Urban Saints Centre, Westbrook, Oakhill Road, Ryde, Isle of Wight PO33 1PU westbrookcentre.org.

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2 There are 2 main ways you can use the Low-Ropes area. Let the young people explore the equipment and play around on it. Team-building exercise which helps develop team cohesion and communication. This guide gives you a way to use the area as a team-building exercise. There are no hard and fast rules as to how to use it, so feel free to do your own thing, this is just a helping hand! Contents 3 Safety Considerations 3 The Course 4 Setting the scene 5 Traverse Wall 6 Multi-vine 7 Tension Traverse 8 Mohawk Walk 9 Balance Beam 10 Burma Bridge 11 Zip Wire

3 Safety Considerations 1. No unsupervised use 2. Report any equipment failure to the Duty Manager 3. Be careful particularly around the zip-wire area (collisions possible) The Course Extra equipment needed: 1 hoop per 6-8 people (judge on the build of the individuals) 4 crates 3 planks of wood Crates and Planks Traverse wall Multi-Vine Finish: Zip-Wire Start: In Hoop Tension Traverse Mohawk Walk Balance Beam Burma Bridge. 3

4 Setting the Scene You re a group of penguins trying to escape from the Seals that want to eat you. To escape you must go through a series of challenges and finish with flying onto an iceberg Warm up: Penguin Races Get everyone in a circle, knees bent, and hands on thighs. Slap your hands against your thighs with a slight delay to mimic the sound of a Penguin Running. Make sure everyone is joining in. Start slowly and build up the speed. The leader then introduces elements of the run, bends, ditches to jump, hanging branches to avoid etc - these should all include further actions and sound effects. Penguins must huddle to keep warm, get the group to all be inside of the hoop placed at the start of the course. Difficulty option: When you lay out the crates and planks, you can put them at the start of the course so they have to take them across the traverse wall as well, or piled up at the end of the traverse wall, or already laid out, depending on the group ability - remember once you start you can t touch the floor! Complete each element as a group, and help each other out, you don t want anyone to get eaten by a seal! This isn't a race, it s about survival. Look for the succession in the Challenge in boxes that look like this one! Things for the leader to watch out for are in these boxes 4

5 Traverse Wall Once you get on this obstacle, you can t touch the floor again until the end. You can use either side of the wall. You may need to pass objects along to be able to get to the next obstacle, so don't go too quickly! Use the crates and planks at the end of the wall to get to the next obstacle, you might wish to only use 2 planks and 3 crates so they have to think more about how to get across as it won t reach in one go! The Penguins must cling on tight to the iceberg, without falling into the sea where the seals are waiting! This is a sideways climbing wall, not an up-and-over wall, make sure the young people don t stray too high! Make sure care is taken over the placing of the plank, as fingers can get easily squished! 5

6 Multi-Vine The team will need to work together, passing the vines to the person behind them if they can t reach, we recommend the tallest in the group takes the lead on this one! Phew, you have successfully gone around the Iceberg, buying some more time away from those seals, the next challenge is to walk through the cave of ice, hold on tight to those stalactites so that you don t slip over! 6

7 Tension Traverse The Tension Traverse is in 2 parts, there is one part after the multi-vine, on the same piece of wire, and the second part is also used as the Mohawk walk, on the next piece of wire. For the session running through this guide, we are only referring to the first part, however the same technique is used for both. The technique is in the title, use the large piece of rope which is attached to a nearby tree, make sure there is tension on it, and walk along the wire, if doing the course as a circuit walking backwards may be required. Wow! I m not sure how helpful those Stalactites were, maybe this Stalagmite will be more helpful! Only one penguin can cross at a time so better be quick! As with all of the segments, if it has recently rained then the bottom wire may be slippery, so extra care should be taken, and the use of spotters may be helpful! 7

8 Mohawk Walk The Mohawk walk is just the bottom wire (you can include the rope attached to one of the trees, but then it s the tension traverse). The technique needing to be employed is - have everyone involved, spread along the wire, trying to support each other without touching the ground! This is one of the hardest segments of the course to successfully complete! The end is in sight! To exit the Cave of Ice you have to walk along a thin sliver of Ice, be careful as one mis-step here and it s all over! It may help to have spotters here, and make sure they are working as a team, if one person tries to go it on their own it won t work. 8

9 Balance Beam Objective: While everyone on the team is on the beam, they must reorder themselves by height (or anything of your choosing). To add to the challenge you can make them do it in silence, or without touching each other! The Sliver of ice has merged with some rock, making it a bit more sturdy! But wait, what s this? A Yeti has just appeared, and is blocking the way! They will only let you pass if you can order yourselves by height! What a strange request! Unless it is slippery from recent rain, the balance beam is the easiest of all the segments, which is why we recommend you get them to re-order themselves whilst on it. 9

10 Burma Bridge This is an easy part of the course, but watch out for people excessively swinging the bridge on purpose. Oh-no! The Yeti has pushed you into the water, the only way to climb out is by using the eels that have formed a chain for you! It s easy to get carried away walking along here, make sure they don t go too fast and get their feet caught in the joins. 10

11 Zip Wire Make sure the young person is sitting on the seat with both hands on the handle. There can be a bit of a jolt at the end, so they must hold on! They should only get off the seat when it has stopped moving, and if you make them take it back up to the next person it ensures they are out of the way when the next person goes! The eel chain has got you to just the right point where safety is in reach, the last obstacle is to fly onto the Iceberg of Freedom! It s very common to see young people walk in front of the Zip Wire without thinking, but this can lead to injuries both of the person on the ground, and to the person on the seat. Try to control where they have to go once they have got off. 11