Hey, I need to know how me and some boys can convince my town to let us build a dirt park. Every time we start the cops come and tell us to just use the skate park. Thanx for your help. Peace
Dirt jump parks
- Thread starter bobthebmxbiker
- Start date
We've got a few council approved and maintained dirt parks here in Brisbane (Australia). Depending on which council's jurisdiction they fall under various concessions have to be made, the city council makes sure that every set of trails has a beginner, intermediate and advanced set and limits the height of lips.
They recently found what was one of the best spots in the area and were really cool about the whole thing. These were some big-dog jumps with massive gaps and the locals (who include guys like Colin McKay) weren't going to have a bar of the jumps being dozed and replaced with kiddie sets. In the end the council decided to fill in the gaps and make the whole set into tables, but as a concession made the jumps wider and added another two jumps to the set while they were there.
My advice would be to;
1) Prove you have enough people who would use it, get petitions together and don't limit yourself to just MTB riders, get BMXers to sign up as well.
2) Provide a detailed and above all professional submission about what you want, where you want it, how many people want it and what you're willing to do to help with the building and maintenance of the place. Remember most councils won't have a specialist dirt jump builder on contract (although ours does
) so detailed drawings, diagrams, plans and so on will help your cause enormously.
3) Be prepared to make concessions. They're (probably) not going to just agree to a massive set of trails that are only for advanced riders. This is because a) they have to provide services for the broadest segments of the community they can and b) they don't want to be sued when little Timmy who's owned his BMX for a week turns up and breaks his neck trying to clear some massive gap they provided. The public liability insurance / lawsuit situation in Australia is now just about as ridiculous as it is in the U.S. which is why our council now only builds tabletops, albeit big, steep and generally pretty good ones.
Hope that helps a little.
They recently found what was one of the best spots in the area and were really cool about the whole thing. These were some big-dog jumps with massive gaps and the locals (who include guys like Colin McKay) weren't going to have a bar of the jumps being dozed and replaced with kiddie sets. In the end the council decided to fill in the gaps and make the whole set into tables, but as a concession made the jumps wider and added another two jumps to the set while they were there.
My advice would be to;
1) Prove you have enough people who would use it, get petitions together and don't limit yourself to just MTB riders, get BMXers to sign up as well.
2) Provide a detailed and above all professional submission about what you want, where you want it, how many people want it and what you're willing to do to help with the building and maintenance of the place. Remember most councils won't have a specialist dirt jump builder on contract (although ours does
) so detailed drawings, diagrams, plans and so on will help your cause enormously.3) Be prepared to make concessions. They're (probably) not going to just agree to a massive set of trails that are only for advanced riders. This is because a) they have to provide services for the broadest segments of the community they can and b) they don't want to be sued when little Timmy who's owned his BMX for a week turns up and breaks his neck trying to clear some massive gap they provided. The public liability insurance / lawsuit situation in Australia is now just about as ridiculous as it is in the U.S. which is why our council now only builds tabletops, albeit big, steep and generally pretty good ones.
Hope that helps a little.
Talk to the guys from Bellingham in the PNW forum. They just got a dirt jump park going there.
there is one in Seattle as well.
most of this has been mentioned so I'll just recap for ya.
1. your going to need to talk to the city people. you need to speak their language. they won't listen to you if you simply complain, you need to act like an adult. (even if you aren't one)
2. the more people you get to show up at the meetings, the louder your vioce will be. again, act like adults. hell, if you can bring adults (parents etc) even better.
3. do as much work as you can on your own. locate a few areas in the city you think might work for you. locate a couple of local business that might be intrested in offering their services to help (heavy equipment such as bulldozer, backhoe, etc. maybe a local fire dept. can donate a couple of strong men with shovels, local bakery might donate donuts for the opening digging day or opening jumping day. be open minded with this, the more business you have on your side the more adults you have on your side.) (don't worry that the adults won't or don't know how to shape a lip, you can do alot with dirt before you need the lip shaped. also, you can teach anyone willing to learn)
4. keep at it. the city council people move slow. they are hard of hearing. you need to show them that you REALLY want a place to ride your bike without being a pain to the cops (again, speak in terms they understand)
the good thing you have going for you is, it sounds like you have a skate park. this means the city has delt with the insurance issues already. that is a huge hurrdle.
I know you can make this happen because I've seen it happen. good luck!
one thing to keep in mind too. take little steps. when the city of Seattle said we could make dirt jumps in the park they originaly said "no jumps over four feet tall!" or something like that.
the jumps are now over six feet and have been for years. once the city saw that the kids kept the place clean they just kind of forgot out them..
most of this has been mentioned so I'll just recap for ya.
1. your going to need to talk to the city people. you need to speak their language. they won't listen to you if you simply complain, you need to act like an adult. (even if you aren't one
)2. the more people you get to show up at the meetings, the louder your vioce will be. again, act like adults. hell, if you can bring adults (parents etc) even better.
3. do as much work as you can on your own. locate a few areas in the city you think might work for you. locate a couple of local business that might be intrested in offering their services to help (heavy equipment such as bulldozer, backhoe, etc. maybe a local fire dept. can donate a couple of strong men with shovels, local bakery might donate donuts for the opening digging day or opening jumping day. be open minded with this, the more business you have on your side the more adults you have on your side.) (don't worry that the adults won't or don't know how to shape a lip, you can do alot with dirt before you need the lip shaped. also, you can teach anyone willing to learn)
4. keep at it. the city council people move slow. they are hard of hearing. you need to show them that you REALLY want a place to ride your bike without being a pain to the cops (again, speak in terms they understand)
the good thing you have going for you is, it sounds like you have a skate park. this means the city has delt with the insurance issues already. that is a huge hurrdle.
I know you can make this happen because I've seen it happen. good luck!
one thing to keep in mind too. take little steps. when the city of Seattle said we could make dirt jumps in the park they originaly said "no jumps over four feet tall!" or something like that.
the jumps are now over six feet and have been for years. once the city saw that the kids kept the place clean they just kind of forgot out them..