Get the History of Get Wet

The dream behind Get Wet was a dream of warm waters, hot Countries and huge adventures. Tim Vollum and Jon Smith always dreamed of having an "International Rafting Expedition Company", a fair and justified dream for a group of friends who had between them travelled to most corners of the globe to run rafting trips or undertake kayaking expeditions.

In fact, the project you will see when you visit our base in North Wales is a product of our travels around the World kayaking and rafting.

Tim and Jon knew expedition travelling was an expensive undertaking and would need footing. They also decided that they needed to have a base to work from and where better to call home than Bala in North Wales . This is a place they had called home for the last 7 years. It would be near here that Tim and Jon would launch Get Wet, but not initially as an expedition company but instead as a paintball site!

So we needed land, we looked everywhere, we wrote to people, we begged and we pleaded. Nothing! Then during a trip to Spain coaching kayaking to the Dulwich Preparatory School Canoe Club, Jon met Fiona.

During a short period of adult time, in a Spanish bar with teachers and parents from the school Jon approached Fiona, a parent on the trip who he had found out was a portrait artist. He asked if she would do a sketch of his girlfriend for him. Drinks were offered and accepted, agreements were made and everyone was happy.

Conversations flowed, and if Jon is to be believed so did the Cubra Libre's! Jon and Fiona spoke about where they lived, dreams for the future and their families. Then they realised that Jon and Tim were looking for land near Bala to set up a paintballing site. Fiona's Sister and Brother-in-law lived 5 miles down the road from Jon and Tim and owned a 2,500 acre estate. It also became apparent that Major Henry Robertson (Henry) and Sarah Robertson (Sarah) were keen to diversify some of their estate to recreational usage.

So to cut a long story short, Jon and Fiona met in Spain kayaking, Fiona spoke to Sister and Brother-in-law, Sarah and Henry met Jon and Tim for coffee and a tour of some land. During this short tour Tim and Jon had there mind set on their prospective 4 acre paintball site. Henry however seemed to have bigger plans for us finally offering a 55 acre wood in the form of Coed Craig Crogen to run activities from.

Obviously when you have 55 acres to work with you need to run more than a paintball site, so after brains were picked and business plans were written Get Wet's first base in Coed Craig Crogen was born with a paintball site, 2 high ropes courses and a big rock outcrop to be cleaned up to be able to run climbing and abseiling on.

Between the time of Tim and Jon deciding to start up a Get Wet base in North Wales until speaking to Henry and Sarah was 4 Years. From speaking to Henry and Sarah until the time we open in will be a period of 11 Months and guess what? Get Wet has arrived!

We Got There!

Director - Jon Smith 'Pies'

Jon's formative years were spent traveling round the World, raft guiding, kayaking and competing.

In 2000 Jon moved to Bala and worked as a raft guide before the ever increasing economic pressures on life meant he had to get a real job. He did, reluctantly, ever dreaming of a way to quit the real job and revert back to a life of fun and freedom.

Well, with the birth of Get Wet it doesn't look like that is ever going to happen but Jon hopes that the activities Get Wet will provide in the future will bring fun and excitement into the lives of everyone that visits!