accident at afan today : air ambulance

2nd boardwalk section of white’s level today, came around the corner to find a load of mountain bikers with 2 bikes blocking the trail.

Came to the next fireroad section to find an ambulance and air ambulance helicopter. Heard back at the cafe that the guy had came off and hit the chicken wire on the boardwalk and badly cut his face (and i mean bad)

Really hope he’s okay.

Ouch.

Isn’t this one of the reasons lots of places don’t use chickenwire on boardwalk ?

ouch, I’m there tomorrow, how was the trail (apart from a little too meaty?)

That sounds bad .. here’s hoping the guy has a quick recovery.

Sounds nasty that….MrNutt last Saturday the only muddy bit was the wilderness in the middle of Energy the rest was just excellent.

I haven’t ridden white’s knocking on year and half. The very last section seemed different? i remember more rock steps on the way down.

I’ve been riding cwm carn every wednesday night for 2 months now so i really had to switch on today. Forgotten how rocky it is in places.

I take take a trip to Afan twice a year and always ride the Whytes were a is the chicken wire on the board walk ? never paid that much attention to it .. is it at the bottom section ?

it covers the whole of the boardwalk (for grip)

andywhit –
Ouch.

Isn’t this one of the reasons lots of places don’t use chickenwire on boardwalk ?

It’s one of the reasons alright.

hmm runswithscissors was going to Afan this morning, hope they’re ok 😕

Oh right I was thinking he had fell on some sort of fence or something doaaaa. Ouch sounds quite difficult to manage a face plant straight into the boardwalk like that. Hope the guy has a quick recover.

Bad News,
Thats why its so important for those of us who enjoy outdoor pursuits to donate to the Air Ambulance!!

You never know when you’re gonna need them, especially when your racing your mates on the singletrack, having an awesome time, then shit happens.

Hope those injured are feeling better soon.

Personally, Thinking back to some of the inclement weather conditions I’ve enjoyed whites in, I wouldn’t want the boardwalk without wire. IMO

HEY don’t forget the medical road staff as well.

I was an air paramedic for 2 years…then went back on the road…still makes me chuckle at how much more valued I was on the heli as opposed to a road amb.

Shame really as you work sooo much harder on the road but with no recognition!!

Here here Brack.

I will leave my views on the air ambulance for a more private forum.

In the past I’ve had to walk Goodwood due to the strong winds and rain. It can be bonkers bad weather up there at times. Whilst walking the section a while back I was surprised at how many loose boards there were.

Hey Brack, Sorry mate, I’m a glorified drip stand that you blokes use after we’ve cut the punters out of their cars etc.

Its just cos the Helo is so cool!!! I know the truth really!!

I was OiC of a minor house fire once, young child was suffering from minor smoke inhalation, I requested an ambulance through my control, four minutes later the air ambulance appeared circling over the terraced roof tops, landed in the near by Saints (Northampton) Rugby Stadium, they then commandeered a car to drive them to our location. This was due to them being the nearest ambulance!! It rocked.

Keep up the good work!!

andylux

Personally, Thinking back to some of the inclement weather conditions I’ve enjoyed whites in, I wouldn’t want the boardwalk without wire. IMO

It’s not necessary really, it’s a complete eyesore, it’s dangerous and there are plenty of alternatives….rough cut timber slats, grip tape, tacky tyres….riding slower…

Thanks for educating me GNARGNAR :idea:, Would these engineered alternatives be as durable to all of the traffic as the chicken wire?

I’m slow enough on the climbs without tacky tires!! 😉

Yep Ive hijacked many a car ( members of the public love it)….and no need to apologise andy, I like most of my colleagues are not precious about recognition and certainly after a few years in the job you get to realise that it is a thankless job with little or no thanks.

I can count on both hands the number of letters that Ive received in 13 yrs as a roadie, compared with twice as many in 2 years when I was on the heli.

Im a glorified dripstand myself these days….Ive elected a slower pace of life as a Practitioner….

Keep up your good work….without you guys I know of many people who wouldn’t be around today.

Blimey…all very back slappy isn’t it!

AFAIK the board walk sections are there to protect the very unstable ground. It is in reality little more than a bog. Putting the ‘standard’ Afan armoured surface down that would be needed to cope with the level of traffic the route sees would damage the ecosystem, impede the water flow and perhaps look even worse than the wood does possibly due to the ammount of aggregate required.

http://www.mtb-wales.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=XForum&file=viewthread&tid=21975

Poor guy hope he’s ok! some people look at me like a nob when I wear my full face on every trail but the way I ride I need it! and this just goes to show that looking stupid and over protected is the best way 🙂

That starts the ole knee / shin pads and full facer on the trails argument .. which has been argued on here on numerous occasions.

Oh yes, or we could always open the can of worms which is the UCI’s ruling on skinsuits!!??! 🙄

its the best thing for grip on wet wood period.
grip tape /roofing felt is an eye sore and wears to quick as does shore paint

GNARGNAR – Member

andywhit –
Ouch.

Isn’t this one of the reasons lots of places don’t use chickenwire on boardwalk ?

It’s one of the reasons alright.

GnarGnar, I’m interested to know what the other reasons are?, it’s FC Health and safety for this (above) exact reason as far as I’m aware.

Anyway, these are some of the solutions we are testing at Stainburn. Anyone who’s been to Dalby and considered the greasy NS there, it would be really nice if we (SingletrAction) could get that sorted aswell, but it takes time unfortunately.

It’s a learning curve, post chicken wire years.

roofing felt worked really well on Vancouver Island when i was last there and it doesn’t seem to do that bunching up thing chicken wire does when lots of people brake on it. The dark side is not wired at all from what I remember and it seems fairly sticky

B.A.Nana –

GnarGnar, I’m interested to know what the other reasons are?, it’s FC Health and safety for this (above) exact reason as far as I’m aware.

The other main reason being that it’s so unsightly / unnatural. The log features above looks brilliant. I’d much rather tackle something like that that a boardwalk covered in chicken wire.

Grip tape and felt etc are not exactly permanent solutions but they’re safer than chicken wire. Natural split rungs or cross sawn sections can provide a fair bit of grip, like I said above you can modify the trail / riding style accordingly. And in response to Andylux, yup the rough/natural slats probably would stand up to trail centre traffic – it’s material of choice on vancouver’s north shore, some of those trails receive a hell of a lot of traffic and many would put uk trail centres to shame for quality of construction.

Unnatural? LOL. How much more unnatural can you get than a huge wooden walkways in the middle of coniferous forest at purpose built trail centres?

Surfr – Member
Unnatural? LOL. How much more unnatural can you get than a huge wooden walkways in the middle of coniferous forest at purpose built trail centres?

how about Sylvester Stallone’s mother wearing nothing but jelly riding a nylon/velvet five wheeled recumbent uphill through a forest of fire, concrete telegraph poles and opened tin cans?

I would say that was considerably more unnatural, wouldn’t you?

Sounds like an average Critical Mass meet to me.

PDG2Farm and I too were met by the two guys in the middle of the boardwalk section whilst they were waiting for the injured party to be moved to the air ambulance.

Really hope the guy is doing ok.

There is now an “easier” option which has been built in the normal hardcore (crushed stone) manner which runs paralell to the boardwalk so there is now an option. We used it after being diverted off the trail by the guys riding buddies.

There were a few injuries in Brechfa yesterday too, a broken collarbone and some broken ribs for another guy!

as for the chicken wire, they have painted some grippy stuff on the logs in Brechfa, works well in the wet, so perhaps there is no need for the wire elsewhere??

:O(

i was there – it was a really nasty one. won’t go into details but i’ll be wearing a full face from now on

Surfr

Unnatural? LOL. How much more unnatural can you get than a huge wooden walkways in the middle of coniferous forest at purpose built trail centres?

Oh yeah, now that I think about it lol indeed at me for being such a retard. Imagine suggesting that trail centres could have more natural looking features. God what was I thinking.

MrNutt, thanks for the concern, we made it through the boardworks just fine, saw the air ambulance but not the accident.However making it through joyrider without leaving half my shin behind proved more difficult tho!! Top days riding at a top trail ctr.

Hurt enough when the same section removed a large amount of skin from my elbow. Hope the injuries aren’t too bad and wish whoever it was a speedy recovery.

There’s a section of boardwalk at Bedgebury which has nowt on it but always seems grippy – someone told me it was the type of timber used?

Hi guys, I was the person who went down at Afan on saturday. I’m back at home now in Surrey after having facial surgery to close the rather large hole in my cheek that the chicken wire caused. The surgeons did a great job as did everyone who helped in getting me off the hill and into the hospital. In the end, the air ambulance couldnt get to me so they winched me off the hill into an RAF SeaKing (which was kinda cool)

I’m sore and swollen and a little shaken from having such a heavy head trauma but i should make a good recovery with minimal scarring. I’m definitely glad I have a standing order giving to the air ambulance!

I dont know if this is me being paranoid but I’ve noticed that some people (not necessarily on this board) have maybe been questioning my abilities. I made a mistake and lost the front wheel off the boards, thats all. I’m a decent rider as my friends will testify and I can normally handle stuff like Whytes level.

Anyway, I just wanted to say that I’m ok and thanks for the concern.

Cheers,
Chris

Good on you fella. Get well soon.