Blast Boxers - Radnor Ranges Blast Trials 6th October 2010 Radnor Ranges in South Wales on 6th of October 2010 presented a surreal sight that would not have been out of place in the Tate Modern. Placed in concentric semi circles around a crater about mid way up the valley were blue foam dummies of a well know Hollywood actor, dressed in body armour and what would appear to the casual observer to be 2-tone cycling shorts.
For a brief period silence covered the valley, the local sheep showing extreme disinterest in the foam dummies below them or in the array of high speed and stills cameras focused upon the crater. That silence was then broken as fifteen kilograms of high explosive detonated sending a plume of earth, rock and debris into the air – each foam “actor” blasted by sand, grit and pebbles travelling at hundreds of metres per second. Sharp and solid gravel had been used to cover the charge to increase the lethality of the blast. Heavier rocks were blasted into space for hundreds of metres.