News

On Saturday May 5th we were involved with the official opening celebrations of the Wales Coastal Path. This is a footpath that now goes right the way around the coast of Wales and we were very pleased to be part of the celebrations in Cardiff Bay and Aberystwyth and the NEWC Bockers in Flint Castle.

Thanks to everyone who came down to Cardiff and had a go on the stilts, some of you were walking and jumping in record times. We look forward to seeing some of you at our gym sessions.

Today marks 100 days to go until the big Olympics in London…oh and Cardiff of course.

Co-incidently today Sport Wales also announce a new Community Sport Strategy, spending £9million over 3 years. They talk about working TOGETHER and making sport available for every child with no exception.
Well there are exceptions if those children wanted to do a new, exciting and 21st century sport like, well Powerbocking.
For years the sports council have done their best to ignore us. If you like football, rugby or badminton then great. But what if you fancy something new? What if you like the sound of the alternative, urban sports.
That’s exactly what we are. Time and time again we have been told by Sport Wales that they cannot support us with our club development because they do not recognise us. NOT RECOGNISE US? We’re the guys on the jumping stilts down the bay. You cant bloody miss us
Seriously, we would need an association, a UK Governing Body, Coaching and Qualification development. All good things, right? As a single Community sports club we need help and support to do that. Just like any other evolving sport would.

Last year, for the first time the UK entered the International Powerbocking Championships and we won. This event is traditionally held in France but after overwhelming support we were asked if in 2012 it could be held in the Cardiff. Fantastic, we thought. The year of the Olympics when sport is at the forefront of everyones lives and they want the International Powerbocking Championships held here. Of course, we couldn’t do this on our own either. So we asked the Sports Council and Cardiff Council. We took it straight to Nigel Howells, the executive for Sport, Leisure and Culture at the Council.
They said no.

Last November we won £6000 from the Nat West Community Force scheme. This was an online voting competition and the fact that we won against some big organisations shows that we have some great public supporters. We’re using that money to spend on equipment that should last us a very long time and secure the future of our grass roots community sports club.
But we still get no support on club development, coaching and qualifications. We’re a group of volunteers who are learning by our own mistakes because Sport Wales refuse to support us. That’s not right.

This new strategy by Sport Wales is about providing sport for every child. What they don’t tell you is that such a sport must be one officially recognised by Sport Wales. In fact, according to them Powerbocking isn’t a sport at all. It’s an activity.

The bottom line is that bocking attracts a wide variety of people. A lot of those people are those who have suffered social exclusion in one form or another. They don’t fit in with the football and rugby teams. So if they choose bocking as their “hooked on sport” choice then Sports Wales will do nothing for them.
“without exception?”

It’s even more insulting to us that a lot of people’s single vision of the Olympics in Beijing was a huge group of bockers at the closing ceremony. Clearly outlining that China can recognise something good and inspiring while the UK authorities choose to ignore it.

On a sunny Saturday in Birmingham, during the Big Bock Meet we announced the winner of the Bocker of the year 2011 award.
As always, our club members nominate and then vote who they think most deserves the award. For 2010 it was decided by just a single vote and if Ricky had voted for himself he would have won it!
This year it was also decided by just one vote but we’re very pleased to announce that the winner is Steffan Allen, closely beating Nathan Tucker.

Steff has been a committed member of the club since joining in 2009 infact he has only ever missed one event!

For years Capital Bocking has been the biggest event on the bocking calendar. However in 2010 it didn’t happen at all and for the simple reason that nobody was willing to take the initiative and organise it.
This year though we decided to bring capital bocking back to the welsh capital and unfortunately due to festivals and events every weekend during July and August we had to make do with a weekday for CB. So we did and on Tuesday August 16th – exactly 3 years since CB first hit cardiff bay – bockers from all over the country treked over the severn bridge to visit us in the oval basin. At first we worried about the welsh weather but the clouds soon broke and the sun came out.
The numbers were not as big as 2008 but that’s what happens when we have it on a tuesday but everyone had a brilliant time and we got some seriously good bocking done. Professional bockers Joe Legg and Simeon (kiola) gave everyone some real inspiration with their multiple backflip tumbles including backflip full twists. Our veryown Jake Tucker gave them a run for their money with his own 360 backflip and tunnel flips.

We’d like to thank everyone for making the journey to Cardiff and we look forward to seeing you all again soon.

We purchased a slackline early in the summer for the purpose of the crew to play on while we are camping away at festival weekends over the summer while we chilled out in the evenings at the camp site. WRONG!
We got so addicted to this new extreme balance sport that we go slacking a few times each week.
Our new love for slacklining was only amplified when we met up with the Maverick Slackline guys at

Slackline across a stream!

Cliffhanger and had a great weekend with them.
We’re now looking at setting up a permanent Cardiff Slackline Club (currently on facebook here) to get more interest and to provide people the chance to try out another extreme sport.
So if you see us out and about on the stilts but fancy a go on a slackline then just ask us as we usually take a line with us wherever we go.

What is Slacklining?

It’s basically taking a specially made 2″ wide piece of webbing and tieing it up between two fixed points, usually trees, and it turns into a very narrow trampoline. At first the fun and addiction just comes from trying to walk the line but this soon turns into trying simple trampoline tricks.
As with bocking, it’s surprising how much of a work out it is and how much fun it is so get slacking now!

The cliffhanger crowd at our bocking stand

On July 2nd and 3rd we featured at the largest outdoors festival for outdoors people – Cliffhanger at Millhouses Park in Sheffield.
The weather was glorious sunshine both days and we were setup in an area we named adrenaline corner, right next to the guys from Maverick Slacklines and Sheffield Parkour Movement.

We were hugely popular with lots of people trying out the stilts of all ages and a few hundred people watching the 2 demonstrations we put on each day.

Cliffhanger is a fantastic festival that we love to be part of and cant wait to go back next year.
See our video of our weekend here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TglTWt32acg

Welshbockers photo as featured in the Cardiff Story Museum

Last year we reported that one of our photos might be chosen to feature in a museum and we’re very exicted that it has. The Cardiff Story opened to the public a few days ago and they have put a picture of Jake Tucker on one of their display walls.

The museum located in the Old Library building on the Hayes is set to remain open for at least 10 years and displays photos, objects and models showing how life in Cardiff has changed over the years.
You can find out more about it on their website: www.cardiffstory.com.

The museum is open daily and is free entry.

In recent weeks Welshbockers Chairman Matthew Lock has been training and assisting professional ballet dancers to grasp the bocking world for their latest production.

Ballet Dancers from BalletCymru in training

Having never been on stilts before, six dancers had to learn to walk, run and jump in the stilts which they managed to achieve in an amazing 4 hours training. They even showed a great interest in learning to get up on the stilts after a fall, which is something that takes a lot of patience. Fortunately they have all mastered it but they won’t need to make use of this skill because during training they only had 1 fall.

BalletCymru is putting on a production of Beauty and the Beast which embarks on a UK tour starting at the end of April and we are very pleased to be involved with them. The stilts will be help to bring the character of the Beast to a larger than life performance and we cannot wait to see the end result.
Check the BalletCymru website for dates and locations: www.welshballet.co.uk

Three of our club members are featured on the new Projump boxes as pictured below. Jake Tucker is on the adult stilt box and his younger brother Nathan and other member Ifan are on the junior boxes.

Jake is also featured several times in the Projump manual.

This is great for us as it’s a permanent sign of recognition for what we do for the bocking world.

When asked how he feels about being on the side of every projump box Jake said “I’m so excited I might even wee myself” while his brother Nathan said “Matt go away” which is almost as cool.