Park Directions!

We have been hiding this park for almost a year, I am finally posting the information on how to find it... But please respect that in bad weather as we have right now, park etiquette must be taken to heart! Knobby tires eat the track up sooo fast so please think ahead and bring track friendly tires. If not in your budget just use common sense and enjoy this park!


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North Saanich Freeride is now Open!

Officially this is it, Phase 1 is open for anyone to ride at anytime with in daylight hours!!!

Been a long time coming but please go and enjoy it!

We will have a Grand Opening in the Spring and begin phases 2/3/4/5/

Thanks to everyone involved for their efforts!

North Saanich Freeride Park AGM!

This is it, by this weekend we should have phase 1 legally open for all to come ride! Massive pump track was finished last night with the aid of a light system and some old fashion elbow grease!

**FOR CONFIRMATION OF PARK OPENING, CHECK BACK FRIDAY EVENING**

Our third AGM is set for Dec 11 2008, 7PM at Mary Winspear.
We are looking for volunteers to help with fundraising and to help run our society.

NSMBS *North Saanich Mountain Bike Society* will be eagerly seeking the right candidates to make this park like no other. We want to open phases 2, 3, 4 and 5 the following year with an ambitious goal to erect structure making it a covered, all weather riding facility.

We appreciate any support that you may be able to
provide.

Again Dec 11th 2008, 7PM at Mary Winspear Center out here in Sidney, right off the Highway.


A lot has been done behind the scenes to even get to this stage, we have an amazing Gas sponsorship through Peninsula C0-Op intended to keep our Generous donations of Machines from G & E Equipment Rentals / Dave Aylard, North Saanich Municipality Parks Division and Endless support from Sidney Water Front Inn and Spa .


Tilt your head a little bit! This is our end goal, so please support North Saanich and our quest for a place for kids and adults to enjoy their rides.

Long over due upate!

Sadly, I had issues entering the blog all the codes went dead so I have let it slide for months!

Amazing things have happened since the last post:
Rock roads installed
Drainage pipes laid
Co-Op gas sponsorship
Tracked bobcat and wheeled bobcats being loaned
2 Olympic MTB Athletes stepped up to endorse the park

We are about a week away from opening Phase One, as seen on the image above. Modest but now that we are legal we can get to work on new phases.

I will make a better posting on teh events later, I have just cracked the codes. Old Google would not allow a password reset or reminder -?- but we are back online!

Big thanks to all the vollunteers who haev made this happen.
Stay tuned!

Pump track skill overview!

Listen to Mr. Mark on how to flow in a park, we will be making a secondary track to the big track that will be very low and fast with endless line choices.

Good video for those unsure of what to do with a track of this sort.

Drew Mitchell wins Canadian Nationals!

Drew Mitchell wins 08 Canadian Nationals!! This is why this park is beign built! We have so much talent in Victoria but no where to hone in the skills, Drew and Steve Smith both Cove Factory riders are the fastest Canadians out there and both live on the island!

Check it out!

Sicklines has the full story on Drews win, so please check it out Here

Just a week after placing fifth at 5th Red Bull Mt. 7 Psychosis, seconds behind Sam Hill, Drew flew to the east coast and dominated the series!




For those of you not in the know, Drew has been the key player in the North Saanich Freeride park, The day after he got back from the worlds in Italy he called me up to see if we can work in the park. Drew is a motivated guy, stoked for him.

Be sure to catch the full report on SICKLINES.com and check it out!

Pumptrack test run!

We finally received some quality material and immediately went to work forming/fixing the pump track. Kyles' skills with the Bobcat along with the ease of raking the soft material, has enabled us to be close to opening phase one! Kyle gently forming the track with his bucket! This is when you sadly realize that you are not in as good of shape as you thought, you can hear me huffing as I video taped.


It's taken awhile, but we finally scored some proper material and had it trucked in by Gordy Martman Excavating. Previously, we had to mix 60/40 sand and clay and it sucked! Either it snowed, rained or we always ran out of material. But the new material is so easy to manipulate.

Kyle Michell, Cliff Haliday and myself hammered out the track in 7 hours! We had Cliff on the Wheel Loader, dropping material in key spots and Kyle working his magic with the bobcat, supplied by Jim Dunlop.


Kyle getting the Bobcat ready to show off why we call him the Rockstar!

Look at that material... so nice to rake instead of clay chunks!

We need more DIRT!!

Been a while since I posted a blog, bike season has kicked in full swing and we are just awaiting some material to cap the course for the soft opening.
You can see some video of it, the paint is unreal. Drew's ride!
We have to date built the entire park on volunteer time and efforts and no budget what so ever!

This park is no joke Canada in not known for taking care of their athletes, so props to North Saanich for stepping up.

Check out Drew's new ride he took to the worlds here
You can see more here on Sickline "What the Pros Ride"

Anyone who knows anyone with material please contact me Greg at 250-655-6603


So here's the update: Our designer/ builders report.

Kyle Michell just got back from building the UCI BMX worlds and Olympic track in Beijing. He still cannot breath he claims due to the nasty smog.

Andrew Sherry is floating around at competitions and pulled a solid 8hr, 8 man work party forming the berms coming out of the first pump track and the kids section. Halting due to lack of material.

Andrew Mitchell is in Italy right now racing the second World cup after a bad crash In Scotland a week or so ago. Back on his game and in 16 hours the race begins so stoked to see what comes of it.

Click here to watch some footage of the course they will be battling on! FreeCaster it is sick! You can see Drew slide by around the 1:04 mark on his orange cove.

So we will get the park going the first chance we get some material, so stay tuned.
Anyone wanting to watch it live go to my friends website he has the countdown clicking.
Watch Sicklines coverage

Last weeks track connection!

Decline posted on their website a mini blurb on the Flouride race where Drew won second place last weekend. Second isn't bad since Drew slaved in the North Saanich Freeride Park for three days straight, him and I quit at 8 pm on Friday dehydrated and out of fuel for the bobcat.

Drew's our park slave as long as we let him play with a shovel and a bobcat he doesn't talk back too much.

Visit Virtual Descent.com for a run down of the course!

Results:

Pro Men:
1. Lars Sternberg- Fluidride/Fox suspension
2. Andrew Mitchell- Cove Bikes
3. Bart McDaniel- Center Cycle
4. Richard Mukai- Rotec Cycles
5. Sean McClendon- Decline Griz America

Now keep in mind we are building a modern freeride park here in North Saanich and Drew is our key guy along with Kyle Michell -no relation- Since Kyle is in China building the worlds BMX track, Drew and I have been focusing on setting up the pump track area and planning layouts until Kyles return.
Check out Kyles Jumps in his front yard for a taste of whats to come.

Kyles work in Madrid...


And Kyles work in California...


This past week Drew and I did a super human feet and did a track connection -not the prettiest but we intend to top the track with proper soil as what we had was not future friendly.



Massive shout out to Jim Dunlop for supplying his personal bobcat for us to use, without it nothing would have happened and to Tammara at Classic Transport for picking up and delivering the bobcat for us to use.

I cannot even begin to count how many various firms have chipped in selfishly to make this work!
So hopefully this park -free at anytime for anyone- will set a standard for park designs in other communities and we can start training athletes for our sports both BMX and MTB. Keep an eye on the blog for updates!

Freeride Park update!

So what I have learned is this... Sun is better than rain and snow!

This was two weeks ago, after days of sunshine it decided to snow on the park on a build day. So... building was off but we decided to keep the machine in action and at least chew up some material because that is just fun.

This past weekend we had a mini build planned and cove-shocker Drew Mitchell of Cove Bikes swung over to help connect the large pump track but again it decided to rain. No luck. But we took the time to use North Saanichs Wheel Loader and designed the little kids track and form some berms with base material.

Everthing is wet so until ther material dries we are going to wait and hunt down more material for the park so we can make it professionallyBig Props to Gordy Martman Excavating for consistantly backing us up with machinery, it is making other parks jealous at how good we have it.

Bike Park update!

We have been building in the winter time, not the best when dry material is key but we laid the pump track on the first sunny day we had.

Now spring is here we are scrambling for material to help mix into the clay on premise and big thanks again to Gord Martman Excavating, who has again stepped in with some material for us to use. The excavator was taken way temporarily but will be back for a few hours of mixing then we can loop the pump track.

Check out the quick videos.

Bike park in top gear!

This is Dave Aylard of Brackenhurst Farms admiring his gardening skills after a full 8 hour day of bulldozing the park then wind rowing the material along the north fence.

On top of donating his Bulldozer and expertise Dave has also donated gravel for our access roads throughout the park.

Our design concept relies on the skill levels divided by three key roads that will not only just divide the park in phases/skills but act as spectator roads for event days, competitions and the curious parent who wants to watch their child in all areas of the park.

This is Jim Dowd. Jim is a farmer by day and night and professional tree faller on his coffee breaks. Jim showed up between his busy day to strategically remove some trees deemed hazardous so that we can safely design throughout the natural sections. No animals or ferns were harmed in this trees falling!

Big thanks to John Plant of John Plant Excavating for stepping in and helping organize with Gord Martman Excavating for delivering Dave's bulldozer to the site.

This has truly become a community event with everyone chipping in for the cause and we are beyond pumped to build this park like no other and start developing future athletes by simply giving people a place ride.

Too many people quit riding over the lack of places to explore so if you want to get on board and help us out by all means get in touch!

What is needed the most is motivated individuals to rally up memberships and help organise work parties.

A second and very important position is of course donations and fundraising. Someone who sees the cause and the vision we have of making this park a modern fitness park.

Please email nsfreeride@gmail.com and CC gp.spi@shaw.ca as well and we will be in touch.

Cheers!

Fitness park Phase 1!

And this is just the kids section...


Sorry Locals only... go build your own pumptrack!

Nah this is a free park and just a sample of whats to come in here North Saanich.

This is about 1/3rd of the pump track more to come with crazy lines that connect to each other. It will be starting out with a triple step up into a flowy straight stretch that offers transfer lines and a big triple into a berm once you get into the flow. This is fun for kids and the pro so we will make it ultra sexy for all of you to come ride it.

This is a out of the ordinary park, mainly because we want BMX and MTB of all levels to ride and have fun but we need help! The pump track is a sample of quality to expect backing up our claims that we have one of the best builders Kyle Michell designing and constructing this Park.

And this is our last section to eb built- the pro section! The picture makes this look small but we piled our start ramp to 25 feet.

Stay tuned and by all means contact Greg at gp.spi@shaw.ca for volunteer and sponsorship info.

Breaking dirt at last!

2 weeks ago we had a bit of sun, enough sun to dry up the soil enough for digging. We had Gord Martman drop off a machine and operator to begin cleaning the site and fluffing the soil into wind rows.
Click here to see us in action!
I will post up last weeks efforts and show the pump track being made. We need help!
This park is going to be so rad we just need a bit more support.
Keep an eye out for our member ship and sponsorship forms we will be handing out within a week. In the mean time contact Greg at gp.spi@shaw.ca for any information!
Cheers!
Greg

Please Read

Hey Everyone, we just started this blog so excuse the lack of content lol!

The Municipality of North Saanich, Sidney Waterfront Inn, AJ Finlayson Architects, Straitline Components, Michell Excavating, and John Plant Excavating and George and Mark Mathews- founders - all came together and made this happen and have worked our buts off in doing so.

This isn't an announcement of what we want to do, we are already there! We have been having meetings for close to a year, now that we are ready to break ground I created this blog to show the land plot and kick the project into top gear.

This is going to be a rad place and best of all free open park located right off the ferry in North Sannich/Victoria BC. Hop on the ferry and come and ride!

We have a tight group of professionals Engineers Architects, Lobbyist, Accountants, Industry affiliates and Escavation firms to make sure we do this right.

Just please be patient as we set the blog up properly!

Thanks,
Greg

Stoked to get involved?

Yes we do have our society set up but we need more people who are go getters. We have no intention of going small, a business plan will be drawn up for government grants with intentions of enclosing the park for year round use.

To qualify for the grants in question we need to run skill clinics for a year and clock our volunteer hours before we are eligible. Shaums March of Mad March Racing will be coming over to run his skill clinics once we are open and more are welcome, this is a public park.

We need individuals who are keen on overseeing skill clinics, scheduling events to come and keeping relations with local media and other individuals who want to join us in maintenance and course up keep.

Benefits are you own the parks heart and soul and can ride at will something you helped make happen. All the positions available will be announced in greater detail in a few weeks.

You can contact me Greg Parish at gp.spi@shaw.ca or 250-655-6603 for more information.

Friends of North Saanich aka FreerideBC!

So this is our first blog post, we literately just opened this blogger account so that we can start announcing what we got cooking.

We are working closely with the District of North Saanich to open up a modern park fit for all styles and levels. Our Society is set up and everything is a green light now we are building our member base and preparing to break dirt in a few weeks.



300*300 ft with a healthy batch of large old growth for us
to design our pump tracks and jump lines. We want this to be a work of art so making it in phases will be a must. In the trees is a open space full of natural obstacles to design around, it may look small but this is a large parcel of land.

Coolest part is that yes this is a modern park but it really isn't another "jump park" we will have large pump tracks and double down courses for everyone to ride regardless of the skill.

So being that this is a modern park the design will allow for advanced riders to progress their skills in double diamond jump lines . Those who are intermediate or novice will have their own area to ride until the skill levels increase.

More info to come.