06-Jul-11:
Your Questions Answered
After our first article about this new inflatable court,
we received a few questions.
AirSquash developer Phillip Romm was only too happy
to reply to them...
|
Would it be possible to have the same court
with transparent fabric, increasing inside visibility? |
Yes, you could construct the
AirSquash Court with transparent material but it comes with
disadvantages in cost and durability.
 Our first ideas with
the court
included
windows on the side and back walls.
The problem is that you would have to look through several
layers of transparent material. With current techniques,
that results in a blurry view.
From an engineer’s point of view, I can tell you that there
is a solution for everything. I'm sure we will be able to
solve the problem and create a court that has equal
abilities in terms of durability and handling and also
provides good visibility to the inside. It's just not that
easy. Not yet!!
The other idea could be to take out the backwall. That might
take the feeling of Squash away, but it is an option.
|
Would it be possible to fabricate an
inflatable AirSquash Court with the size of a standard Squash
Court? |
Yes, pretty much everything is possible regarding the design
and size.
The AirSquash Court you see on the pictures has around
66% of the standard size (6m x 4m x 3m) with a weight of
140kg, which is easily manageable by two people.
An inflatable AirSquash court in standard Squash court size
would weight around 300kg and have twice the size in the
dismantled state, meaning that you would need four people to
handle the Court. You would also have to consider that a
4.50m high frontwall needs better fixation against wind.
|
How durable is the AirSquash Court? |
With purchasing you receive
one year warranty on the stitching. Besides that you
will be able to use the court for at least 10 years. If you
treat the court well I think 15 years wouldn't be a
problem.
My parents have been in the inflatable bouncer business all
their live and I know that you can use the bouncers for 10
years easily although kids are jumping on it whereas there
is practically no wear by playing Squash on the AirSquash
Court.
Another point is that you can replace the inside walls after
a few years of use and have it all white and shiny again.
|
Is it easy to put my company's logo
onto the court? |
You can either digitally
print anything you like directly onto the inside walls
or stencil print onto the inflatable frame.
Other than that, the colour scheme of the AirSquash court in
general can be designed to the customer's request. Plus the
possibility of attaching banners to every wall of the court.
Several D-Rings allow good positioning of
banners all around the court.
|
Don't I need a net to prevent the
ball from escaping the court? |
Experience shows that 90% of
the balls that actually go out of the court do so by passing
close to the upper rim of the frontwall. We offer an
optional net to prevent that.
It consists of two fiberglass rods and a net 1m high,
comparable to a badminton net. You can choose to use the net
at each event because you simply stick the rods into the
pockets and attach the net to the sidewalls.
If you plan to use the court mainly inside, in schools and
gyms, you shouldn't need a net at all.”
|
THEY TRIED IT FOR YOU....
Marc
Hoerning was the one who helped Phillip with the court
construction.
He is
playing first division for Hamborn Inn in the German
Bundesliga, they actually came second in the playoffs.
When Phillip told me about his AirSquash court I had some doubts that
it would be fun for players with a quite good Squash level.
But then, when I saw the court built up, I was really surprised how
big it was.
And when I played the first few rallies with Philip it was
really fun. You can have good rallies, and you can really get
sweaty!
And because of the special AirSquash Softball, even people without any
experience
in Squash can have good rallies!
 |
Marco Schoeppers helped
Phillip
when they were at the supermarket
and also plays squash in the German
Bundesliga
second division.
My name is Marco, I'm 19 years old and
I've been playing squash since I was 12.
I was testing the AirSquash-court while promoting
it with Phillip.
At the beginning of the assembly, I asked myself how to play
on this Court because I never thought that it is possible to
implement the idea of "Airsquash".
When the court was built, Phillip and I started to play. I was very surprised because I realised that it
was
possible to play squash on it.
First I thought that you could
could demonstrate squash a little bit for some people who don't know anything about these sport ... but I had to assess
that I was totally wrong which was very surprising for me
!
After five minutes playing I was really sweaty and had to take
a short break because I really had to move a lot while
playing.
All things considered it is very cool and fun to play on
the court because it actualizes squash very well !!
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