Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Mick's Automotive fundraiser for MBOSC Saturday Oct 10


Tracy Cotten - the owner of Mick's Automotive - has offered to donate the profits from his business on Saturday October 10 to MBOSC. Mick's Automotive is an auto repair shop specializing in Japanese cars.

Tracy and his lead technician Brian are avid mountain bikers and have been active supporters of MBOSC. If you have ever spoken with Tracy you will soon learn that he is an expert on the subject of cars and he is very pragmatic on car maintenance. He and his staff are serious about learning new skills an they do a lot of research on new cars and maintenance. You can be assured that you will be getting top notch service at Mick's.

If you have a Japanese car and need service then please give Mick's a call and schedule your work for Saturday Oct 10.

Micks Automotive http://micksauto.com
1257 Thompson Ave. #D
Santa Cruz CA 95062
831-464-6855

We can raise a significant amount of money for MBOSC if we can get some big jobs scheduled rather than simple oil changes. If you need service on your Japanese vehicle then you can help MBOSC by having Mick's do your job on Oct 10.

MBOSC uses membership dues and other funds we raise to pay for basic overhead like web hosting, printing and insurance (our biggest expense). We also make donations to other non-profits and land conservation trusts which support mountain biking. We also use our funds to pay for event day use fees and permits like Carrotfest and Take a Kid Mountain Biking Day. We also buy food, drinks and beer (usually discounted) for events and provide it free to attendees. Some of these funds go back into the membership since we pay for the Sea Otter and Tahoe camp sites and offer free camping and beer to members who attend.

Thank you and please support MBOSC by scheduling your car maintenance at Mick's Automotive.

Sunday, September 27, 2009

Freedom Riders Showing Raised Money for State Parks District

MBOSC presented the Santa Cruz premier of "Freedom Riders" at the Rio Theatre on Sept 17. This presentation was a fund raiser for the local state parks and I'm happy to announce that it was a success. We had 196 paid attendees and sold about $1400 in raffle tickets for a total of about $2000 raised for state parks.

An event like this takes a lot of work and many people donated their time and goods to make this event a success.

Thanks to Megan Zemny, Steve Gemelos, Sebastien Praly, Eve Davidson and Mark Woodhead for the planning, logistics and doing the legwork for this event. Thanks to Jesse Nickel for soliciting, acquiring and donating raffle items.

A big thanks to the event volunteers Tim and Shannon Park, James B, Chris, Tracy Cotten, Johauna Rathbun, Melissa Cline, Buel Proffit and Amiel Sagpao.

Thanks to Michael Horn for providing the short films before the main feature and spending time in the projection booth to ensure that the films ran smoothly.

Thanks to Charlie and Jason at Seabright Brewery for the after party (film attendees were treated to Happy Hour pricing). Thanks to Austin Sprague for working with Seabright on the after party.

We would like to thank some of the people and businesses who donated to make our raffle a success.
These vendors have demonstrated their support for mountain bike advocacy and they deserve our support as well.

This event raised money to replace the trail head sign at the entrance of the Wilder Ranch back country.

Thanks again for your support!

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Freedom Riders Showing Thursday Sept 17th

MBOSC presents the Santa Cruz showing of Freedom Riders 7 pm Thursday September 17th at the Rio Theatre.

This film is a benefit to raise money for our local State Parks district to replace the sign at the entrance of the Wilder Ranch back country.

Tickets are $10 available at the following locations (cash only):




Tickets are also available at the door and will include a raffle ticket. We will also sell additional raffle tickets in the theater.

Freedom Riders is the story of a core group of riders who evolved from covertly building rough and unsustainable trails, to creating a precedent setting relationship with the Forest Service and creating some of the best Freeride trails in the country.

This is a great way to raise money for our local state parks

Hope to see you there!

Monday, September 14, 2009

Why we are supporting State Parks for "Freedom Riders" showing

Our showing of "Freedom Riders" this Thursday is a fund raiser for our local State Parks District. I'm a mountain biker and parks supporter. Not only do the parks provide great trails for riding but they also provide other recreational/educational opportunities for local residents and visitors.

The main reason why MBOSC as a mountain bike club is raising money for our State Parks district is we appreciate that they are serious in finding more legal mountain biking opportunities. We have made a lot of progress with State Parks this summer.

Here is a summary of the story so far.
  • History: back in Nov 2006, we submitted a trail conversion proposal which asked to convert 24 mi of single track and 12 miles of fireroad to multi-use from limited use in Castle Rock, Big Basin and Fall Creek State Parks. We focused on trails which are currently open to hikers and equestrians only. This proposal has been met with stale mate. We met with the parks staff many times and have been stonewalled.... until this year.
  • More history: There has been a change in leadership in the district. Senior management - mostly conservation oriented - have retired and been replaced by newer leaders who are sympathetic to active recreation. They have also filled a role of a District Trails and Road Superintendent - a key position required to address our proposal and other change in use for existing/future trails.
  • Back in February, there was a change in strategy to deal with unauthorized riding at Henry Cowell Park. The Rangers would be issuing warnings then citations to enforce the bike ban on the west part of the park adjoining UC - incorrectly referred to as "UCSC" (ie. Campers, Carpet, Sick & Twisted, etc...). This was seen as those handouts on car windshields in the lot.
  • MBOSC successfully negotiated a change in tactics from enforcement to education. In response, we ask that mountain bikers try to limit their activity in that area.
  • Sensing growing negative sentiment towards the local parks by mountain bikers, the State Parks District Superintendent made creating more legitimate mountain biking opportunities the highest priority for the new Mountain Sector Superintendent (to be hired). He suggested that addressing our submitted proposal is where the new Sector Super will start.
  • Karl Tallman was hired as the Sector Superintendent earlier this summer. In June, MBOSC members and Tom Ward from IMBA CA met with him and the District Trails and Roads Supervisor to restart the trail proposal process. Karl demonstrated the commitment of the District to find more legitimate mountain biking opportunities. We spent most of the meeting looking at maps and discussing the trails in the proposal. There was a definite "can do" attitude within the State Parks Staff. We made more progress in a 2 hour meeting than we made in the past 2.5 years. I want to emphasize that last point: We made more progress in a 2 hour meeting than we made in the past 2.5 years.
  • The senior trails specialist from Sacramento has been visiting Santa Cruz this summer (at least twice) to move this process forward. The sector super has been giving me progress updates all summer. This demonstrates the commitment from the District AND Sacramento to provide more legal mountain bike trails.
  • The Sacramento trails specialist will be in town on Sept 15th to meet with the District Trails and Roads supervisor to do a construction estimate on the first trail (3 segments) in our proposal to get addressed: The Skyline trail in Castle Rock - which is part of the Bay Area Ridge trail.

The biggest impact has been the change in attitude towards mountain biking in top management in the District. Our local State Parks are willing and honest partners for mountain biking. This means that we have a bright future for legal mountain bike access in Santa Cruz.

We want to demonstrate our appreciation for the district by raising money to help pay for some hard costs of maintaing the district. We hope you agree and support more legitimate mountain biking in Santa Cruz County by attending our showing of "Freedom Riders" this Thursday at the Rio.