adventure activity
The Tees Barrage
International White Water Venue is one of the largest completed by
Innovative Leisure
Roarr! Dinosaur Adventure
increasingly difficult the higher they go. Among the key features of the course are a
elements made from a combination of steel and/or recycled plastic and/or polymer rope with a steel core, the courses have a long life. A wooden course will eventually rot but, depending on the location, Innovative Leisure’s Sky Trail courses, which are galvanised and painted, will last between 30 and 50 years. Safety is ensured through “a lot of R&D,
strong quality control during production, care in the installation and commissioning processes, third party inspection and certification by an ADIPS registered inspector and a lot of staff training by ourselves,” says Pickersgill. Operating staff must complete a two-day
course, including a written test, before they are certified to operate a course.
breaking new boundaries High ropes courses can be made in almost limitless size, scale and design. “We are constantly breaking new boundaries
with new designs, themes, challenges and features which either come from the manufacturer or from customers challenging us to do new things,” says Pickersgill. Ensuring the optimum location is a key
consideration for any course. “We’ve achieved some key strategic
objectives for customers by placing courses in areas that suit the flow of visitors to alleviate congestion in key areas on busy days and provide benefits to the venue as a whole. We can make good use of a park’s natural assets, while we also look at what percentage of people a venue might need to go through a course per hour and how that reflects capacity for design, target age profile, practicalities of space for indoor installations and access for both indoor and outdoor projects,” he says. “We’ve also been able to design some quite
unique challenges on the courses which you can’t get in a forest based attraction.” These include those found at the new Merlin
Entertainments Bear Grylls Adventure at the NEC in Birmingham. At five storeys high, this is the tallest free-roam high ropes course in
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pactfacilities.co.uk
Europe. Grylls wanted to repeat key aspects of the Royal Marine Commando Tarzan course at Commando Training Centre Royal Marines, Lympstone, to create a structure that challenges visitors both physically and mentally, the higher they go. Featuring 36 different challenges, the course takes participants to over 20m above the ground at the highest level, with the various elements becoming
SkyTykes is a scaled down Sky Trail for families with children aged from two years old
Rolling Log on the top level which is particularly challenging, the Swinging Beam that moves all over as you step on it and others seen for the first time in Europe, such as Squid Steps. The high ropes course area is accessed via a heli-zip wire from The Bear Grylls Adventure Chinook helicopter. Innovative Leisure is looking to introduce
more of these ‘hero’ challenges to courses in the future as the UK’s demand for high ropes courses looks set to continue.
www.innovativeleisure.co.uk
Image: Dave Charnley Photography
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