RockCraft
Designs encourages all manufacturers of playground climbing structures to
eliminate the construction of the following commonly
incorporated hazards. While some of these features provide interesting
challenges for experienced climbers in the mountains and on the crags, we
believe that none of them should be considered acceptably safe for inclusion
into playground climbing structures.
1.
Climable Cracks
2. Chimneys
3. Inside corners
4. Opposing walls or obstacles within 8 feet (including climbable caves)
5. Horns or protrusions
6. Sharp edges
7. Slabs or wide ledges under vertical walls or overhangs
8. Any support structures that interfere with an un obstructed fall to the
landing surface
9. Climb through holes (peak-a-boo holes) under climable walls
A
history of our company’s association with risk management in the climbing
wall industry:
The Edge Climbing Centre
In
1992, our company’s president Ed Fischer, and his brother Allen, finished
construction of the Edge Climbing Centre, the first large scale indoor climbing
gym in Canada. As the centre’s co-owner and manager Ed worked with Association
of Canadian Mountain Guides senior instructors, such as Mark Dube and Perry
Beckham and founded a risk management program that has since been imitated
in hundreds of climbing gyms throughout North America. The program consisted
of a method of teaching beginners essential safety skills as well as testing
students graduating from the courses.
Acquiring the Edge card became a rite of passage for many high school students,
including all those participating in the outdoor education TREK program. Ed
never considered any candidate unteachable and everyone was welcome to more
retraining and testing as many times as was necessary. Ed has taught basic
climbing rope handling safety courses for the disabled, including the visually
and hearing impaired, wheelchair users, and learning impaired such as those
with ADD. During Ed’s 8-year management stint at The Edge Climbing Centre
some 35,000 safety certification cards were issued.
Instructor
Certification
In
1997 Ed helped to initiate a program for training and certifying indoor climbing
instructors through the Association of Canadian Mountain Guides, an internationally
recognized body affiliated with the international association of guides, the
UIAGM.
North
American Junior Program
The
Edge Climbing Centre, under Ed’s management, also founded the North
America Junior program, a training program for young people, which has expanded
to hundreds of gyms throughout North America.
Climbing
Walls
In
1999 Ed sold his shares in The Edge Climbing Centre and with his brother Allen
began building climbing walls full-time. Ed’s 8 years of management
at the climbing centre and work as a consultant for other climbing gyms had
given him a keen eye for evaluating and avoiding potential hazards in climbing
systems.
Between 1998 and 2002, Ed and Al’s new company, The Edge Climbing Wall
Systems, constructed a number of indoor climbing walls for public recreation
centers throughout Canada. These included Parkgate in North Vancouver, Collicutt
Centre in Red Deer, WestSide Centre in Calgary, Greg Moore Youth Centre in
Port Coquitlam, and Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo. In addition The
Edge constructed a number of realistic large scale climbing walls in shopping
malls including West Edmonton, Coquitlam Centre, Park Royal, and Richmond
Centre
Ed introduced his first Pool-Side climbing Walls for public swimming pools
six years ago and his first playground climbing structure a year later. These
designs employed the culmination of his years of experience in the risk management
of climbing systems.
The underlying idea behind the Pool-Side and playground structures was to
make climbing accessible to everyone with no special training or equipment
(such as ropes or harnesses) required. This eliminated the “human error”
factor in the climbing system and full attention could be placed on designing
the apparatus itself to be inherently safe.
The Pool-Side Climbing Walls and Playground Climbing Structures all incorporate
the principles of safe landing areas (i.e. water or fibar) with no chance
for the climber to strike obstacles during the fall to the landing surface.
Ed’s designs pay rigorous attention to the details of safety and avoid
certain features commonly used in competitor’s climbing constructions,
such as slabs, chimneys, corners, or large ledges, which Ed believes can impede
a free fall to the landing surface. In addition Ed’s designs avoid cracks
and horns, which can lead to entrapment of limbs or an entanglement of clothing.
The results of Ed’s attention to the safety aspect of his designs can
be seen in the record. Of some 100 playground and public pool climbing walls
placed throughout Canada, and the US, there have been no safety related incidents
at any of them.
A professional engineer certifies the design of each RockCraft playground
climbing structure.
The design of the Pool-Side Climbing Wall has been rigorously scrutinized
and approved by Public Health for the Province of BC and also Public Health
for the State of Illinois, the latter a three-year process. These are possibly
the two most stringent public health bodies in North America. Pool-Side Climbing
Walls have now been installed in about 35 pools in throughout North America.
Risk
Management Consulting
Ed
has acquired a reputation as a risk management expert and has been a consultant
for various climbing gyms including Romper Room in Nanaimo, BC, and Great
Wall Climbing in Whistler, BC. Ed has also taught safety courses for the RCMP,
North Shore Rescue, North Vancouver Recreation Commission, Forzani Group,
Greg Moore Youth Centre, Collicutt Centre, TREK, Wilfrid Laurier University,
and to numerous high schools.
RockCraft
In 2002 Ed took the playground climbing expertise he had developed at the
Edge Climbing Wall Systems and formed a partnership with Ken Crozier, principal
of Crozier Agencies, a long established distributor of playground structures
throughout Canada.
Safety
Principles
Together
Ed and Ken have incorporated RockCraft Designs. Each playground structure
they produce incorporates the following 3 principles:
1. Safety – Always comes first.
2. Climbabilty – Must be accessible and fun for all age groups and abilities.
3. Aesthetics - Must look great.
Ed
and Ken always follow the clear rule that principle # 1, safety, will never
be compromised by any other consideration. To ensure this, Ed continues to
participate in the construction of every piece built in the workshop at Lynn
Ave in North Vancouver, and carefully inspects every piece before it leaves
the shop.
In addition to all being committed rock climbers, the staff of RockCraft Designs
have various professional backgrounds in kinesiology, children's gymnastics,
climbing gym management and route setting, fine arts, mountain guiding and
client care, climbing instruction, and construction and fabrication. RockCraft
also engages the services of a consulting engineer and is a member of IPEMA.
Epilogue
The Edge Climbing Wall Systems continues to
build large scale climbing walls under the direction of Allen Fischer. The
Edge Climbing Centre is still one of the world’s premiere
climbing gyms, consistently producing the majority of Canada’s National
Junior Climbing team, which has included several world champions. RockCraft
maintains good working relationships with both companies. RockCraft Designs
has become North America's premiere builder of realistic climbing structures
for parks and playgrounds.
