UKH

Anyone know who manufactured the first dedicated bouldering mat, and when?

Mine is a POD from 2000 and I regard it as quite vintage.

I had a metolius one in about 1996...

Commonly reported to be John Sherman’s Sketch Pad (1993). Plenty of antecedents and where you put the line on the DIY - make a few for your mates - commercial product spectrum is not completely clear. 

I'm sure we had a S7 one in 98/99 - I think Ben started this in 97.

From a Ben Moon article: 

"Marc Le Menestrel came to the UK in the early 1990’s and he walked up to Stanage with what was perhaps a prototype crashpad on his back and we all wondered what it was"

BD's 'Spot' appeared in a 1994 catalogue.

I remember chopping up a cheap karrimat and sticking the three or four layers together with duck tape when I worked in a climbing shop in Glasgow. Probably 94 or 95? I don't remember where I got the idea from but quite possibly the BD catalogue because they were works of commercial art at the time with full page photos on the page opposing the the product pics and information. I used to go regularly to the "Finneston Wall" which was I think a railway embankment above the grass verge running down to a main road! It was a pretty decent landing anyway, but still I don't think I ever really thought to take my rubbish little pad along to Dumbarton where people definitely went bouldering plenty but I don't think you saw mats very often.

I've still got my first bouldering mat a Beal Ere bag - bought it my first year back in Helsinki, so 2001, it will be 20 years old this summer! Still works ok but mainly because I don't boulder a huge amount. I think my fellow Brit-climber-in-Finland friend Dave already had an S7 mat by then. He had set up a little mail order climbing shop a few years before that with some friends, so that sort of makes sense with what Pete said above about when Ben started S7.

I can't remember the first, but I do remember being at the plantation in the 90s and someone arriving with a bouldering mat caused heads to turn and knowing looks to be exchanged as we laid out our beer towels below the pebble... Not long after, I bought my first mat - a Megagrip one that was tiny by today's standards. Pretty sure Metolius were in the game at this point. S7 came a little later. 

The '94 catalogue certainly has a Boone Speed photo on the adjoining page showing a bouldering scene with - by today's standards - three very thin-looking pads sitting on the ground underneath, captioned "Young M.C. hoping to hit the spot." [Can't think at the moment who M.C. might be.] It's not immediately obvious that these and the item featured opposite - folded up in carrying mode - are actually the same thing, until you "spot" the name check. No sign of any technical drawing, though. The following year's catalogue just has the main carrying-mode picture, albeit showing a slight re-design of the closure system and with SPOT prominent. The 1991 catalogue contains no mention of bouldering pads, so that probably narrows down the precise time at which BD introduced them.

Metolius was the name that first sprang to my mind on reading Mark's post, but I haven't come across any supporting evidence for that. A Beyond Hope pricelist - undated, but I think mid- to late-90s - mentions pads from both Metolius and Cordless [for whom BH was the UK distributor at the time].

I remember throwing a homemade mat, that my brother made, down a cliff in Caithness. A gymnasts landing pad with camping mats taped on top, then wrapped in blue plastic and taped together. It was still in one piece when we got to the bottom, and worked well as a bouldering mat.

On another point. I remember years ago you responding to me via PM, about something stupid you'd said. You said you were an OK guy but your online persona was a bit of a dick.

You've been making a lot of comments in the photo gallery recently, they all make you sound like a dick. 

Yeah, as I said, my online persona is a bit of a dick. You are stating the obvious, are you after a prize or something? Your above coment on my post about bouldering mats frankly makes you sound like a c**t. I win.

Yes you do win. Now you're the champion UKC dick.  youtube.com/watch?v=7Oxqf_15k0w&

Now we've agreed on that. Why are you stalking the photo galleries with your inane negativity? 

We saw Sherman with his in Hueco during Christmas 1993. We were using carpet squares at the time.

I made my own mat out of kapok squares, gaffer tape and heavyweight plastic as soon as I got home in early 1994...

Now you're just trying to upset him. Let him alone. At least if he's rifling through photos he's not upsetting the masses. He's a sensitive soul. Go and pick on someone your own size.

Yes, Mark, you like calling people that word online .  Like me, twice. Congrats. You "win". 

That makes you, in the view of most of my friends who've seen your posts, a moron. Who uses mysogynistic words. Sad.  Still - your choice.  

"inane negativity" - great, it's not just me that's noticed that, then....... 

Look Mark, someone who can use words rather than reducing themselves to the rudest ones from the 1980s.

I did that too, and covered it with an old floral curtain. Got some odd looks at Bowden!

Me too, still working although as a secondary mat now. Does yours have a strange carbolic soap smell?

You're both sounding like a pair of prize fuds.

My pal who managed a outdoor shop, got one given to test. Very early 90's.

It was very thick furniture foam, coated in a plastic sheath with air vents. 3ft square  and blue. 

The guy was going to market it as a jump pad for solo's

I remember thinking, forget bolts on grit, it's not going to happen.

These pads could alter grit climbing.

Hmmm, I'm going to have to go out to the garage and sniff it now! I can't say I straight away associate a particular smell with it, but it has been kept in garages and sheds for a lot of its life, I guess only when carrying it am I that close to it.

Much older than the 1980s I think you will find:

1275–1325; Middle English c*nte; cognate with Old Norse kunta,Old Frisian, Middle Low German, Middle Dutch kunte

I use many many words but save that particular one for those who obviously deserve it.

Thanks for all the interesting replies (except the obvious bs).

Scottish and Newcastle Breweries made my first mat, which I acquired around 1979 (about 10 years before I even started climbing).  Pretty sure they'd been making them for decades even before then.

Not really interested in responding myself, but a close female well-mannered climbing friend has seen this (& your delightful Facebook posts to me) & made this comment, something for you to take away perhaps? Also, why your clear anger & negativity issues have to be used destructively on forums to antagonise people.  To what gain?  I don't care, Mark.  Go figure. 

"I think that anyone who uses the, imo, offensive & unecessary, c word is generally the person to whom said c word applies" 

Ta-da. 

MC = Mike Call the film maker, they discuss the Spot and being given a chance by BD in this vid 

youtube.com/watch?v=Foiy2aKv_RY&