When Coach Tubbs gave us the heads up there was a Party-in-the-Front single track section, I got really excited!
Leopa, Grade 7, Hillcrest Middle on their Day 3 trip to nearby Mundy Park
Cycling BC’s iRide program enjoyed warm spring weather last week during events in Squamish, Cowichan Bay, Cranbrook, Lynn Valley, Coquitlam and Surrey. After-school iRide Advance programming continued in Lynn Valley at Kirkstone Park. iRide in-school programs visited Highlands Elementary and Kootenay Christian Academy in Cranbrook, Hillcrest Middle School in Coquitlam, Gibson Elementary in Surrey, Squamish Elementary in Squamish, Kirkstone Park in Lynn Valley, Maple Bay in the Cowichan Valley and Valley View in Comox. The iRide team has coached over 3500 students this spring, with weekend events now available across the province.
The Victoria iRide team is ramping up for a busy May where they will have access to one of iRide’s rental fleets, and have just wrapped up a 3-week Monday program at Maple Bay. Coach Glen Polson reports:
This week Adam Walker, Mischa Partridge, and myself were fortunate to start the 2016 iRide season with an invitation to coach the kids at Maple Bay Elementary. Located in Duncan, Maple Bay rests at the base of Mount Tzouhalem. The are is known for its extensive network of awesome trails, and some of the world’s best riders started riding on these very trails.
Duncan’s own Mark Wallace (Devinci Global Racing) and Maple Bay alumnus, started riding on the same fields and trails as the current kids of Maple Bay. Duncan is known for its amazing riding scene, and it showed through this group of talented kids.
Over the course of the three days, we worked on body position, braking, cornering, hand signals, group riding, trail etiquette, & front wheel lifts. We were constantly rewarded with big smiles, fist bumps, and high fives from the kids.
We finished our program with a fun and challenging obstacle course to test the students’ newfound skills, followed by an awesome trail ride behind the school. I’ll be keeping an eye out on these kids, because I wouldn’t be surprised to see some of them on the Wold Cup circuit in a few short years.
Coach Ben trained one of iRide’s new coaches, Carsinn Wilson, during visits to Gibson Elementary and Squamish Elementary:
Gibson Elementary and Squamish Elementary provided Carsinn “Coach Trix” Wilson with a great introduction to iRide last week. Carsinn is coming to Cycling BC with retail management experience, youth coaching and bike maintenance abilities and of course a long history in competitive bike trials. The students in Squamish of course showed great abilities and the students at Gibson surprised both of us with how quickly they picked up the new skills. I am excited to return to both schools again in the future.
Coach Wes enjoyed a week at Hillcrest Middle school for a 2nd year program in Coquitlam:
This week I was also training one of our new iRide Vancouver coaches, Anna Bradford. We jumped around to visit schools is Delta, Coquitlam, Lynn Valley and Squamish…it was a busy week of learning!
The week started with a 1-day event in Surrey at Gibson Elementary and the students took full advantage: they rode those bikes like it was the last day of school! With Ben, Carsinn and two local volunteer helpers we had a lot of help and covered safety skills and built up to grass descents, gorilla, bear attack games and a few stunts.
For the remainder of the week, Anna Bradford and I visited Hillcrest Middle school at the top of the famous Thermal Drive in Coquitlam. This school brings back good memories as my first iRide school in 2015. This year we wrapped up our 3-day program with a trip to Mundy Park, a large park similar in size to Vancouvers’ Stanley Park. We took the 6 participating classes for a 5 km compact gravel/dirt trail ride. Three of the classes also had time to explore a single track trail around Lake Mundy. It is always fun to couple our iRide skills with a real bike ride when there is a safe and clear bike path nearby.
iRide Jams are now open to registration. These 1-day events provide communities with a chance to experience iRide and engage with parents. Our iRide program is designed to inspire local parents to develop their own iRide Advance program in their neighbourhood and these events are run to illustrate how it can work.
iRide Jam @ Victoria’s PISE: May 7th – learn more here
iRide Jam @ West Vancouver’s Ambleside Community Day: June 4th – learn more here
iRide is also currently accepting bookings for the 2016-2017 autumn session. To learn more, please visit the iRide page here. To become an iRide newsletter recipient and stay up-to-date on all future iRide events in your area, please go here. If you’re a fan of Cycling BC’s iRide program, check us out on Twitter, Instagram, or Donate to support our programs in your area. To learn more about booking a future event, please contact us at iRide@cyclingbc.net or (604) BC-iRide.
