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World Mountain
Bike Conference Blazes Trail at Whistler Words by Mark Steinebach |
Mountain biking and the ideas and passion behind it have truly gone global, and this was made clear in July at the IMBA Summit/World Mountain Bike Conference. While last year's conference was hosted in North Vancouver, the venue shifted to what has arguably become the world wide epicentre of mountain biking; Whistler, BC. The 2nd World Mountain Bike Conference combined for the first time this year with the 4th IMBA Summit to host over 400 delegates from 17 nations.
The event stepped up this year with keynote speakers from around the globe. On tap were: trail advocacy, legal issues pertaining to mountain biking, trail building and lift-accessed riding development. The good folks from Whistler Bike Park held a no-holds-barred round table event where they dished all their secrets of success for any that wanted to explore the depth of knowledge and wisdom they have banked.
Delegates tour Lost Lake trail and A River Runs Through It to see how local builders perform their magic. Photo ~ Mark Eller
In attendance were government officials, resort operators, trail builders, bike company execs, trail associations and advocacy groups, legal folks, shop owners and lots of regular riders and mountain bike enthusiasts. The conference served up enough to satisfy all. It's clear from the formation of the Working Group on Mountain Biking on Crown Land this spring that governmental officials are hungry for credible information that will help to form policy governing use of mountain bikes of public lands. This and future conferences are helping to fill that void.
IMBA is at the forefront of mountain bike advocacy and is making an effort to have an even greater global impact. While present in many countries IMBA's home and primary focus has been the US. The conference was a step in the right direction so IMBA's influence can become stronger the world over.
Some of the week's highlights:
• Keynote addresses by 2 time Olympian Marion Lay pointed to Whistler's
trail systems as a "phenomenal economic and environmental success story."
• The Whistler Bike Park roundtable on helping other resort operators
achieve success……they laid all their cards on the table
• Hoots on jump/stunt park building
• IMBA's Pete Webber and Jeff Jackson discussed the specific mountain
biking activities that cause the most injuries, the common lawsuits, and the
key defences to employ when facing a suit.
• Bike Industry Trends….Rob Jones speculated about the chicken and
egg nature of the bike industry and cycling trends….did cross-country
riding spawn purple anodization and spandex in the 1990’s or did access
to those killer items give us a reason to ride xc???
• Marketing mountain biking
450 loonie racers and hardly a fibre of spandex to be seen….the times they are a changin’”) Photo ~ Mark Eller
All serious bike talk aside, you cannot fill a room with mountain bikers and expect to keep them away from fun for too long. Day one concluded with the world’s largest loonie race on infamous Whistler trails. WORCA hosted the race catering to 450 eager hammerheads. Day two saw trials rider Ryan Leech and mountain unicyclist Kris Holm doing their thing freaky style during the delegate’s banquet. Day three concluded with bike park riding followed by a Mountain Bike Film Festival hosted by Richard Juryn and Ryan Leech featuring Roam, the teaser premiere for Progression Kranked 6, and extreme unicyclist flick Defect. Kranked 6 will be worth the purchase price just to see Leech ride his off-the-hook line on the Sunshine Coast.
Kris Holm and Ryan Leech entertained us and still had strength for countless autographs. Photo ~ Mark Eller
The last day concluded with a panel presentation and Q&A. The resounding vibe from the troops is that trail workers, builders and advocacy groups are tapped out. Expecting someone else to pay for our play is clearly not going to work. Delegate and Alderman Marty Weigle from Milwaukee, Wisconsin summed it up by saying, “we are clearly all in the same boat.” Its time for us to embrace the idea that one way or another, we are going to have to pay to establish, build and maintain trails. Without this leap in thinking (and doing), we may find that what trails we do have suck. Trails like CBC see hundreds of tires on a weekly basis. The only thing keeping this and many other trails open and buff is the financial and labour input of the few volunteers who are regularly out there busting their humps for all of us. It is clear that this in not reasonable, sustainable or fair.
Its all about the ride…..talking is fine but doing is the deal particularly when the Bike Park beckons. Photo ~ Mark Eller
So how do the good things going on at this conference trickle down to the level
of a guy or girl on a bike? Unless you are strictly an urban rider, issues affecting
what you do on a bike were discussed, facilitated and honed at the IMBA conference.
Everyone’s hope is that the end result will be: more trails, better and
safer trails, more people building and maintaining trails, more of us contributing
financially and physically to the effort of trail building and advocacy and
better bikes being built by companies in tune with the needs of the people using
those trails. This was not talk for talk’s sake. The IMBA Summit/World
Mountain Bike Conference provided useful interchange that will inspire - and
turn that talk into action. 
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