A dedication to all sons out there

Good evening all!

I thought I would share some musings with you and ask for an opinion. Like most men who have lived away from home for over a decade, I get regular calls from my mother who makes helpful suggestions about things I am doing wrong. The latest in the installment was the colour of the blog, the yellow background, with the yellow writing was unreadable apparently. So in haste I have transformed the background to something much more adventurous and rock climby and readable (using the template editor - I didn't actually make any real choices, but rather selected from options)

So how do you rate the new look? This is live market research! I am not too proud to have my mother be proven right! Have no fear however, after having been top roping twice, she suggested a Beastmaker board, a filthy cave with potential for thirty move problems, Sumatran monsoon malabar coffee and a DWS wall above a jacuzzi. The directors are considering her advice very seriously....

The middle of next week should see more news worthy of posting. For now hilarious Mum/Dad stories would be great, lets celebrate our shared experiences!!!

Ged

Swimming along...

Not huge amounts to report today other than things are moving along well, obviously still waiting to hear back form the planners, but as we submitted online they do get back to you as problems arise to speed things up - so in this respect no word is good word!

It would appear that the proposed coalition between us and our potential competition that was mentioned on UKBouldering will go ahead, giving the project more money and more talent to draw on in our board of directors adds up to a better wall - so really excited currently.

It looks like the talented and ubiquitous Andy Long will be adding his distinct stylish flavour to our wall design in addition to the inspired designs of Crispin Waddy. So two styles of wall in one build, now if that doesn't have hungry boulder bunnies salivating then goodness gracious you don't know when you're being spoilt!!!

Also if anyone sends in a letter of support to the planners - ask for a letter of confirmation and we will exchange one of these for a free climb, the karmic roundabout turns on goodwill!

A little 3D projection of our building that we made recently - thought it looked nice and I would share it with you all. Has anybody sent a letter yet - sure I can reward your support - how would you prove you had sent a letter to the planners? Any suggestions n how to do that? I'm sure they could be exchanged for a sumptuous coffee or the like - shall we do something like this?

Planning letter

Evening all,

As explained we are trying to smooth the passage of the Boulder Liverpool planning application. The planners tell me that if there is evidence of people wanting the project to go ahead, it is much more likely. Therefore I am requesting that those of you who would like Boulder Liverpool to be up and climbing asap cut and paste the text from below into a word document, add your contact details and send it to the following address:

FAO: Jonathan Woodward; Kevin Baker; Vickie Vaughn
Planning, Municipal Buildings, Dale Street, Liverpool, L1 2DH


FAO: Jonathan Woodward; Kevin Baker; Vickie Vaughn
RE: Proposed indoor climbing structure at 6 Birchall St, L20 8PD

I am writing in support of the proposed development of an indoor bouldering facility at 6 Birchall Street, Liverpool, L20 8PD.

I am a keen boulderer and would appreciate having such a facility to enable me to achieve more in my sport and provide somewhere to climb and train when it is raining.

Additionally, I belong to a large bouldering community here in Liverpool that would benefit from this new facility being developed. The inclusive nature of the sport, being largely free from equipment and instruction will give access to a wide range of people and grow our community.

I can be contacted via the details I have supplied.

Yours Sincerely,

The Boulder Liverpool team are sincerely grateful for your patience and the enthusiasm people have shown so far, I've had loads of emails wishing us well and feel much happier about the hours spent by my computer instead of getting out on some rock in the sun!

More as it happens!

Ged.

The first details!

Finally the moment is here, I can actually begin to tell people what we are doing before it threatens to burst me....

I am so excited, we have an amazing building with real flexibility in what we can do inside. he access for car and non car people was a real key point and we are pleased with what we have found. The area available for climbing space should be about the same as The Works, so we really do have an amazing project lined up!

Key facts:

11,000 sqft

3 interconnected buildings

sub 3min walk from Sandhills train station (0.2miles)

6mins by train from central (£1.35 fare)

on site free parking

on road free parking

Bike shed

changing rooms and shower/s

So what can you see here? The exterior shot is one third of the building, it is the exterior of the interior shot with the small internal building on the left hand side.

To the right hand side of the exterior shot you can see the building we will be converting into a specialist young persons/families coaching area.

The other interior shot is a poor internal shot of our second building, this will be the second stage of the project to open, featuring some of the most exciting indoor bouldering concepts the UK has seen yet.

Finally is one of the ubiquitous Google maps showing really just how close we are to the train station.

It is clear there is a fair bit of aesthetic work to do the property, but that is of course secondary to filling the interior with enough quality bouldering to make you go all dizzy.

Now climbers of Liverpool, here comes the bit where we need you, we need letters of support to facilitate our planning application. It has been in for a wee while now, it was put together with plenty of consultation with the planners, it is not really controversial in anyway and should be okay, but my view is those forms took so long to fill (literally weeks of work) - that I never want to do it again, so a bit of help cannot harm! To save you hassle, tomorrow I am going to post the address of where to post it to, even write you a letter you can cut and paste and add your name too! Don't say I am not good to you!

So that is it for tonight, obviously post this blog to everyone in the Greater Liverpool area, conjure up all the support you can by writing in letters and persuading your other climber friends to follow suit - lets get us a wall that is the envy of everyone shall we?