Last week Cycling BC’s iRide program wrapped up its summer season with another successful summer camp in Squamish in the Sea-to-Sky corridor. We’ve also finalized the upcoming autumn 2016 calendar and are excited to announce a variety of fun and exciting events for youth in British Columbia.
To learn more about bringing iRide to your school in 2017, please contact the iRide staff at iride@cyclingbc.net.
iRide Head Coach, Wes Ochitwa, reports from Squamish:
This event was a real eye-opener for me. The trails and scenery are beautiful and my group of little rippers brought their A-game every day! In speaking with our event organizer, Shannon Goetsch of the Brennan Park Community Center, it seems like there is a bit of a gap in the community for participants aged 7-10 of the intermediate ability level, so it was very satisfying to provide this program. Each day we rode for a total of 3-4 hours with one goal location and skill theme for the day. Our locations included the Brennan Park mountain bike skills park, the BMX park, the Golf Course trails, the local jump track and trails near Quest on our final day. In other words, my group was “off the chain!” We worked on basic and intermediate skills, played games and shared lots of stories during our mid-session breaks. I hope that next year iRide can offer more programs in the area as it would be fabulous to run a dedicated program of 7-9 year olds and a separate program for 10-12 year olds.
Thank you to Shannon Goetsch for joining us on the bike on Wednesday and of course helping iRide make a difference in Squamish!
Brennan Park event coordinator Shannon Goetsch, reports on her iRide experience:
I just wanted to pass along how impressed we have been with the iRide program and more specifically how impressed we are with Wes’ instruction of the program – THANK YOU WES!
Wes I had SO much fun joining the program on Wednesday! I was so impressed with your approach to instruction and so impressed with the amount of skills the kids were learning without even knowing it. All participants were having fun, were engaged, and made to feel important. You bring so much knowledge, a sense of adventure, a great sense of humour, and an obvious passion for cycling and teaching to the camp – any child learning to ride or improve their riding skills would be so fortunate to cross paths with your coaching.
I was also blown away that you offered a couple hours of your own time to extend the length of the program for the kids cause you wanted them to have more riding time and you were having such a great time– Wow! That is SO appreciated!
We really hope to work with Cycling BC again to offer more cycling programs for kids in our community.
iRide also has more great upcoming events for young riders across the province.
Event |
Cost |
Date |
Register |
Organizer |
| iRide @ Whistler Gran Fondo | Free | Sept. 10th | Details | iRide |
| iRide Games | $15 | Sept. 17th | Register | iRide |
| Youth CX Race (Port Coquitlam) | $5 | Sept. 18th | Details | Devo |
| Youth CX Race (Vanier Park) | $5 | Oct. 2nd | Details | Devo |
Find out when the next iRide event is taking place in your community by visiting our events page here. Cycling BC’s iRide program is also currently selling a number of our in-school rental bikes. Parents can learn more 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 1-604-BC-iRide.
