Softfloor Land Red Bull Robbie Maddison London Tower Bridge Stunt

As part of their Extreme Series in Europe, Red Bull were embarking on a number of daring stunts, which included, in stage one, an ariel jump over the partially raised Tower Bridge in London by stunt bike rider Robbie Maddison.

The Red Bull team approached Soft Floor UK for a flooring solution for the take off and landing zones on either side of the bridge to be laid on top of the existing roadway. The flooring had to provide both good grip for the high speed run up the raised roadway on the bridge and high density to absorb the impact on landing for the rider to touch down after the leap across the open section of the bridge on the other side.

With safety being paramount, the rubber roadway would also provide additional protection for the rider should he lose control of the bike and fall. In addition to this, Red Bull required white calibration strips be printed on the mats to indicate the acceleration and breaking zones. The also wanted to print the Red Bull logo on the mats for the rider use to spot his landing.

Soft Floor UK recommended their extremely tough Ultra Mat in black for this project. The Ultra Mat has all the crucial elements of a quality specialist surface, such as good non slip properties, hi density for shock absorbency and providing impact support in heavy and demanding environments. They screen printed both the white calibration guide lines and a 3 metre by 2 metre promotional Red Bull logo in full colour on to the mats. In all, 220 mats were used, which were all assembled and interlocked on location within one hour, and removed in 30 minutes after the end of the event.

Ultra Mats by Soft Floor UK are made from fully tested, high-density EVA foam. They are ideal for events, garages, workshops, warehouses and are available to order online from their website www.softfloor.co.uk