificant prow before hitting an awkward groove, a slight lessening of angle (40 degrees) and then a blunt arete to finsh.

The bottom end is looking great and will be complete when the ceiling boards go up and remaining I beams are boxed.

Bring on the steep

2008-09-30T01:41:00.000-07:00

Apart from the roof, we haven't yet built anything too steep. That's just about to change now as the remaining areas are going to be quite beefy indeed. The 1st of these is a 45 degree prow and wall which is nicely taking shape.

At every corner there are new shapes and angles, and the centre has a very natural and organic feel to it. A bit like font indoors really.

Plenty is happening away from the wall build - ceilings are going up, all new electrics are going in, and we're starting to think about colours and kitchen appliances too.

There's a huge amount still to do but the balance has tipped and it's now feeling more like a bouldering centre than a building site.

Cars

2008-09-30T01:15:00.000-07:00

While we would like to encourage everybody to travel by foot/bike/bus or train, we realise that many climbers will come to us by car. Rich has been working hard to secure some more car parking and we're pleased to say that we now have 3 car parks with 75 spaces to ensure parking for everyone on busy winter evenings.

Rich and Tom spent the weekend clearing up our new aquisition, taking out all the brambles and weeds, wheels, tyres and other bits of general junk.

This space alone has 60 parking spots and plenty of on street parking too.

Jobs update

2008-09-26T00:55:00.000-07:00

We've now got both our Duty Managers in place so thanks to everyone who showed an interest in that one. They both smile a lot, understand climbing and are really up for getting The Climbing Academy buzzing. We're still looking for someone to help us with the cafe/reception work and an office manager, so if you want to get involved have a look below and send us your details.

Deliveries

2008-09-25T16:16:00.000-07:00

Things have been happening thick and fast this week. As well as all the timber for the suspended ceiling, we've just had lots of shiny ducting that will be integral to the extraction system.

Tony was so excited he felt the need to model it too...

Having worked so hard for the last 6 weeks, I finally let the team take a tea break. They enjoyed it immensly and I said that if they were good then they could have another in November.

Jim's been busy fitting the ceiling rails and wants me to move my car out before he lays the cafe floor. He's been getting a worried look though everytime I say "you know what would be good Jim?"

Mike and I are working our way back through towards the circuits area. Tomorrow we will build what I think will be the most impressive feature of any bouldering wall anywhere. Watch this space...

New bits and pieces

2008-09-22T15:38:00.000-07:00

We're filling in the last two gaps in the perimeter, the extractor wall and perimeters end. The former has some crazy angles and the latter has a great arete. All the ducting for the extraction is on its way and the fans have been admirably dealing with all the saw and concrete dust

Work has also started on the other island structures. Mike has built a fat tanker's prow and I'm presently creating a chunky archway across to it.

We've also been having some fun with Jim's laser (in between using it seriously of course).

We've now been measured for matting and have been making decisions on the look and feel of the centre. From the reactions of all our visitors, we are pretty confident that we are setting a new standard for this type of facility. Bold words maybe but everyone here is committed to making this the best indoor bouldering venue in the UK.

And we'll be starting to release a lot more information soon...

The Island

2008-09-11T17:10:00.000-07:00

The latest piece of wall is almost complete. This island-like structure runs from the cave parallel to the wall of angles and has 2 gently overhanging faces and two steeper prows.

Tool Time

2008-09-11T16:19:00.000-07:00

We've got a lot of equipment on site, and I thought you might like to know just what bits of kit everyone favours.

Being our youngest team member, Will took the obvious choice with the DeWalt chop saw. This is also a favourite of mine and Jims, it speeds up workflow immensly, and can easily make compound cuts in timber.

Tony is totally enamoured with his Screw gun. It means he can put up sheets of plasterboard at lightning pace and have time to squeeze in another tea break.

Jim is excited because his spray gun for dry lining fixing arrived today. Not my first choice but then there's no accounting for taste.

Mike's all about his Makita drill/driver. Compact yet powerful, it has a Gucci LED that lights up the work area when the trigger is pressed.

My favourite of the moment is the battery powered circular saw. It chews through battery juice but is so quick and handy around sheets of ply that I still love it. And with the laser, even long cuts are extremely accurate without a guide.

Jobs

2008-09-09T08:51:00.000-07:00

If you fancy working in The Climbing Academy, we’ve got some posts we’d like to fill pretty quickly. Two are full time and one is part time. We’d like them all to start before we open so you’ll be able to get involved in shaping how it’s all going to work.

Duty Manager: We’ve already appointed one DM and we’re now looking for our second. Alongside looking after customers and the safety of the centre when you’re on duty, we also want you to deal with our building and facilities, and to work on our customer database (you’ll have approx 10 hours each week dedicated to this work). There’ll be some evening and weekend work in a 37 hour week. Depending on experience, the salary will be £15-17,000.

Cafe Manager: Our cafe is going to be an important part of the wall, serving hot and cold food. We’re looking for someone to take responsibility for hygiene, food ordering, stock management serving and at quiet times working on the reception desk. You don’t need to be a cook, just well organised with a friendly face and a desire to make the cafe a real feature. As with the DM job there will be some evening and weekend work in a 37 hour week. Depending on experience, the salary will be £11-12,000.

Bookkeeper/Office Manager: Here we need someone organised and experienced in doing the admin for a small business. We’ll be using Sage for our accounts and all the usual Office applications. Along with the bookkeeping we’ll want you to make sure the office is stocked with all the bits and pieces we need and to provide admin support for our events, competitions and marketing activities. The job will be for 15 hours per week at a pro rata salary of between £16-18,000 depending on experience.

If you’re interested please send a CV and covering email to r.emerson@ukonline.co.uk.

We will be looking for part time staff and instructors but will advertise these jobs nearer our opening, so please only get in touch now if you want one of the jobs above.

Wall of Angles

2008-09-04T17:16:00.000-07:00

Another couple days and some more progress. We finished the wall of angles today and are now only a few days away from completing phase 1. This section runs down the side wall from the cave and morphs from a gentle overhang into a very steep, sick slab.

We mounted and tested the extractors and they worked incredibly well, even before sealing. They dealt admirably with the sawdust storm we purposefully created so chalkdust will not be a problem.

Some interesting figures:
1. By my short-legged pacing, we are 592 paces from the nearest train station which is on the Severn Beach Line. This cheaply serves Montpelier, Redland, Clifton Down, through to Avonmouth and Severn Beach.
2. So far we have created 2600 square foot of climbing surface. The photos don't really do the space justice as all our visitors have commented on how much bigger it is than they expected. It's always pleasing to exceed expectations...

We've also had a few choice quotes that I am able repeat here.

"One word: SICK" Fred - director Arch Climbing Wall

"That's the best bit of wall I've ever seen" Ben West - national routesetter, wall builder, coach, ex British Bouldering Team member

"Hurry up and finish building because I need somewhere decent to train" Steve Richardson - director Bristol Climbing Centre

"This is amazing" Andy Sainsbury - local boulderer

"Can I have some lunch now?" Mike Sowell - wall builder

Mo Roof

2008-09-02T13:53:00.000-07:00

The Roof is...

2008-09-01T11:42:00.000-07:00

almost complete.

And what a beastly feature she is!

Interest hotting up

2008-08-31T01:57:00.001-07:00

I noticed today that the number of people visiting our blog is on the increase (160 on Friday) so the word is obviously out there and the interest growing. In case you don't know, we also have a facebook group here, so why not join up to be certain of getting up-to-date news.
Yesterday we almost finished the big roof. Every visitor has been sent deep in the corner on the only two holds we've placed, to look over their shoulder and see how far it is to the lip - jaws have universally dropped!

The Roof Of Eternity

2008-08-28T11:53:00.000-07:00

Mike and I ploughed on with our uber-roof today and it's taking shape quite nicely. I can't think I've ever seen any indoor climbing structure that compares and we've already had a few visitors' jaws hitting the floor. It's a beast for sure and will certainly 'butch up' the Bristol massive.

There's been high praise for Compound Corner too - I can't wait for it to be painted and to get a few choice problems set.

Photos

2008-08-26T16:40:00.000-07:00

So some photos at last. I wanted to wait until we had some ply cladding up or it just doesn't look much at all. Mike and I have been beavering away and things are nicely taking shape. Rich has been t-nutting as have both Kev and Extreme Roger. Thanks guys.
I've just finished what's become known as 'Compound Corner' - due to the complexity of angles and cuts - and it certainly had me scratching my head a few times. It was worth the moments of frustration though and we have a wild and unique feature.
This completes the circuits area, made up of a 12 degree board, a 30 degree board leading into Compound corner (45 degrees), then the campus board and finally the curving wall leading to the fire exit doorway.

We've now just started on the framework for the roof feature and will be cracking on with that this week. Mike couldn't quite understand the shapes in my head until I made a quick model. It will be over 4m wide by 6m long with angles of 10, 20, 45, 80 and 85 degrees overhanging... Compound city no less!

The internals are taking shape, Tony and Will are in baton heaven - toilets, showers, office and kitchen wall studding is all slotting into place and the extractor fans have been mounted in their custom housings. We should hopefully be replacing our tired steel shutter doors next week with brand new electric ones.

It's starting to feel like a climbing wall in there now though there's still a long way to go and lots of new and exciting shapes to create...

Update on progress

2008-08-20T02:51:00.000-07:00

As Paul's locked in at the wall building ever more complicated shapes, I thought I'd spend a few mins giving you all update.
We've been building for nearly 2 weeks now and are starting to see some real progress. The stud work for the offices, toilets, showers, treatment room is coming along nicely. There wasn't much clearing to do so our builder was able to get moving pretty quickly.
Over in the climbing area, we've started with the circuit boards. So far we've got 4 boards up along with a campus board. They all overhang from 10 to 45 degrees and are a mix of flat and shaped boards.
The basic frame for our traverse wall is also coming along so once we get the circuit boards finished we'll move onto creating the shapes to make this interesting.
We're hoping that Andy Long will be able to join us on site soon to start the problem structures - he tells us he's got some great ideas!
It's all looking very real now so over the next few weeks we'll start posting some pictures and bit more information about location, memberships, facilities etc.

We're In

2008-08-01T15:58:00.001-07:00

Finally we've started work on Bristol's dedicated bouldering centre, and here's a taster of the space we'll be filling for you over the next few months. We're quite excited now....

Chris Sharma lecture

2008-07-31T01:19:00.000-07:00

We have provisionally booked Chris Sharma for a lecture at The Climbing Academy on Thursday 26 February. More details on confirmation.

Finally - The Start

2008-07-16T04:09:00.000-07:00

We can gladly report, with both relief and excitement that all parties and their respective lawyers are happy with all the conditions necessary for us to achieve a start date of July 28th. This is great news and means we will be able to open to the climbing public in October.

The Lease

2008-06-09T15:40:00.000-07:00

The good news is that we've now finally got our hands on the lease agreement and are planning to start building within the next month. It's been a hard uphill slog and we thought more than a few times that it might not actually come off for various reasons - but at last there's now something concrete (or should that be plastic) for Bristol's many boulderers to get excited about.

TCA Update

2008-05-22T10:46:00.000-07:00

We can bring forth some good news at last as the early summer sees The Climbing Academy moving forward in its mission to Bring Bristol's boulderers a venue of national importance.

After dealing with yet more moving goalposts and their associated delays, we never thought it would be so hard to start a business that was so badly wanted by so many people. But fortunately perseverance has paid dividends and with the finance in place we're just waiting on the lease agreement to be drawn up and checked over.

With no more unforseen delays we will be hoping to open as originally planned in early autumn.

We will also be working in synergy with another business to bring many of our customers some unexpected benifits - more details to follow soon.

Tendinitis

2008-05-18T13:48:00.000-07:00

As a long term tendinitis sufferer, and having been forced to have the best part of the last eighteen months without climbing, I was recommended a supplement called Celladrin to help combat my bad tennis elbows.

Celadrin is a complex blend of esterified fatty acids that have beneficial effects for the inflammatory responses in the body. They reduce inflammation and lubricate membranes of cells throughout the body, and replace fluids that help cushion bones and joints to contribute to overall flexibility and mobility.

Having been using celadrin now for nearly a month I can say that for me it has had a massive positive effect, allowing me to start climbing properly again. I still have some discomfort after training but the debilitating pain has now gone.

2008-03-17T04:56:00.000-07:00

Skymasters

Having been working on the Skymasters competition at the Outdoors Show at the NEC this weekend, I must say that it set a new standard for leading competitions. The Entreprise wall featured a 30 metre roof section consisting of various objects to navigate, around or underneath, all gently swaying on chains to add an extra dimension to the proceedings.
Steve McClure and Percy Bishton did an amazing job with the routesetting, getting one male and one female competitor to the final hold and the rest of the field split nicely. Both Dave Barrans and sixteen year old Michaela Tracy took restpective first places and winners cheques of £1200.
Mike and Jez at X1 did a great job of organising the whole thing at it ran smoothly and on time. As climbing competitions go, this was a rare occassion in the respect that it was actually involing to be a spectator. Hopefully more of the same is to come next year.

Full results

Male
1. Dave Barrans
2. Drew Haigh
3. Tony Musselbrook
4. Mark Croxal
5. Rob Lamey
6. Alan Cassidy
6. Rob Sutton
8. Rob Haigh

Female
1. Micheala Tracey
2. Leah Crane
3. Beth Monks
4. Kitty Wallace
5. Katy Whittaker
6. Audrey Seguy
7. Jemma Powell
8. Annika Frodi Lundgren

Quick update

2008-02-18T23:03:00.000-08:00

We've had a lot of words of support since we annonunced our plans - so thanks to everyone for that. There is a facebook group to join if you're into that kind of thing and we'll try to keep that up to date with any major developments as well as here on our blog.
Both Paul and I are out of the UK at the moment but still working hard to get everything in place for the full lease to be signed in the next few weeks. The lawyers are doing their stuff - we know they're working because they keep asking for more information!

News

2008-02-05T02:30:00.000-08:00

After 12 months of constant head-banging, dead ends and other such disappointments, we have recently struck lucky, securing a fine building with the relevant planning, and are now just awaiting the paperwork to be finalised by the lawyers. Baring earthquakes, tidal waves or other such unforeseen disasters, we will be opening the doors for the first time later this summer.
From our floorspace of 8800 square foot, 6000 square foot will be dedicated to climbing surfaces, whilst a café, treatment facility and shop will provide services to visiting climbers. There is ample parking within a two minute walking radius, and easy road access from both the motorway and from the Bath direction. We are on a main cycleway and only a short walk of 15 minutes from both the train and bus/coach stations.
We are committed to being as friendly to our home planet and our fellow human beings as is humanely possible, and the building materials we use will be from sustainable or recycled sources where available. Thinking outside of the plywood box, we will be introducing some novel and interesting features to enhance our customer experience. We will also be fitting a chalk extraction system (no not just an open door on a windy day) and the company will be carbon neutral.
The exact location will be disclosed shortly, as soon as the men in grey suits have done their crucial bit for Queen, Country and South West’s expectant climbing population.