5 Highlights for Families at The Outdoors Show 2012, London

The 11^th Outdoors Show has just taken place at Excel London. With have a go activities, active holiday ideas, clothing and equipment, guest speakers and more, it’s a fantastic, ‘beat the winter blues’ day out for families with active children and anyone who loves getting active!

The entrance ticket to The Outdoors Show (£16 online adult price and free for children) gave us access to three other shows – Active Travel Show, London Bike Show and London Boat Show. Here are 5 highlights for families, all of which were FREE:

Climbing Village

There were plenty of ways to have a go at the Avis Climbing Village. The children loved the climbing walls and the new Crazy Climb from Beacon Walls, that offers a wacky and imaginative vertical climbing challenge.

Slacklining

We got our first glimpse of the ultimate balance sport! Slacklining is the art of balancing on a bouncy tightrope and experts from Maverick Slacklines gave the audience jaw-dropping demonstrations of their freestyle tricks and…you could have a go yourself.

16 Jan – Maverick Slacklines sent Your Holiday Planner a link to their highlights at the show. Enjoy!  http://vimeo.com/35138084

Bike Polo

Another first glimpse was of Bike Polo, a growing sport based on traditional polo, where bicycles are used instead of horses and this version is played on a hard court. This year’s London Bike Show hosted The London International Invitational 2012, an indoor tournament that showcased the best teams in Europe.

Watersports Action Pool

The massive watersports action pool is almost the width of a hall in the Excel and it was a great place to sit (yes, it’s a good excuse!) and watch the watersports shows, demos and championship events. We loved the stand-up paddleboarding event and the thrilling wakeboarding demos. And again, you could have a go yourself. As well as paddleboarding and wakeboarding, you could also try windsurfing, dinghy sailing, canoeing and  kayaking.

500ft Zipwire

Go Ape brought a taste of their tree top adventure to The Outdoors Show, in the shape of a 500ft long zip wire. Naturally, this was very popular and unfortunately for us, we didn’t get to ride the UK’s longest  indoor zipwire. We’re looking forward to making use of our 25% discount though!

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