My journey in climbing began at The Mile Climbing Wall during the early nineties. In 1995, I left London and relocated to Bristol to study at a university. Here, I found my second home at Undercover Rock and joined the University of the West of England (UWE) Climbing Club. In 1996, I completed my SPSA training and took on the role of Equipment and Safety Officer for the UWE climbing club. I organised and led climbing trips across the UK, Spain, and France, instructing and guiding novice climbers along the way.
After graduating from UWE in 1999 and passing my SPSA assessment, I started a full-time role at UCR as a Duty Manager and Instructor. A year later, I was promoted to the position of Senior Instructor. Over the next nine years, under the stewardship of Guy Jarvis, I honed my skills as a full-time instructor, delivering a diverse range of courses, from taster sessions, charity abseils, beginner & lead courses, Sport climbing courses and the early days of NICAS and performance squads.
In 2009, The Climbing Academy opened its first wall, The Mothership. I left UCR and became the Youth Development Officer at The Mothership. I was responsible for delivering a youth bouldering programme and creating the TCA Youth Performance Squad. The squad competed all over the UK, winning national comps and having three members selected to the GB Climbing team. Though competition was a big focus for the squad, we also ran climbing trips to the Peak, Dartmoor, and South/North Wales.
In 2015, The Mothership became a NICAS Bouldering Primary Centre and I gained the Development Coach qual. In 2016, TCA bought UCR I was promoted to the TCA Chief Instructor, overseeing instructed course development, instructor inductions, training and moderations, wall safety and accident investigation across three TCA climbing walls. TCA has continued to expand, and we now operate five climbing walls: The Mothership, The Church, The Newsroom, The Propstore, and The Arc.