Summary: IMBA Trail Care Crew Visits Santa Cruz

Ryan and Kristin from the IMBA Trail Care Crew visited Santa Cruz last Thursday through Sunday and it was quite an amazing experience. We hosted the crew at our house and it was a real pleasure to get to know them better.

Some of the highlights include:

• IMBA Club Care Session at Giro. We learn how to build a sustainable club.
• Group Ride at Wilder Ranch. Well attended by regulars, newbies, kids, gray haired guys and women.
• 10th Anniversary Party at Seabright Brewery
• $3000 Donation to IMBA California. Good for trail karma.

It was an intense 4 days of BBQs, bike porn and non-stop beer. The BBQ, firepit, chairs and ice chests full of beer were utilized by the myriad of wandering bikers just dropping in throughout the weekend. There were 4 waves of attendees showing up at the "after party" following the Seabright party. Some pictures of the festivities are here: http://picasaweb.google.com/mark.davidson.sc/IMBAClubCareVisit.

Having Ryan and Kristin stay allowed us to immerse ourselves in the introspective process of determining the direction of the club. Eve is the treasurer and Daryl (the interim VP) stayed at our house for a night. Having many of the club officers present for the many of the breakfast, lunch and dinner sessions created valuable opportunities for discussion.

Slow speed Sunday morning came and the weather was nice and sunny but a huge mental fog wafted over my brain from all the alcohol the day before. Ryan and Kristin were planning to hang out on some beach for a few hours before heading up the coast to San Francisco for their next visit. A few days later Kristin sent me the following email:

Howdy Mark,

I just wanted to thank you for organizing such a great weekend and for your work over the past several years. We had a fantastic time meeting so many different types of folks from the Santa Cruz community, everyone from industry folks, a huge female turnout at the group ride, to the smoking rider. Oh, we even got to see Umbrella Man on our way out of town. We officially heart Santa Cruz.

And a big thanks to Eve for the best home cooking we've had in the past two years and to Jade for fully appreciating the undeniable awesomeness of the Pegacorn.

-Kristin

It was fun hosting Ryan and Kristin of the IMBA Trail Care Crew. They are a fun couple and great ambassadors of mountain biking. Ryan and Kristin turned their passion for advocacy and riding into a career. They spread the goodness of mountain biking to communities all over North America like Johnny Appleseed. Mountain biking is awesome not just for the cool bikes and the great places to ride but also for the great people you meet. I'm hoping to see them again soon.

Mountain Bikers of Santa Cruz donates $3000 to support IMBA California

Tom Ward from IMBA California attended the MBOSC 10th Anniversary party last Saturday.

Tom retired as the manager of recreation at California State Parks in Sacramento a few years ago. His position as California policy analyst for IMBA was originally underwritten by Specialized in early 2006.

He is working on policy issues which impact mountain bikers in all of California including Wilderness designation boundaries which will maintain existing and future mtb trail networks, lowering the red tape for trail projects, lobbying State Parks for more trail access and building coalitions with equestrian groups. He has a lot of connections in Sacramento and he's a guy who can get the meetings with decision makers and push the mountain biking agenda. He is great at articulating the mountain bikers point of view and he has an Teflon coated bull s**t detector. He is the best thing to happen to mountain biking in California since the Marin County Repack races in the 70's.

During the announcements, MBOSC issued a donation of $3,000 to support Tom's efforts in Sacramento. The future of MBOSC and other clubs will leverage the great work done by IMBA California. We recognize the importance of Tom Ward and IMBA to create more riding opportunities for mountain biking which will benefit all riders in California. We support IMBA California and so should you.

MBOSC's 10th Anniversary Party at Seabright Brewery

MBOSC celebrated it's 10th anniversary at Seabright Brewery last Saturday. It was an excellent celebration on the patio with great weather, great friends, the old Santa Cruz advocates, the IMBA Trail Care Crew and some equestrians, special guests from the trail building community and Tom Ward from IMBA California.

Everyone had a good time. Charlie Meehan - the owner of Seabright - was on the BBQ grill and offering free BBQ appetizers. He also gave party attendees $5 pitchers of fine beer which was brewed on the premises. The Oatmeal Stout was fresh this week and was a huge hit. The Double Wide Ale was tasty and packed a punch of 8.5% alcohol. I stayed away from the Double Wide. I wanted my speech to be coherent.

It was great to see so many people passionate about advocacy and beer. Charlie made the comment later that this group provided a lot of interesting conversation and were very appreciative and polite to him and his staff.

I gave a speech which recognized the early founders of MBOSC which included Keith Kelsen, Geoff Smith, David Baskin, Doug Landaur, Don Carol, Mark Woodhead, Dawn Weathersbee and Caroline Murphy. Local trail building legends Bud and Emma McCreary graced us with their presence. Bud and Emma are responsible for most of the best legal single track trails in many of the area parks including Wilder Ranch and the U-con trail. We publicly thanked them for their work over the past few decades in building the trails that we all enjoy.

I discussed the future of the club and asked for communityy support to achieve big projects like Coast Dairies. The importance of the work of Tom Ward and IMBA California was emphasized and we gave him a $3,000 check from MBOSC to support his efforts. Finally, I thanked the existing pool of volunteers who help with current events and initiatives in MBOSC.

The party lasted for a while. Lots of beer was drank and many good conversations were had. We went back to our house for the after party where waves of mountain bikers arrived to hang out around the fire pit, drink more beer and talk about the direction and organization of the club.

More pictures from the party here.

We would like to thank Charlie Meehan and his staff at Seabright Brewery for hosting our party. Charlie is an awesome supporter of mountain biking in Santa Cruz and we support him too. Thank you for an awesome venue to hang out, the appetizers and the great beer. Beer is the fuel of mountain bike advocacy.

The future of mbosc is looking pretty good. Stay tuned for the 20th anniversary party...

Saturday Group Ride with the IMBA Club Care Crew

Kristin from the IMBA Trail/Club Care Crew joined us on the MBOSC Saturday Club Ride at Wilder Ranch. There were about 20-25 attendees including a great representation of first time attendees and many women cyclists.

It was a great day for a ride. Conditions were perfect. There were a few guys on the ride who have never ridden at Wilder before. I rode with my daughter on the trail-a-bike.

The whole group rode together to the vista at the top of Zane Gray cutoff and then we split into a few groups. A bunch headed up to upper campus, most of the women riders did a few loops within Wilder and Jade and I cut out early to play at the Ranch. I heard that others joined the group but met up from different entrances to the park.

Many of the attendees also came out to party with us at Seabright later. Another fine day in mountain biker paradise.

South Park: More fun than a 5 assed monkey

Do you like dirt jumps, pump tracks, downhill, built stunts and gravity riding? Are you fed up with land managers plowing your favorite jumps and destroying your ladder bridges? Do you want to have a place you can hold races and events in Santa Cruz County?

We have an opportunity for creating a mountain bike park in south Santa Cruz county on 2,500 acres of private land south of the city of Watsonville. It would be great to have this place developed as an IMBA ride center. California needs a ride center and it would be great if it were located in Santa Cruz County near the bike industry and within a short driving distance of 10's of thousands of mountain bike enthusiasts.

This piece of land has the potential for XC, cyclo-cross, dirt jump, DH and DS type riding experiences. We could also have product demos, video and photo shoots, events and races. There could be partnerships between local riders, bike shops, event promoters, the economic development agency of Watsonville and local bike companies. It could be our little mountain bike playground where we can dictate the terms of use we won't have to share our trails with motos, hikers or equestrians.

Will there be events at South Park? How about construction? Rentals? Will there be permits or pay by day entry? Who knows? It's really up to us to built it and figure out how it could work.

Next Thursday we will have stakeholders including IMBA reps, local bike industry, local bike shops, racers, race supporters and active members of the community together in the same room . If the community feels that this is a worthwhile project to pursue then we should do this. It will be a lot of work to develop South Park but it would be a valuable asset to the mountain bike community.

I want to emphasize that it is really up to us to make it happen. No one is going to build a mountain bike park in Santa Cruz County except for the mountain bike community. We have all the resources in this community to get it done: money, expertise and volunteer labor - but we need the initiative. I'll definitely volunteer my money, time and expertise to help make this happen.

Come out to the IMBA Presentation and workshop at Bell Sports/Giro next Thursday Oct 18th from 7 pm - 9:30 pm to learn more about "South Park".

Lets make this happen!

IMBA Club (Trail) Care Crew will be coming to Santa Cruz Oct 18-21

The IMBA Trail Care Crew will be coming to Santa Cruz on the weekend of Oct 18-21st, 2007.

The IMBA Trail Care Crews are sponsored by Subaru and travel year-round throughout North America and beyond.

Kristin Butcher and Ryan Schutz will be the crew who will be visiting us and they will be working with MBOSC and the community to help build the club and improve mountain biking opportunities.

We have a few events that week:

IMBA TCC Presentation and workshop
Thursday Oct 18th 7:00 - 9:30 pm
Bell Sports/ Giro 380 Encinal Street, Santa Cruz

The IMBA Trail Care Crew will give a presentation and workshop and share techniques that will grow the mountain bike community. Refreshments will be served.

Group Ride for all skill levels
Saturday Oct 20th 10 am
Wilder Ranch State Park

Come out and ride some some of the trails in the local parks.

MBOSC 10th Anniversary Party
Saturday Oct 20th 4:00 pm - 7:00 pm
Seabright Brewery, Santa Cruz

Come and celebrate the 10th anniversary of MBOSC with a BBQ and some great Seabright Beers.

IMBA CCC Visit Flier

It should be a great week to hang out with the mountain biking community and create some common goals. How about a venue for 24 hour racing, high school racing and cyclocross within a 20 minute ride from westside Santa Cruz? We can make it happen.

2008 IMBA World Summit will be in Park City

Park City, Utah will be the location of the next world summit. This sounds like a great place to ride and host a summit.

When I was at the National Bike Summit in Washington, DC I saw a great presentation by the Park City Mountain Trails Foundation about the economic benefits of a trail system. The presentation was inspiring and showed how a community could come together around a common goal of building and promoting trails to bring in tourists during the off-ski season. The organization seemed to have built a broad coalition of stake holders - not just mountain bikers and shops - to help realize the goal. Since then I have been very intrigued and want to visit Park City to experience these trails and talk to these folks. I would love to see that type of a trails culture in Santa Cruz county.

Getting back to the IMBA summit, it sounds like the agenda will be awesome:

The 2008 IMBA Summit will be open to the public, and will feature advocacy seminars, trailbuilding workshops, networking, great food, parties, celebrity guest speakers and some big surprises. Topics will include the economic power of trails, sustainable trailbuilding, liability and risk management, urban trail networks, building club capacity and much more.

Trips for Kids will have a chapter meeting at the summit with the goal of inspiring IMBA clubs to create youth mountain bike programs. There will also be an epic ride at the end of the summit.

The 2008 IMBA World Summit sounds like it will be a great event. I'm already looking forward to it.

IMBA Trail Care Crew is comming to Santa Cruz this Fall

Mark your calendars! The IMBA Trail Care Crew will be coming to Santa Cruz on the weekend of Oct 20-21st, 2007.

The IMBA Trail Care Crews are sponsored by Subaru and travel year-round throughout North America and beyond. They lead trailwork sessions, meet with land managers, and working with IMBA-affiliated clubs and members to improve mountain biking opportunities. The Trail Care Crew experts will also lead a series of popular two-day IMBA Trailbuilding Schools.

Kristin Butcher and Ryan Schutz will be the crew who will be visiting us. From their bio on the IMBA TCC site:

Kristin Butcher and Ryan Schutz hail from Deerfield Beach, Florida, where they created ClubMud, an IMBA-affiliated "trail maintenance, advocacy and merrymaking" organization. They helped lead the charge to gain approval for freeride trails and technical trail features in Broward County parks, oversaw the construction of two freeride areas, and helped organize a bevy of cycling events. Prior to joining the Trail Care Crew, Kristin was a successful and multi-patented software engineer at an international telecommunications company. Ryan has earned a Masters in Urban Planning, has a passion for trail advocacy, and is fascinated by Elvis impersonators. He spent the last 5 years working in GIS, municipal land planning, and his buddy's bike shop.

The agenda is still to be determined. This will be the same weekend as the MBOSC 10th anniversary bash at Seabright Brewery so it should be a great weekend.

FOX RELEASES LATEST "FREE THE TRAIL" T-SHIRT

Fox Racing Shox has been an excellent supporter of MBOSC. Their first "Free The Trail" campaign directly benefited MBOSC during the Nisene Marks lawsuit. We have also been working with IMBA California to help us open more legal single track in our local State Parks. Please support this program by buying a T-shirt. Please support IMBA California by becoming an IMBA member.

You can buy the new Free the Trail T-shirt at http://www.myfoxracingshox.com/fox_shirts.htm


Watsonville, CA – November 9, 2006 – FOX Racing Shox is proud to release their latest Free The Trail T-shirt. All proceeds from the sale of Free The Trail T-shirts will go to support the IMBA California office. "IMBA CA is turning heads and getting trails built and keeping others open," said IMBA's California Director Tom Ward. "But don't be fooled - there are many anti-bike activists working to kick us off or block new trails. FOX Racing Shox is helping IMBA CA raise awareness and resources to fight for our access."

FOX Racing Shox commissioned renowned Bay Area artist Steve Smith to illustrate the newest T-shirt. The artwork features an idyllic mountain bike scene, behind bars and locked up, hence Free The Trail. "We had such great fundraising success with the first Free The Trail T-shirt, we knew we had to keep Free The Trail alive and continue its success," stated Elayna Caldwell, Marketing Manager at FOX. "Whether you live in California, go on vacation here or hate it because it is full of fruits and nuts, the fact is that there are more mountain bikers in California than anywhere else and what happens here is generally a bellwether for actions across the nation, and that is why FOX supports advocacy, because we like to ride fun, legal trails," stated Caldwell.

You can get a new Free The Trail T-shirt of your own and help support California's IMBA office, just go to www.foxracingshox.com and go to the online store. Shirts are $15.00 and both men's and women's versions are available, they are American Apparel shirts, made in the USA of 100% cotton. Get one for yourself and help support Mountain Biking in the great state of California.

Since 1974 FOX Racing Shox has designed and manufactured the finest suspension products for Motorcycles, Mountain Bikes, ATV\'s and Snowmobiles. World Headquarters are in Santa Cruz County, CA with its Off-Road Division in Santee, CA. FOX Racing Shox distributes its products in more than 40 countries.

IMBA CA: California State Park Trail Conversion Project

I'm in the process of nominating some trails for the California Trail Conversion campaign and I can't find any reference to this program on the IMBA website. The only reference to the campaign I can find is from an IMBA message sent back in May. Since I don't want to rut around for the message everytime I make a reference to it, I'm transcribing it here for convenience.

Dear IMBA CA Club Leader,

IMBA California, in cooperation with the Northern California Mountain Bike Association (NorCAMBA), IMBA Reps and mountain bike clubs throughout California, has launched a project to convert select state park trails to multi-use status. Please join our campaign.

California State Parks has embraced the need for multi-use trails (access for hikers, bicyclists, and equestrians). However, it's up to the biking community to provide the catalyst for converting existing trails to multi-use.

Details on the project can be found below. IMBA California will help train your club on the procedures that can open trails to bicycles. Please feel free to write or call me if you have further questions.

Sincerely,

Tom Ward
IMBA California Policy Advisor

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California State Park Trail Conversion Project

Project Goal: Increase trail miles for mountain bikers in California through the efficient conversion of selected California State Park trails from limited use to multi-use.

Background: In December 2005, California State Parks released a new trail policy that provides a process for the public to request trail use conversions in state park units. The policy encourages the establishment of multi-use trails as an effective and efficient way of meeting the diverse trail needs of the recreating public. Additionally, California State Parks encourages multi-use trails in its California Recreational Trails Plan, a policy guide for land mangers throughout the state.

Action Needed: There are numerous trails in state parks that are currently signed for equestrian and/or hikers only. Many of these trails are suitable for conversion to multi-use. Mountain bike clubs need to identify specific trails that they think should be converted.

Send your list of trails to Tom Ward, IMBA California Policy Advisor.

IMBA California will create and prioritize a master list, and provide follow-up consultation and guidance to bike club leaders on the process to follow for trail conversion.

When identifying trails, please provide the following information:

1. State park unit name.
2. Trail name.
3. Trail length.
4. Current trail users.
5. Describe the physical characteristics of the trail.
6. Describe the volume and frequency of trail use.
7. Describe any unauthorized bike use.
8. Does the unit have a general plan in progress?
9. Describe past attempts, if any, to convert the trail to multi-use.
10. Describe known opposition to converting the trail to multi-use?
11. Are you or the bike club able to commit significant time and effort to
the trail conversion process?

If you can't answer all the questions, IMBA CA can steer you in the right direction to research more about possible trail openings.

Thanks for your cooperation and participation in this project. With the new climate in California State Parks, there's a very real possibility that riding opportunities for mountain bikers can be increased significantly in the near future.

Thanks for joining our campaign!

Specialized Shindig: Announcing IMBA California

Specialized held a party at it's Morgan Hill headquarters to welcome the East and West IMBA trail care crews who will be leading trail work at Henry Coe this weekend. Specialized provided beer, pizza, T-shirts and water bottles. It was a good opportunity to meet and socialize with local advocates.

Ariadne Delon Scott - Specialized's advocacy director, gave a brief presentation on the history of the companies advocacy efforts. Did you know that there is a forest in Japan named after Specialized? Now you do. Ariadne made a stunning announcement that Specialized is underwriting IMBA California with it's first full time staffer Tom Ward.

Tom was the manager of recreation for California State Parks but retired last year. He is an avid mountian bikers and has been a champion of mountain bike access and advocacy efforts. He was in government for over 30 years and is in a great position to navigate though the bureacratic red tape which prevents access to public lands for mountain bikers. Among his projects will be working with the US Forest Service to allow mountain bikes in California wilderness areas.

Ariadne presented Tom with a new 2006 S-works Stumpjumper FSR. Tom was genuinely surprised. I took a nice close look at this bike and it's a really sweet ride. Specialized knows how to take care of thier boy.

Mountain biking and IMBA started in California. This state also has the most IMBA members, excellent riding, the best weather and lots of bike companies. We also have a lot of land access issues. It's great to have IMBA representation for California and I'm looking forward to working with Tom to open more trails in Santa Cruz county.

This is a very good development for mountain biking in California.