Announcing the joint MBOSC/Mere Mortals 4th Saturday ride at Wilder Ranch

Many local and remote riders have enjoyed our regular Saturday ride at Wilder Ranch for years. One recurring theme that comes up is that the pace is too fast. For years we have also tried to figure out how to make beginner or leisurely riders welcome on the ride. I am pleased to announce that we are going to address the issue with a regular slow ride.

Starting tomorrow and continuing on every 4th Saturday of the month, MBOSC in partnership with Mere Mortals will have a “slow” ride option. This ride will be at a more leisurely pace. We may not cover as many miles but it will be a ride which is friendly for beginners. There will probably be an intermediate/advanced group for the regulars and fast people as well.

Meet at 10 am on the 4th Saturday of the month at the park sign that leads into the back country at Wilder Ranch State Park.

We would like to welcome beginner or slower mountain bikers to the sport we would like them to feel welcome on our group rides.

Please attend the Santa Cruz City Council Meeting to Support the Jump Park

Earlier this month the Santa Cruz Parks and Recreation Commission voted unanimously to move forward with the relocation of the Fun Spot bike park. We would like to thank the SC Parks and Rec Commission for your support for recreational cycling.

The next phase of this project is to attend the City Council meeting at the Santa Cruz City Council on Tuesday Feb 24th at 3 pm to support the relocation of the bike park. Note the time has changed from Jesse’s earlier messages.

The current plan is to relocate the park around the corner to a permanent location at Depot Park. Your comments should be in support of the relocation plan and you should also express your support for a public jump park in general.

Please attend and show your support for our kids and gravity brothers. If you cannot attend the meeting in person then please email, phone or write the council members in support of relocating the bike park:

Mayor, Cynthia Mathews 
420-5020 City Hall
Email - cmathews@ci.santa-cruz.ca.us
Vice Mayor, Mike Rotkin 
420-5020 City Hall
mrotkin@ci.santa-cruz.ca.us
Katherine Beiers 
420-5020 City Hall 
Email - kbeiers@ci.santa-cruz.ca.us

Ryan Coonerty
420-5027 City Hall 
Email - rcoonerty@ci.santa-cruz.ca.us
Don Lane 
420-5020 City Hall 
Email - dlane@ci.santa-cruz.ca.us 
Tony Madrigal
420-5020 City Hall
Email - tmadrigal@ci.santa-cruz.ca.us
Lynn Robinson
420-5020 City Hall 
Email – lrobinson@ci.santa-cruz.ca.us

IBIS has officially moved to Santa Cruz

Another iconic bike company has relocated to Santa Cruz. I got an email newsletter from Ibis Cycles in which they mention their move to Santa Cruz (from nearby Scotts Valley). Ibis is located in the old Wrigley building on Delaware Avenue. They are close to the trails.

Here is the tidbit that I saw on their newsletter.

We've Moved!
Eagle eyed readers who noticed we mentioned Santa Cruz as our home city in the first paragraph. That wasn't a typo, part of the reason that there isn't a ton of news to report right now is that we've been moving and that has been taking a lot of our energy. Our new top secret location (top secret unless you look at our contact page) is only a block from the beach and a few feet away from an amazing network of mountain bike trails. We couldn't be happier with our new location. Other bonuses include many good restaurants nearby, a couple of wineries and a brewery (the last two for after work only of course).
We would like to welcome our friends at Ibis to the city of Santa Cruz!

MBOSC meeting with Ranger Gary Brennan

On Monday, February 9th, Concerned mountain bikers in the Santa Cruz area met with Ranger Gary Brennan to discuss the new Henry Cowell UC9 enforcement program.

Attendees

• Ranger Gary Brennan, Henry Cowell State Park
• Tom Ward, IMBA CA http://imba.com
• A few dozen concerned mountain bikers

Henry Cowell State Park enforcement program

Ranger Gary Brennan presents the background and justification for the new enforcement program.

• Citations for riding in Henry Cowell State Park between UC and Hwy 9 will start Sunday February 15th. Not February 18th in an older flyer.
• Rangers staffing levels have been filled, issues of biker rescues, complaints from neighbors about noise and garbage.
• Gary received a lot of messages and phone calls against the implication that mountain bikers were responsible for the garbage. Call us poachers but not litterers.
• Resource ecologists and archeologists will be evaluating the area this spring to do an inventory and an environmental assessment.
• The enforcement program in Pogonip by the City had the effect of moving homeless and drug dealing into the Rincon parking lot. This is a real issue.

Many questions and much discussion from the audience. Recanting of history of riding in Santa Cruz goes back to 1983 when there were no bike policies. Established order of politically savvy hikers, conservationists and equestrians changed the rules to exclude bikes. Worked with the system and the process over the years to change the policies and were invited to the table when new lands are acquired. Progress was made.

Frustration with the slow process, lack of State resources, staff turnover and lack of partners within the State Parks system. Frustration with the ease at which opposition groups has shut down these initiatives has created a sense of disillusionment within the responsible mountain biking community. Lack of enforcement in open space created a culture of riders who create their own reality and know how to mange sustainable trails. Responsible mountain bikers willing to accept the fact that mountain biking is an underground activity in Santa Cruz.

Secret stash becomes too popular with interlopers who do not have the same respect for the community and open space. Trails proliferate. No guidance or management. Trails are ad hoc and everywhere. Anything goes. Concussions, impaling, helicopters, neighbor complaints. Rangers.

Tom Ward leads a discussion on the future

• This is a golden opportunity since the attention of the mountain biking community is energized. What should we do about it?
• Despite the horrible economic climate that the State is in District Superintendents are faced with making decisions on where to focus scarce resources.
• A decision was made to staff ranger positions over a trail co-ordinator or resource ecologist. So enforcement became a higher priority over opening new trails. The challenge is to make the recreational needs of mountain biking a high priority to warrant State Parks resources.
• Legalizing the Cowell/UC9 trails is a hard battle. Perhaps a trail or two (or three). Long term goal.
• Short term: There is an existing proposal on submitted to District back in November 2006. The trail conversion proposal is the most expedient way to get legitimate trails in the local State Parks. 24 miles of single track and 12 miles of fire road in Big Basin, Castle Rock and Fall Creek.
• Medium term, opening the Wilder/Gray Whale trails will take a little more effort and funding.
• Medium term, the inland of Coast Dairies represents the best opportunity for the future of Santa Cruz mountain biking.

Action Items

We request that District Superintendent Chet Bardo have an open dialog with mountain bikers. As a public servant and accountable to state taxpayers and local constituents we ask that you listen to the concerns of the mountain biking community.

We are willing to become partners and offer our trail building expertise and labour. We can create sustainable trails which are ecologically feasible, enjoyable and safe. We are willing to negotiate for shared access to trails to mitigate other trail user concerns.

You may choose the time and place for the dialog but we request that you address this in a timely manner and where the community can reasonably attend. A Sunday afternoon in the park would work.

Acknowledgments

Thanks to Ranger Gary Brennan for attending and subjecting himself to the barbs and arrows and handling the situation with grace.

Thanks to Tom Ward for making the trek from Sacramento to attend the meeting.

Thanks for Daryl B for providing the amp and wireless mics.

Thanks to Charlie Meehan and the staff of Seabright Brewery for the venue, the beer and the great hospitality.

Thanks to all of you in the community that showed up to support of mountain biking in Santa Cruz!

Thanks to Sebasien’s IPA for getting me though these minutes.

New Enforcement Program at Henry Cowell

Starting Sunday, February 15, 2009 Rangers at Henry Cowell park will be handing out citations for riders caught in Henry Cowell State Parks the area bounded by UCSC at the top and Hwy 9 at the bottom. The patrol area will cover Hwy 9 from the Rincon parking lot to the “Poop chute”.

The education portion of the program started February 1st and the Rangers were patrolling the area informing the riders of the new enforcement program. They were handing out flyers and placing them on windshields.

This area of Santa Cruz has been a favorite place for riding in the local community. The trail have always been off limits to bikes but that has not stopped locals, riders from the Bay Area, Northern California and all over the world including pros and industry folks have been enjoying these trails for decades with very little threat of citation.

There are several reasons for the crack down:

• Ranger staffing levels have increased since October. These aren’t new positions. Cowell has been understaffed for many years.
• There were a few mountain biker rescues by State Parks Rangers in recent months including a concussion and an impaling on a tree.
• Neighbors from Felton have been complaining about the large number of shuttles.

I’m not going to get into detail about this. There is a thread on the forums at mtbr.com which discuss this topic at length. There is another thread which discusses the recent meeting we had with Ranger Gary Brennan.

This new enforcement program has engaged the mountain bike community. MBOSC will be working with State Parks and IMBA to create more legitimate riding opportunities in the Santa Cruz area.

MBOSC and IMBA are working hard to create new legitimate trails for mountain biking in the Santa Cruz area. Please support these two organizations and stay informed about the campaigns we will be launching in the coming months.

The Classic Wilder Ranch Loop

MBOSC has partnered with Bicycling Magazine online to produce a series of GPS based maps of popular rides in Santa Cruz County.

We are proud to introduce our first map: The Classic Wilder Ranch Loop

Please let us know what you think.

Announcing the Aptos Jump Jam Oct 11th 2008

The jump community is having a Amateur jump jam (26” & 24” Wheels) at the Aptos Post Park Saturday Oct. 11th, 9:00AM to 4:00PM. Here is a link to the entry form and waiver and the info sheet.
Below are just some of the prizes that will be given away!!!!

Santa Cruz Bikes

2- Jackal frames (SRP $1,100 total)

30- T Shirts (SRP $480 total)

10 - Hats (SRP $200 total)

10 - Hoodies (SRP $400)

Specialized

1- 09 P3 complete Bike

1- 09 P3 frame.

misc tires and pedals

Park Tools

1- Pro tool box set

Black market bikes

1- Riot Frame

1- bars

1- stem

1-seat post

1-seat

Bicycle trip

The Day event Insurance and Misc bike accessories

X-fusion

1 velvet "R" fork

Many Shirts and Hats


Fox

1 fork



Giro helmets

6-dirt jump helmets (3 medium, 3 small),

6- pairs of their instigator sunglasses in black (the cool casual style

glasses),

12- t-shirts (6 large, 6 medium)



Product from the Red Bull Girls

Mark Reynolds Memorial Fund

Mark Reynolds was a family man, tech guy and avid mountain biker in the Bay Area. His passion for the sport inspired him to create his company Wicked Racin to create high quality products for gravity riders. He was racing Downhill at the Sea Otter on April 19th and he never made it to the finish line.

While I did not know Mark personally, his life, career path and passion for mountain biking is similar to my own and describes the many mountain bikers that I have the privilege of knowing in the Bay Area. I have been contacted by close friends and family of Mark and I have learned so much about his life in these past few weeks. I feel saddened by the fact that I may have ridden with him in the past but I never really got to know him.

Mark was passionate about mountain biking and wanted to bring more people into the sport. He was generous with his time, teaching his friends how to jump and be better riders. Mark's family have set up a memorial fund to honor his memory. The fund will raise money towards a freeride/jump park/pump track that will be named after Mark so that people of all levels can enjoy the sport of mountain biking.

There will be raffle at the CCCX DH season finale in June which will benefit the memorial fund. Raffle tickets will be sold at the races and other locations.

To contribute to the Mark Reynolds memorial fund, please visit the Wicked Racin site: http://www.wickedracin.com

As a friend and mountain biker I'm asking you to contribute to the Mark Reynolds Memorial fund. I believe that his generosity to the sport will benefit all Northern Californian mountain bikers and visitors to our region. A thriving mountain biking community, great trails and parks is an honorable legacy to Mark.

Thank you for your support.

--Mark

Mark Davidson - President
Mountain Bikers of Santa Cruz
http://www.mbosc.org

Kranked 7 at the Rio May 1st

... and another event from the Bike Trip...

Kranked 7 “The Cackle Factor”

GET KRANKED!

We’re hosting the Santa Cruz premiere of Kranked 7 “The Cackle Factor”, a Radical Films production featuring epic riding sets from top riders like Jamie Goldman, Nathan Rennie, Steve Romaniuk, Mike Kinrade and Eric Porter… filmed in Alaska, British Columbia, California, Vermont, Switzerland and France.

7 PM on Thursday, May 1^st,  2008 (doors open at 6:30 PM)

Rio Theatre,
1205 Soquel Ave in Santa Cruz, CA

Event proceeds will benefit non-profit community bicycle education programs Bike Smart and Bike Shop At School.

The Bike Fest Jump Jam May 10-11

Sweet Bike Week festivities...  Oh yea, baby got hang time.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

20th Anniversary of Seabright Brewery

May 14th represents the 20th anniversary of Seabright Brewery. Seabright has been an incredible sponsor and host for the MBOSC meetings for many years. Happy Anniversary!

Speaking of Seabright...

MBOSC will have a meeting this 7 pm Monday April 14th at Seabright Brewery.
The Sea Otter is a week away (where did the last 3 weeks go?!) and we arein the thick of preparations. MBOSC will have a booth at the Sea Otter and will be co-ordinating the volunteer course marshals on the Dual Slalom course. The agenda for the meeting on Monday is to discuss the Sea Otter and drink some great beer.

• We could use some additional help with the DS course on Thursday and Friday. We would appreciate it if you could help out. If you want to work on the weekend then we may be able to accommodate that as well.
• Booth duty. If you are interested in hanging out at the MBOSC booth and telling people about the wonderful world of mountain biking then please contact me or come to the meeting. I could use a hand. It's pretty low key work, flexible hours. We're sharing the booth with MORCA.

Hope to see you on Monday 7pm at Seabright!

We have free beer at our meetings courtesy of Seabright.

Jacquie Phelan at Seabright Brewery Sunday April 6th

Life gets in the way

I'm not dead yet. Just resting.

I can't believe that it has been over 2 months since I last posted to this blog. A lot has happened over the past 2 months in my life. The biggest thing is that I got a job which requires me to travel over the hill to Santa Clara 5 days a week. I barely have time to ride my bike much less advocate for more trails and do good things for the community. I really enjoy my work but it is pretty demanding and exhausting. My evenings are quiet and I spend my time with my family and retire early.

The good news is that bike advocacy in Santa Cruz is bigger than me and many people have been stepping up. There have been progress on many fronts. Here are some initiatives that we are working on for 2008:

• State Parks Trail conversion with IMBA California: Opening trails in local state parks to mountain bike use. Tom Ward our man in Sacramento has been making significant progress.
• Opening Coast Dairies: Still waiting for BLM to get the land. Some snags but some progress as well. We'll be ready when they need us.
  
• Creating a sustainable organization: We got a couple of fresh new faces on our board.
• Bike and Beer fest 2008: Look for the celebration of the mountain bike - Santa Cruz style - this fall!

We are all looking forward to a great 2008!

ROMP Christmas Party with guest Joe Breeze

The ROMP Christmas party will be Friday November 30th in Mountain View, California. The special guest this year will be Joe Breeze. Details for the party:

This year's party will be at Michael's at Shoreline Park in Mountain View. Dinner will be served banquet style around 7:30, starting with drinks and appetizers at 6 PM. This year Joe Breeze will be our guest of honor.

Joe Breeze was one of the central figures in the development of mountain biking. He's probably best known as the designer-builder of the first successful modern mountain bikes. Joe became a leading designer and proponent of a sport that has gotten more people on bikes in the western world than at any time since the 1890s. Joe attributes his successes with mountain biking to his passion for bicycling, evident in his oft-quoted line, "We were just havin' fun." Joe has made bicycles his life's work--as rider, racer, designer, builder, and advocate.

More details can be found at http://www.romp.org.

My wife and I have been attending the past few ROMP Xmas parties and have always had a great time. Great attendees, good food and the guests are always interesting. It's a good time in the for Bay Area mountain bikers and an opportunity to dress up, look sharp and party with the legends of mountain biking.

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.

IMBA Club Care Session

On Oct 18th the IMBA Trail Care Crew hosted a club care session at Giro/Bell Sports in Santa Cruz. The focus of the meeting was to revitalize the local club (mbosc) but most of the attendees wanted to hear about the new opportunities in Santa Cruz County. The meeting was well attended by high profile people in the local mountain bike community. Some of the attendees included Mike Ferentino from Santa Cruz Bikes, Jesse Nickell from Barry Swenson Builder, a few employees of Fox Racing Shox, some local bike shop owners and the core MBOSC Lieutenants. MBOSC provided beer and snacks.

There was a short presentation on the potential of mountain biking and events at Coast Dairies and then the Ryan and Kristin from the Trail Care Crew did a presentation on building sustainable clubs. The presentation was valuable and we definitely learned a lot about how to build and run a sustainable club. One of the most interesting parts was the identification of the 3 distinct roles of the club: Political, Physical and Social. The political includes advocacy and outreach work. Physical is represented as trail work which builds political capital in the form of sweat equity. Finally, the social component include events and is the means at which new people join the club and feel the connectedness of the community.

Ryan and Kristin also presented a model for sustainable volunteer organizations. At the top, you must have a board of directors who set the direction of the club, help raise funds and has outside contacts in the community. Followed next is an executive level overseen by the board and includes President, Secretary, Treasurer and other roles. Finally, there are committees which represents small working groups of people with common interests within the club. The committees are where the real work for the club is done. They do all the planning, brainstorming and create task (or "wish") lists. The wish lists seems to be a key component for maintaining the sustainability of the club which are published on the web site and mailing lists. The idea is that members can look at the wish lists and accomplish a task that is within their interest, energy and commitment level. The idea is that this will broaden participation beyond the "core group". Wish lists provide the means for which the membership can contribute to the success of the club without having to take on a permanent role or a large open ended commitment. This type of organizational structure is not new but it does seem like an effective way to organize a volunteer non-profit group.

After the presentation, the Ryan and Kristin handed out index cards in which each participant listed his top 3 priorities. The cool thing is that most of the people in the room were united in the fact that there is a desire for more legal single track. The idea of a jump park/freeride/pump track type experiences in Santa Cruz scored really high. Surprisingly, the desire for more family and kid friendly places for kids to ride scored high but event venues were not so prominent. This survey was not scientific and just reflected the goals of the people in the room.

Many of the people who came to the meeting wanted to hear about South Park rather than hear how to rebuild mbosc. Unfortunately, there wasn't a lot of news on that front. I seriously doubt that South Park is going to happen. Perhaps I'll blog about the reasons in a separate post.

In any case, the Club Care Session at Bell Sports was very informative and inspiring. We will be applying most of these core principles to mbosc to transform us into a more sustainable organization. We're starting from the top and will be remaking our board of directors.

More on this later as we make progress...

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!