Sunday, December 13, 2009

Winter riding

Hey everyone,

Here's an edit from our cold and icy day on the Shore.


Oh and in exciting news:

We had a meeting December 9th with the City of Surrey regarding Invergarry becoming an official bike park.

We sat down at City Hall with pizza, sodas and many different individuals from the city, as well as passionate cyclists from the Lower Mainland. In attendance were: The manager of Delta Bike Co/Surrey. Jordan Proctor, Kai Bradley, Mark Godard, Derek Kost, as well as a number of city officials including; Doug Mossey, Jeff Graham, Nadia Chan, Tinna Mack and Jay Meneely.

The City has informed us there will be an Open house held in January 2010. The purpose: To put the idea of a bike park in Invergarry up for public debate. We have a couple of small hurdles before the bike park can be built; One: An environmental assessment needs to be completed for the area. Two: the City needs to understand that bike parks need to be treated the same as skateparks.

Currently, the City wants us to form a non profit group 'North Surrey Off Road Cycling Enthusiasts' to Insure the designs, and maintenance of the new bike park facility at Invergarry. The problems with this Idea are: A non profit organization shouldn't be responsible for Insurance of designs and maintenance of a City facility. It simply does not make sense. This is especially true when you consider an equally hazardous sport such as skateboarding. Skateboarders don't need to form a non profit groups nor are they responsible for Insuring City skate parks. Lastly, a non profit group already exists in Surrey: SORCE (Surrey Off Road Cycling Enthusiasts). Sorce was offered the ability to participate in the process of creating a bike park at Invergarry. They declined the offer as they wish to continue their sole focus on the South Surrey Bike Park.

That's the update for Invergarry for now.

We are optimistic we will be given a small portion of this former construction waste dump to use as an official Bike Park. It's almost showtime! January is only a month away.