The following is a post found on another MTB discussion board. I thought you all might find it interesting and heartbreaking...
Death of a Spot
Dirt jumping, from its inception has been and will always be a fringe sport. It involves higher risks, bigger rewards, and a special set of skills not possessed nor desired by the safety-obsessed masses.
Due to the entirely outsider nature of the sport, as you can well imagine, riding spots worthy of mention are few and far between, and those that do exist are a closely guarded secret, even among the almost fraternal underpinnings of the followers of the crested arch. Largely this is due to the fact that society in general, and mountain biking in particular, has become so litigious and so afraid of its own shadow that a movement is about to destroy spots as opposed to creating them, under the ever present auspice of safety.
This week it is my sad duty to report that the beginner and intermediate dirt jumping lines at Indian River/Ipswich Park in Chesapeake met with the blade of the ever looming front end loader.
I went out there today, took some pictures, talked to some of the local kids who were affected by the avarice of some, the sloth of others, and the complacence of the rest.
Quotes like This is what we did every day after school. It kept us off the streets and out of trouble. Yea we got hurt, but that comes with the choices we made.
Never was there a mention of law suits, even by the parents there, unless you count the number debating legal actions against the city and any and all organizations involved in the demise of such a spot.
What was once a neglected by the masses, tended by the few urban park in South East Virginia now looks more like a workshop for how not to use a bulldozer...
Where there was once a row of dirt jumps easy enough for even the most novice rider, there is now just scarred earth and distempered views of those involved in the downfall of a historical legend in the sport.
One of the main questions posed to me while I was there with my camera and wife was well what are we supposed to do now? With the mainstreaming of this once small sport by contests like the X-Games, the popularity in urban and suburban centers alike is on a rise much akin to snowboarding in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Where once the skier dominated the market, much like the cross-country mountain biker did in the infant days of our sport, now the majority of bikes sold in the mountain market are dirt jumping and free ride bikes. Gone are the days of the pure economic superiority of the lyrical clad cross-country market, and coming are the days of baggy clothes, bleached hair, attitudes and youth culture.
So what then is to happen in places like South Eastern Virginia where the scene has been monopolized by the few to exclude the burgeoning masses needing to be free on their bikes? This was well summed up by one of the parents I spoke to today
While I understand that people fear this sort of riding, if those who would elsewhere would stand by and do nothing while spots like this are laid to waste, then come a time not too far away there will be a time where they wont have their precious trials any more either.
It would seem that if there were knowledge by fellow bikers of the impending arrival of the dozer at Ipswich that not alerting the rest of the community may produce a backlash that those who were once the majority are not prepared for.
But there is hope
Yesterday marks when the bobcat and front end loaders laid to rubble ten years of a spot in Chesapeake. Today, there are already new lines and new landings being built. The youth of the area, the very ones for whom the beginner line was built, have taken it upon their own to reconstruct what was rendered obsolete.
Where there was destruction there is now construction.
Yea, the city and those who disagree with sort of riding can raze this place to the ground as many times as they like. Long as I am living here I will be rebuilding. I love this sport; I love the friends I have because of it. This is our spot, and we will fight to keep it that way.
One of the kids who thought I was with the city said this to me. Hostility is in the air; this was a major mistake on the parts of a great many I suspect. I hope this does not mark the future for the rest of the remaining secret spots of Hampton over this summer.
http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m122/IHB_Buddah/DSC_0023-1.jpg
The above is part of an article I am writing for Decline next month about the razing of dirt jumping spots in the south east. Once I get some documents and some facts more laid out it ought to be pretty interesting. Thought some might want to know that a place of history is now gone, and no one did anything really to prevent that.
Too bad, good place for those kids...
Death of a Spot
Dirt jumping, from its inception has been and will always be a fringe sport. It involves higher risks, bigger rewards, and a special set of skills not possessed nor desired by the safety-obsessed masses.
Due to the entirely outsider nature of the sport, as you can well imagine, riding spots worthy of mention are few and far between, and those that do exist are a closely guarded secret, even among the almost fraternal underpinnings of the followers of the crested arch. Largely this is due to the fact that society in general, and mountain biking in particular, has become so litigious and so afraid of its own shadow that a movement is about to destroy spots as opposed to creating them, under the ever present auspice of safety.
This week it is my sad duty to report that the beginner and intermediate dirt jumping lines at Indian River/Ipswich Park in Chesapeake met with the blade of the ever looming front end loader.
I went out there today, took some pictures, talked to some of the local kids who were affected by the avarice of some, the sloth of others, and the complacence of the rest.
Quotes like This is what we did every day after school. It kept us off the streets and out of trouble. Yea we got hurt, but that comes with the choices we made.
Never was there a mention of law suits, even by the parents there, unless you count the number debating legal actions against the city and any and all organizations involved in the demise of such a spot.
What was once a neglected by the masses, tended by the few urban park in South East Virginia now looks more like a workshop for how not to use a bulldozer...
Where there was once a row of dirt jumps easy enough for even the most novice rider, there is now just scarred earth and distempered views of those involved in the downfall of a historical legend in the sport.
One of the main questions posed to me while I was there with my camera and wife was well what are we supposed to do now? With the mainstreaming of this once small sport by contests like the X-Games, the popularity in urban and suburban centers alike is on a rise much akin to snowboarding in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Where once the skier dominated the market, much like the cross-country mountain biker did in the infant days of our sport, now the majority of bikes sold in the mountain market are dirt jumping and free ride bikes. Gone are the days of the pure economic superiority of the lyrical clad cross-country market, and coming are the days of baggy clothes, bleached hair, attitudes and youth culture.
So what then is to happen in places like South Eastern Virginia where the scene has been monopolized by the few to exclude the burgeoning masses needing to be free on their bikes? This was well summed up by one of the parents I spoke to today
While I understand that people fear this sort of riding, if those who would elsewhere would stand by and do nothing while spots like this are laid to waste, then come a time not too far away there will be a time where they wont have their precious trials any more either.
It would seem that if there were knowledge by fellow bikers of the impending arrival of the dozer at Ipswich that not alerting the rest of the community may produce a backlash that those who were once the majority are not prepared for.
But there is hope
Yesterday marks when the bobcat and front end loaders laid to rubble ten years of a spot in Chesapeake. Today, there are already new lines and new landings being built. The youth of the area, the very ones for whom the beginner line was built, have taken it upon their own to reconstruct what was rendered obsolete.
Where there was destruction there is now construction.
Yea, the city and those who disagree with sort of riding can raze this place to the ground as many times as they like. Long as I am living here I will be rebuilding. I love this sport; I love the friends I have because of it. This is our spot, and we will fight to keep it that way.
One of the kids who thought I was with the city said this to me. Hostility is in the air; this was a major mistake on the parts of a great many I suspect. I hope this does not mark the future for the rest of the remaining secret spots of Hampton over this summer.
http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m122/IHB_Buddah/DSC_0023-1.jpg
The above is part of an article I am writing for Decline next month about the razing of dirt jumping spots in the south east. Once I get some documents and some facts more laid out it ought to be pretty interesting. Thought some might want to know that a place of history is now gone, and no one did anything really to prevent that.
Too bad, good place for those kids...
