Wales Outdoors

CALENDAR OF SUMMER OPEN DAYS

We have started to upload all of the days where individuals and small groups can join us for reasonably priced adventure activity sessions across our range of activities.

Currently listed are full beach days, coasteering, gorge walking, power kites and mountain boards and caving. We will continue to add days to the calendar as we programme them in so bookmark the calendar page and keep checking for updates.

The beach day is a combination of coasteering, power kites, body boarding, abseiling and caving, all taking place at Ogmore by Sea, a great beach location and not too far from both Cardiff and Swansea.

Coasteering is our favourite activity - swimming, sea level traversing, climbing above the waves, being washed about in the swell and big jumps! Ogmore by Sea again.

The gorge walking is the ever popular river scrambling session that takes place at Pontneddfechan, near Glyneath in the SW of the Brecon Beacons National Park.

Power kites and mountain boards is a half day of FUN. We run this session either at Ogmore by Sea or at a suitable area of common land in the Brecon Beacons National Park.

Caving is an activity that many shy away from - why we don't really understand! It's an excellent adventure activity that can be described as gorge walking with the roof on... We cave in the waterfalls area of the Brecon Beacons National Park.

So, join us for a fairly priced day, £45pp, or half day, £35pp.  

COME COASTEERING THIS WEEKEND - 18/10/08

As a special offer to readers of this blog and our facebook club members we are running a multi activity beach day this coming weekend at Ogmore by Sea.

This is a fantastic day and with sea temperatures still good will round off the years water based activities with a great big splash!!

The day comprises of a half day coasteering session with power kites and mountain boards, perhaps some body boarding and a taster abseil and caving.

We are at the same location for all of these activities and there is ample parking, loos and a place to get a cuppa. There is even a superb restaraunt overlooking the Bristol channel, Tempus Fugit, for those who want to extend the day to the evening.

Being just 30 minutes from both Cardiff and Swansea, and just off the M4 tis is one of the simplest adventure activity sites to get to in Wales. Were talking about one and a quater hours drive from Bristol and just over an hour from Brecon.

Check out the facebook page for pics of our last session at this coasteering location and if the activity takes your fancy then either join the page and sign up for the day or email us at enquiries@walesoutdoors.co.uk stating that you would like to come along at the oh so special rate of just £20pp - now, that is a super offer that can only be found with Wales Outdoors Limited facebook activity club.

COASTEERING IN SOUTH WALES

Well today was  blinder!!

We met a lovely group at Ogmore, kitted up and had the best days coasteering this year. Wales Is the home of coasteering, having been developed in West Wales, and the dramatic coastline North, South and West is ideally suited to the activity.

Our choice of venue is the fantastc Glamorgan Heritage Coast, specifically at Ogmore. Andrew Lamb, the Wales Outdoors director, has spent many years playing on the beach here and has developed a coasteering session that is second to none. We are also the only adventure activity provider to use this venue and so we have the coasteering coastline to ourselves.

With some easy to very difficult traversing, swims, caving, ducks and spectacular jumps, this coasteering venue in Wales has it all.

One of the clients who had been coasteering on several occassions with other companies said 'this was the best session, in the best location'. Well, we think so too.

Today the conditions were perfect, warm sunshine, almost flat calm sea conditions - just 1/2 metre of swell - and the tide perfectly suited for a half day morning session of coasteering.

Take a look at the pictures which tell the full story and if tempted why not come along on our facebook club coasteering in Wales open session on October 11th - the sea will still be warm and in any case, we provide lovely warm wetsuits.

The group we booked with had tried to book coasteering with a company based in the Gower. This company told them that the tide was not suitable for a morning session.... hmmmm.... a tide out coasteering session is not coasteering - it is a rock hop. We will follow up this post with a full description of our coasteering session and the risk assessing that we have completed to ensure a safe and exhilarating time is had by all.

SUMMER ROUND UP

Well, another year of rain... We have managed to keep our groups safe and happy although at times it has been rather difficult.
Yesterday was spent at the beach, with a big swell the coasteering was not an option although we did manage some rather good jumps. The kiteing was excellent as the wind was constant and just right for beginners to the sport. Today was in the gorge - with high water levels yet again some of the activities were not an option but we managed some great traverses and some playing in full and powerful waterfalls.
Last years poor weather saw a few business go under - one of our partners in Swansea Bay decided not to trade again this year and we are concerned for the canoe hire specialists who have had another dreadful year with rivers too high to allow hire of canoes. Fingers crossed for a warm and sunny autumn...

We have been increasingly concerned by the seemingly cavalier attitude to provision that we have witnessed at the gorge in recent months, increasingly frustrating to those providers that wish to offer a safe and traditional gorge walking experience - there is a growing number of purely commercial business that are about numbers and the £££'s that these generate. We have reported a few intances of poor provision to the Licensing Authority but these instances have been with adult groups and the authority has little jurisdiction. We have witnessed a company running groups of 29 people as one, allowing 17 clients in the water at the same time, pool jumping in a very risky manner and of course allowing clients to participate in innapropriate footwear.
Wales Outdoors Limited urge all potential clients to check out the providers risk assessments and thus thier staff ratios, the manner in which they run the activities and the kit requirements. Unfortunately we predict further serious incidents at the gorge and and we don't want to see your name on the accident form... As a guide we ensure the following - Walking boots, bouyancy, canoe helmet and we also provide wetsuits in cold weather, usually November through to March. We also work with a staff ratio of 1:8 ensuring a quality experience for participants and a stress free day at work for instructors.

Finally, check out the new kites for sale in our KIT SALES These are quality kites that we love to fly, and great value in comparison to similar quality performance kites. Better still, book a half day session with us and have a training session using the same kites prior to considering a purchase...

OUR COASTEERING GUIDELINES

Following on from Tuesdays post I thought it timely to describe in a little more detail the activity known as coasteering and outline our procedures and policies. The following is taken directly from the An Intertidal Thing website.

COASTEERING INFORMATION

Definitions - The UK Mountain Training Board defines the activities in the following ways:

Sea Level Traversing- Primarily a dry Rock- Climbing activity.
Coasteering- Usually a wet activity involving swimming and jumping from height into water as an integral part.
Adventure Swimming- Another name for Coasteering or a non-technical variation of canyoning.

We currently use two venues Ogmore to Southerndown and Bracelet Bay to Limeslade Bay at Mumbles. The activities at these locations are very different from each other.

Ogmore
This is a great although exposed venue. We cannot guarantee that Coasteering will take place. We need calm sea conditions and we need the tide to be going out.

Situated on the Bristol channel, this area has the second highest tide range in the world (12 metres), we need to be aware of the condition of the sea.

There are some good sized jumps, nothing huge but good fun, and just the best traversing that you will ever have.

This is best as part of the multi activity beach day.

Mumbles
Here the activity is Rock Hoping. We do not get wet but we traverse close to seal level, hoping from one rock to another, avoiding the brine. There are some good cave sections and a real challenge at he end, the smallest cave you could ever attempt to enter go through.

Again, this is best as part of the multi activity beach day.

Kit
It is walking boots for both locations with full wetsuit, bouyancy, helmet and gloves for Ogmore and old clothing and a helmet for Mumbles.

Staff
We run the coasteering with a staff ratio of 2:8, an instructor and an assistant to eight clients. This ensures safety and a great sesion but is expensive. The Rock Hoping at Mumbles is 1:8.

All of our activities are now run with a minimum staff ratio of 1:8 and we try to supply two staff for every session.

For 2008 our standard rate is £55 pp for a day and this increased rate reflects the enhanced staff ratio and improvements in kit provision.

We now believe that our provision is second to none and we think that the small increase in costs to the client is worth every penny.

OUR MULTI ACTIVITY BEACH DAY

The coastline of South Wales is dramatic and often overlooked by visitors to the area although it is very much used by the locals.

When developing the coastal business, An Intertidal Thing, we wanted to be able to offer coasteering along with a range of other beach activities, in part to move away from the predominance of bookings for gorge walking and also to be able to offer a truly sustainable activity day that had NO environmental impact.

We use several locations, Mumbles and the Gower, near Swansea, Ogmore to Southerndown, near Bridgend, and Swansea Bay (part sub-contracted provision).

Across these three locations we can offer abseiling and climbing, cave exploration, beach games, power kites and mountain boards, body boarding, coasteering, rock hopping, canoeing, windsurfing and beach volleyball.

Intertidal events are notoriously fickle, difficult to guarantee provision due to the unknown swell, wind, and wave conditions. We have overcome the problems associated with beach days by taking a wide range of activities to the location which compliment each other. If coasteering is not available because of the swell then it is likely that the sea will be in condition for body boarding, if there is wind for the kites but now waves then we kite instead of body boarding. In this way we guarantee that the day will be a success.

This unique approach to activity provision can only be found at An Intertidal Thing. There is no other provider that comes close to our well thought out and professionally delivered beach sessions. 

The classic day for us is along the spectacular VERY TIDAL limestone cliffs that fall into the sea between Ogmore and Southerndown and it is this that we encourage clients to go for. The full day is described here and you can read this by clicking on continue reading....

The Outdoor Professionals Co-operative

I'm sorry it has been so long in posting but there has been a lot going on in my life, some fairly drastic changes, some courses and lots of development work.

I have just been putting some flesh to the bones of a new adventure activity website for a group that I am a member of. I believe that the initiative is unique in its approach and will have lasting benefit for the client, the members, the environment and the wider outdoors community.

The Outdoor Professionals Co-operative is a name that we have recently given to our professional peer group. For a year and a half now we have been meeting formally, many of us having known and worked alongside each other for very many years. This formalising of meetings and discussions has already led to some innovative projects and methods of working supported by both the BBNP and AALA.

Following the demise of the Brecon Beacons National Park Environmental Charter Group there has not been a forum for activity providers working in the private sector to meet and discuss working practices, training, changes in legislation etc. Furthermore, it can be an isolating experience being self employed or the Director of a small business in any industry, adventure activities not withstanding.

So, the co-operative meets for several meetings a year to consolidate best practice and to promote innovation as well as running peer group training where all relevent members take part, such as site specific water rescue, child protection training, casualty simulation make-up training etc.

Through working together we have seen the coming together of risk assessments and through training together we feel absolutely confident in recommending each other.

The Outdoor Professionals Co-operative is just that. We work in the outdoors, we are professional in our approach to all areas of our work and we work co-operatively. In fact we go further than that. Our group is based on trust. Without trust it would simply not exist. And this is not the norm in the industry as I have bitterly complained about in previous blogs. We are a group of multi activity providers, sessional staff and group accommodation owners who all overlap slightly into each others business areas, some of us directly competing for similar clients. But, because we are all nice guys, it works!

We see that being part of a co-operative will benefit us all, perhaps not immediately, but in a year or two years, we will see that our commitment to quality provision, to the environment, to working with the statutory bodies, to staff training and welfare, to being able to collectively offer the broadest range of services and to developing lasting relationships with other similarly committed business will see genuine rewards.

Personally I am looking for the security that working with other like minded operators brings, to knowing that my staff are trained to work to the co-operatives constantly developing high benchmarks and to know that my business is attracting further premium clients because of the standards of provision.

Please visit the new site by clicking on the link www.multi-activity.co.uk to find out more about the work of the co-operative - please bear with it as I still have much to add......

Of course, as usual, your comments gratefully received.... 

BOOKINGS FROM ETHICS

Well, they are coming in thick and fast......

I think that the work that has been done on the websites, the restructuring of the risk assessments and op's manual and the subsequent defining of the business, slotting Wales Outdoors into an ethically driven niche where we turn away substantial business every year is paying off.....

And I want it too.

And I want others to do the same, to compete with me as ethical providers, to work alongside me for the future of the industry, the country and the bottom line, for the planet.

On the front page of the Wales Outdoors site it says the following:

• 2005 we terminated a £60,000 per year contract
• 2006 we turned away £15,000 of income
• We are an ethically rooted company and we will not take work from booking agents or companies that do not have the clients or the environments best interests as key policy elements of their business.
• We bank and invest ONLY with the Co-operative Bank - the only truly ethical bank in the UK
• We donate £100 per month to charity. In January 2007 the £100 went to Free Tibet Campaign

I believe that those business that are driven by a desire to see equality of business opportunities, fair wages, green/sustainable policies, peer development, ethical investment and general best practice will be those that year on year will see an increase in turnover. This will come not from damaging leaflet distribution or paper advertising but from an increases in referrals and repeat bookings - the free way to grow a business.

It seems strange doesn't it? By turning away work I have increased business..... The Co-operative bank do just this and they are very successful. In fact I can't praise them enough - I urge you to switch to them NOW!

Wales Outdoors Ethical Investments to Date:

• Achieved Green Dragon Level II Award
• Switched to the Co-operative Bank
• Policy to employ staff that live locally to the job
• Policy to accommodate clients, where possible, within walking distance or a short journey of the activities
• Working towards Green Dragon Level III Award
• Reduced the company Citroen Berlingo mileage from 26,000 miles per year to just 11,000 miles per year
• Active policy to monitor staff mileage
• Converted the Berlingo to run on Veg Oil as first stage of becoming completely Carbon Neutral both as a business and personally
• Help develop a peer group of like minded business who will set the 'gold standard' of adventure provision
• Ensure that all finances are ethically considered, in banking arrangement and investments as well as purchasing.
• As far as possible run a paper free office environment - Wales Outdoors are now 95% electronic.
• No leaflet production or magazine/newspaper advertising

We probably do more..... but hey - thats a big enough trumpet that we have blown there!!

And once again I say, If I can do it - All can do it!

The Thursday Post

With the advent of new sites to discuss some of the issues that I have been blogging about here, I have had a rethink regarding the purpose of this site.

The stats have been an average of 12 unique visitors per day. Not a great deal of traffic but these visitors have been spending a fair bit of time leafing through different articles. It is therefore worth continuing and as the stats have a consistent upward trend it is interesting to me to see how many visitors this blog could finally attract.

I have therefore decided to review the way in which the info is stored, re-publish some of the important articles, such as the first aid info and kit provision blogs and maintain these as a technical resource. These pages will be clearly linked to in a re designed side bar.

I do hope that the visitors keep on coming and that the site becomes a useful resource to those looking for information on activity provision and adventures in Wales.

Once again - feel free to comment. I moderate the comments only to keep out abusive remarks. ALL comments that are not abusive are published.

Blood Transfusions

Last summer I had a young teenage girl take part in an activity with me. Nothing unusual in that. I came to find out that she was a Jehovah's Witness. This has led me to consider those who I have in my care a little more deeply. I would certainly like your comments on the following proposal:

I think that it is incumbent upon us to care for those who take part in our led activities to the best of our ability. I think that any person, no matter what age they may be, who would refuse certain types of medical or other assistance following an injury whilst taking part in an adventure session, should be refused a place on the activity.

I am considering adding a clause to my booking form that states that any participant will agree to receiving any necessary care following any accident. I do not want an instructor put into a position where a client is seriously injured and will not accept proper care.

We rarely have accidents that result in hospitalisation - the occasional grazed knee, cut finger etc. The last trip to the hospital was in 2001 and this was a short slip on a hill walk and a rather nasty cut on the shin that required good cleaning and stitching up. But this is not the point.

We must look at the worst case scenario and protect clients and staff. I certainly would not want to have on my conscience a case of a teenager who died because parents did not allow a blood transfusion.

I don't wish to be disrespectful but Jehovah's Witnesses have got it wrong. Blood transfusions are not cannibalism and it is the eating of human flesh that the bible is telling us not to do. Why do these people believe in the absolute truth of the biblical word. 48% of Americans believe in creation and there is a $26 million museum being built to show the history of the earth with dinosaurs walking with humans and having a place on Noah's Ark!

I think I know who the 'dinosaurs' are! Worrying 48% though!

I look forward to your considered opinions.........