Last Friday was the final of four iRide sessions at Lake Trail Middle School iRide session in Comox, BC. This session featured an exciting mix of mountain bike challenges and forest riding.
Students had the choice of seven different mountain bike trails as they worked through their final day. On loan from a local bicycle shop, the available challenges included ground planks, raised planks, teeter totters, and for the final session, a jump. Progressing from safety and turning skills in the initial sessions, these students showed great improvement on Friday, mastering compression on the jumps and fine-balance skills on the planks. There were quite a few smiling faces out there to say the least!
The session finished with a 15 minute ride, split in two groups of 8 riders, through a variety of walking / riding trails adjacent to the school soccer field.
The Lake Trail School program was a unique achievement as school attendance during this Friday afternoon period was poor earlier in the school year. Jana Buckle, school counsellor and iRide liaison at Lake Trail, needed to find a way to keep the students at school through the day. Jana teamed up with iRide coach Lauren Lan, and once students experienced the first session, attendance at the school improved and more students asked to join the modified-P.E. class.
