I've been thinking about what to do about floor padding since I started researching this project early this year. The padding makes up a surprisingly large part of the overall investment in the gym, and I wanted to make sure I got it right. For the areas under and around the roped climbs, the answer was pretty obvious. The nearly-ubiquitous carpet bonded foam on top of softer foam, with a total depth of about 6 inches, seems like the right approach. It provides a surface solid enough to walk on (and from an employee point of view, to set up ladders for routesetting), but soft enough to cushion a low fall from a bouldering traverse or a landing from descent on a rope.
The more difficult question is what to do in the bouldering areas. Many gyms put the carpet bonded foam throughout their facility, and then arrange portable bouldering mats in the bouldering areas. Boulderers are then responsible for positioning these drag mats appropriately under the areas where they expect they may fall. So there's an issue when they fail to do that. As I looked into this more, I came to believe that there are other injury issues tied to the use of portable drag mats. Landing on an edge, or between pads, can lead to twisted ankles, knee injuries, and arm/shoulder injuries if a climber loses their balance and tips over onto their hands when falling. Some drag mats are better than others (e.g. those with beveled edges), but the more I thought about this and discussed it with others in the climbing business, the more I wanted to find a seamless padding solution for my gym. I saw some of these in the gyms I visited during my reconnaissance tour in northern California in June.
I've spent the past 4 months (!) in discussions with 5 vendors of floor padding to explore my options. In the process I have learned more than I expected about foam density and compression measurements. I have finally settled on a seamless custom padding solution from Asana climbing. You can read about their custom padding system for gyms at their web site. I've talked to some of their customers, and am convinced that they'll put together a great system that will provide excellent protection, be custom-fitted to the shapes of my walls, install easily, and be reasonable to maintain. Oh, it should look great too!
Most of the gym, including some of the low bouldering walls (up to 9 feet high) will have the standard 6 inches of the carpet bonded foam system. The advanced bouldering area, with climbing terrain reaching 14 feet high, will have the custom padding system with 12 inches of padding. This will include an inch of closed-cell foam on top of softer open-cell foam. The denser top layer provides a stable walking surface, and distributes the force of a fall across a larger area, while the softer foam underneath provides the cushioning. I believe 12" is more than we really need for safety. I've gone thicker in part because some climbers may be a little unnerved by the lack of the drag mats under them (even if they know rationally that those mats contribute to injury). I expect the obvious depth of these pads to provide emotional comfort, as well as physical comfort!
There are a couple areas of the gym with mid-height bouldering (around 11 feet high) where the 12 inch system isn't needed but I wanted a little more than the 6 inch carpet bonded foam, so we'll add an extra two inches of open cell foam under the carpet to provide a bit more protection there. This will make more sense soon, when we start posting pictures of what the climbing terrain will look like!
There is a lot more than floor padding to keeping people as safe as possible in the gym. We'll have more to say as time goes on about the other things we're doing in other areas, including:
- the design of the climbing terrain
- the structural engineering analysis to ensure the structures are sound
- the training of both our staff and customers to make sure everyone is well-informed about the potential risks and how to manage them
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