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Getting a grip on mountain bikes

Conference stresses the importance of managing growing sport

Although exact statistics on the growth of mountain biking are hard to come by, the consensus among bike clubs, land managers and resort managers who attended the fourth annual IMBA Summit/second annual World Mountain Bike Conference in Whistler last week (June 20-23) is that the sport is growing and changing almost too quickly to measure.

While more riders create more concern about trail erosion, rogue trail building, and liability, growth also creates opportunity for towns and resorts looking to attract tourists through the summer months. If trails and riders are properly managed, mountain biking also has other benefits for society, from promoting better health to providing a social outlet for a community.

Although some communities, land owners and land managers have said no to mountain biking for a variety of reasons, most communities recognize the potential of the sport and are looking for ways to manage trails and accommodate riders. It isn’t easy – mountain biking has grown more or less under its own steam for decades, and only recently is getting attention. The fact that bikes, trails and riding styles are constantly evolving also creates a few issues, and it’s hard to please everybody.

The conference was a success in that it drew over 400 delegates from 17 different countries. The sessions were divided for three main groups of attendees – bike clubs and trail advocates, land managers such as local governments, and resort development.

Sitting in on several of the sessionS, event producer Richard Juryn was impressed by the high level of the discussions.

When asked what the festival accomplished, Juryn pointed to the fact that all the different groups are at the table and talking, which is an accomplishment in itself.

"One of the things we wanted to do was make sure to educate and enlighten, but more than that to empower people to feel like they can take the tools and skill sets they picked up here and go back to their areas and make a difference," he said.

"Everyone here learned new things. On the advocate side, we learned how to build trails and how clubs can handle themselves politically – it’s important to know how to talk to land managers."

Whistler was also an ideal model for riding. The Whistler Mountain Bike Park is recognized as one of the biggest, best and most progressive anywhere, while the Resort Municipality of Whistler supports mountain biking elsewhere in the valley with money, trail building efforts and advocacy at a higher level. In addition, WORCA is one of the largest and most active bike clubs in the world with more than 1,000 members, or roughly 10 per cent of the population signing up each year.

"Just seeing all the things that Whistler does well was valuable to people at the conference," said Juryn. "Because of the bike park we saw the biggest gathering of lift-serviced bike park operators that there’s ever been. People got to meet the municipality’s trail crew, and get a look at what they do in WORCA as well."

Still, while Whistler is a mountain bike success story compared to other towns, there are issues.

Juryn is encouraged that the new Ministry of Tourism, Sport and the Arts is studying mountain biking in the Sea to Sky corridor, and is prepared to grandfather existing trails if local clubs take responsibility for maintenance. However, he’s concerned that promoting tourism on those trails will make it harder for volunteers and local groups like WORCA to shoulder the burden.

"It increases the pressure on you maintaining the trails for the public while someone else is making cash," said Juryn.

There’s also a problem with the way mountain biking is being marketed, believing that beginner and intermediate trails are not well represented.

It all comes down to management, says Juryn. The tricky part is managing the sport without stifling it.

"People are stepping up and talking to government, and there are people who want to manage the growth. Partnerships between clubs and levels of government is the only way it’s going to happen, and some people are going to be ticked off with the way things move," said Juryn. "Some trails are going to be decommissioned and some people are passionately against that. But when trails are poorly designed and constructed, or they’re going through or near an environmentally sensitive area, some things are going to be lost. But it could be a gain, because of the kind of people that are involved, and the number of people stepping up for the trails."

Juryn will be meeting with representatives from the International Mountain Bicycling Association (IMBA) to discuss future conferences, and the possibility of hosting both the IMBA Summit and Juryn’s World Mountain Bike Conference together in the future. It’s also possible that the conference will return to Whistler at a later date.

"It probably won’t be this year, but what I can say is that Whistler did an amazing job. Everybody from the bike shops, to the residents, to WORCA, to the three main groups; the municipality, Tourism Whistler, Whistler-Blackcomb, they definitely made us feel welcome and we heard nothing but good things from all the attendees. There were definitely people that are going to be going home and talking up Whistler."

WORCA President Grant Lamont says the conference covered a lot of familiar ground for a club that has been a strong advocate for mountain biking and trails for over 15 years. Still, he says even WORCA can learn by the example set by other organizations.

"A lot of clubs out there want to know a lot of things, especially about fundraising to help them with their trails," said Lamont. "We’re in pretty good shape because we have a muni that understands what we’re trying to do here. We have a Community Enrichment Grant, the bike swap, the Loonie Races, which have given us a lot of resources to work with in the valley.

"That said I was happy to see how solid the Rossland club is. They have six guy out there full time working on the trails, which we don’t even have. Nelson has a really solid community as well. We definitely have the most funding and we’re envied for that, but we’ve also been cautioned that it’s peanuts compared to what it’s going to take to maintain the trails if industrial tourism in mountain biking takes off here."

To that end Lamont would like to see Whistler’s tourism industry, which is promoting and benefiting from mountain biking, provide more support to WORCA.

He’d also like to see more people step up to volunteer time to work on local trails – not just riders, but also companies that offer guided tours on the trails and the tourism industry as a whole.

"We’ve got great community support and great relationships with our partners in the resort, which is more than I can say for the other 99 per cent of clubs out there. But that said we did a volunteer trail day on the Saturday on Cut Yer Bars for a few hours in the morning, and once again it was the same eight people coming forward to help out," he said.

"They’re great guys, but if things go the way it looks like they’re going, that’s not going to be enough."

WORCA was the official host club of the conference, and held daily guided rides as well as the World’s Biggest Loonie on Wednesday, June 21 with over 450 riders. Lamont used the rides to talk to representatives from other clubs and compare notes, and was encouraged that WORCA’s model for an active bike club will probably be copied elsewhere.

"I was speaking to a guy from Marin County Bike Club, which is the birthplace of the sport, and he said ‘we need something like this at home to get our trails going, to get kids out, to get people back out and into our resources,’ and he’s interested in working with us and to see if we can provide them with some resources and maybe some insight," said Lamont. "Right now Marin County is the toughest place to build trails in the world."

If the conference accomplished anything it was the fact that clubs were able to network with other clubs, and see that they have the same issues with access, funding, tourism, and public relations with the community.

"In some places mountain biking has a real PR problem," said Lamont.

Lamont says it drives home the need for clubs to form strong partnerships with the community, not just with local government but with environmental and tourism groups. If clubs have common problems, there may be a few common solutions.

"I think everybody came out of (the conference) really positive about the direction we’re heading in, and I have to say from our end that it was a pleasure to host this event. People really stepped forward and helped out this year, one being Tom Thomson again, and Jerome David, all the members who helped guide and put things together for the race, and Colin Pitt-Taylor and Chris Quinlan representing the restaurants, Tourism Whistler, the guys at Whistler-Blackcomb – even Kokanee really pony-ed up," said Lamont.

"The goal was to show everybody how mountain biking is part of this community, it’s not just for tourists, and I think we more than succeeded. Every one of these people is going to go home with nothing but good things to say about biking in Whistler."