The First Bouldering "crash pad" Ever Made

The first bouldering "crash pad" ever made, before it even knew what it was. It was thin as a "Kleenex," one has commented of this photo in recent years. It did fly off my van from Texas to Mexico unexpectedly, light and thin and maybe not enough, though innovative and completely a problem-solver for then. It was only 1995, just 17 whole years ago. 

Since, bouldering has EXPLODED! Yes! And, well… Before this, we used duct tape, carpet, and filled it with whatever we could--newspaper, junk, anything we thought would cushion our falls. Of course, we weren't achieving major highballs, limiting our vision by our gear I suppose, unless we were climbing beyond what we might now find reasonable for such gear use. So the question is, were we doing it right then, or right now?

I am happy where bouldering is, merely because I love bouldering, and, falling on anything that saves my ass, and isn't such a pain to make or keep from falling apart or requiring a lengthy (and costly) visit to the dump.