A new BMX skills park is set to be built in the South Bear Creek Park area. There has been $200,000 moved from the Public Reserve to make it a reality. City Parks Planner Lindsey Juniper says they will now be looking for companies to come up with a design.
“There is not a lot in Canada and there isn’t a lot of these facilities being built on an ongoing basis. We hope to capture some companies. There is nobody local that does this kind of work.”
He says it will be about 8 weeks before they get a cost estimate back. A public engagement process will be planned for early fall to get feedback from families. Juniper is hoping to have it open before next summer hits.
Matt Wild with Wapiti Nordic Bike Club says the location is perfect for teaching adults and kids.
“It is central around our local dirt trails. It is a stepping stone feature for people learning how to bike. We teach a program of forty kids and it would be great to take them there on the weekend.”
Andrea Locke works with Nitehawk and she explains that with their dry land program, they already take school kids to the area to learn.
“With Nitehawk running South Bear this year and doing camps out of there, it is a great place to develop kids and their parents so they can bike together.”
Training safely is a big focus for the Wheelers and Cycling Club, according to Steve Magusin. He says trails are difficult to train on.
“You can skip down a trail and supervise five to ten people with half of them disappearing down the trail. With this facility, it is wide open. There are engineered structures that are safe. We can visualize and keep control of who we are training.”
The groups are all hoping for exciting features on the facility.