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© Core Climbing 2022
© Core Climbing 2022
Flashpoint Swansea is the third bouldering wall from the team behind Redpoint Bristol. Flashpoint Swansea brings together the best of the features from the established Flashpoint Bristol and Flashpoint Swindon.
The center has 7 separate boulder walls, each with it’s own mat underneath and separated by walkways. The job included a huge sloping roof plus chamfer elements. In short, it was a complex job and the matting design needed to maintain nice eye lines across the separate areas. The colours selected were a grey carpet top with a bespoke purple edge to match with Flashpoint’s company colours. The walls are finished in wood and white, highlighted with Flashpoint’s marine blue and purple, matching in perfectly with the matting. It’s nice to be asked to go the extra mile to make something unique.
The cat may be out of the bag already, but for those who don’t know, Core Boulder pads have been something we have been working on and testing for a while. Flashpoint heard about this and asked if we could use our designs to make them some bespoke “Core bench seats” for their new wall. We are planning to make our pads available for sale from Sept 2022. In time for the Grit Season!
When we were asked to do the matting at Flashpoint Swindon back in 2019, part of the job was to design and build a carpet covered mat on a +40 degree surface for under the Flashpoint “Beast” roof. This was an interesting project and we needed to engineer the matting from the ground up to stop slippage, retain the mat’s shape and to prevent any sagging over time.
Our sloping matting solution is now proven in a number of centers, including BlocHaus and the Manchester Depot.
Flashpoint is a big wall and the layout required a lot of heavy lifting getting the mats onto the Beast ramp and up the stairs onto the substantial mezzanine area. The entire installation was done over 3 days with a week between the modules being put in place and the carpet top being installed. This provided a window for Ben and his team from “Impact route setting” to get in and set some quality boulders. Check out their videos here. There are quite a few problems from the Flashpoint set featured on their Instagram page including a very nice looking V9!
On the videos you can see our mats in their, in this case very bright, naked state. This gives some insight into the modular construction of our matting builds. We have developed an extremely robust system, however, in the fullness of time, and with a lot of hammer, all matting systems will eventually break down. When they do, different areas will soften and wear out at different rates. A major benefit of a Core modular system as it can be maintained very easily. Every component is coded and saved in our CAD system. Just call us up and any replacement part can be put into production literally at the push of a button and sometimes even delivered the following day.
As well as the Beauty of the Beast the center has everything a boulderer could want. The “Island top out” boulder is a very nice design. Top out boulders are getting more popular but they are still few and far between. It’s a real benefit to have access to a top out boulder, especially if you like to climb outside or are planning a Font trip.
Life on the horizontal. The big roof has some serious tests of power endurance.
Circuit boards on the Mezz as well as a diamond feature which Bristolians maybe familiar with from the Bristol wall.
For those interested in developing pure power, the woody is located under the Beast roof next to the gym equipment. To maximise climbing height the matting under the training board matting has a chamfer on the front edge, and is set back from the wall, allowing for lower starts. Another very slick LED system and screen from Digital training boards.
Well that’s a wrap. Flashpoint have covered all the bases and Swansea is the proud new owner of a boulder wall amongst the very best in the country.
Huge thanks to the Flashpoint crew especially Jack, Tom, Nick and Elliot.