There needs to be climbing gym padding. It is a necessity that serves a specific function, to be fallen on. However, all climbing gyms are unique. The owners that operate them look for ways to make their gym stand out. With that in mind, we strive to be flexible and customize the padding to what the gym is trying to achieve. Working with the gym owner to flush out their needs and wishes. Flashed uses our testing, experience, and creativity to improve the customer experience.
Curved Edges
Christiaan de Vries, owner of Gneiss Climbing Gym, observed that “Climbing walls and holds are usually very angular; I’d like to have the flooring with some round edges to contrast that look.” Usually, climbing straight flooring lines and angle changes to make up the flooring edge. But making the flooring with curved edges gave the padding a unique look and softened the otherwise angular and hard lines that climbing walls tend to have.
Calgary Climbing Centre – Rocky Mountain – Turf Route Flooring
Walson Tai likes to experiment and try different looks. He wanted a natural look for his brand-new facility. His route climbing walls have natural wood panels. He also wanted grass turf to make it feel more like the outdoors. We could take our route flooring system of PE and PU Foam and incorporate grass turf onto the top surface.
This was a challenge to solve as the Turf had to be connected to the PE foam from underneath so that the turf surface would have a uniform grassy look. The flooring also had to keep the same or better fall rating in case of a ground fall. It took the Flashed team some brainstorming and testing, but the aesthetic and performance standards were met to create the look Walson was looking for.
USA Climbing – Modular / Composite
We were thrilled to provide a flooring solution for USA Climbing that had a list of requirements. Be modular so that it can travel the country (Open/Youth Boulder Nationals). Be suitable for outdoors (Vail, CO World Cup). And perform at a high standard for world-class athletes to fall on. Since Open/Youth Nationals change locations every two years, the mats needed to be modular. We designed and produced uniform size mats so they could install quickly and easily each time.
Vail, CO World Cup, also uses the climbing wall and mats each year in an outdoor setting. Vinyl covers are great for that since moisture or rain cannot easily penetrate the mat. We added to the covers a strip of Composite fabric that ran along the wall edge so that athletes could wipe their feet on make sure their shoes were clean before going on the wall. The mats were built to a high quality using the Flashed foam layering system so that athletes could go big and not worry about the fall or landing if they missed a move. These world-class events needed world-class flooring that checks all the boxes. We were able to use our knowledge and experience to develop the solution that USA Climbing needed.
Our climbing gym flooring is not static. There are ways to make subtle or significant changes that enhance the customer experience. Going back and forth with the gym owner, we can evolve and create a flooring system that creates peace of mind for the climber, has a beautiful look and feel, and has the Flashed high-performance standard.
