An existential threat to the only covered trials riding park in Canada has turned into a bit of a coming out for the sport’s small but dedicated practitioners in Port Moody.
Sam Ki Han Song said a recent pitch to council by a group of skateboarders suggesting the trials park beneath the Moody Street overpass might be put to better use as a park they could use when the weather gets wet has rallied riders that have been able to roll slowly, balance, hop and jump over its collection of beams, platforms, boxes, truck tires and boulders since 2001.
Now they’re hoping to grow awareness and appreciation of their unique sport and the facility that was extensively refurbished with the help of Port Moody Rotary in 2009.
Song started trials riding after his mountain bike was stolen and he wanted to replace it with something more suitable for the urban environs of Vancouver where he lives.
He said the group of riders that frequent the Port Moody park regularly may only be 20 or 30 strong, but they’re passionate about the slow, meticulous nature of their sport that requires intense concentration and a certain amount of fearlessness.
Song said trials riders come from other parts of Canada and as far away as the U.K., Israel, Germany and Japan to test their abilities at the Port Moody facility because it can be used in most any weather and the only other park of its kind in North America is in Atlanta, Ga.
“You need a place to practice, to be able to manipulate the obstacles from easy to harder,” Song said, adding riders who try honing their skills in busy urban areas like stairs and public plazas are often moved along by security or bylaw officers.
“You don’t have to worry about getting kicked out.”
Brian Hong, a trials veteran who’s been riding since 1994 when he saw another cyclist balancing and hopping his way over structures outside the Metrotown mall in Burnaby, said the sport requires patience.
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The first obstacles he was able to balance along were lines painted on the street.
He then progressed to curbs.
“You have to work up to it,” Hong said of leaping his bike from a high wood platform to a nearby boulder or teetering slowly along a scored beam three feet off the ground.
“Obviously you don’t want to hurt yourself.”
Hong said the riders who frequent the Port Moody trials park have never really worried about getting formally organized, but they have held social barbecues, staged competitions and, for a time, there was even an introductory course for prospective trials riders offered through the city’s recreation department.
It may be time to resurrect some of those initiatives, he said.
“This place is really important. We have to take care of it.”
Song said the trails community at the park is very supportive of each other and of their sport. He said he was heartened by the number who came out to a recent council meeting to make their case to councillors to retain the facility and even build bridges to the skateboarders so they two groups can work together to ensure they each have a place to pursue their passions.
“A lot of us realize it’s never going to be a big sport,” Song said. “But that’s OK.”
There will be a trials riding competition at the Rotary facility under the Moody Street overpass on Sept. 30 to help show off the sport and perhaps attract a few more participants. There will be a beginners category and medals awarded to top finishers. The event begins at 10:30 a.m., and no preregistration is required.
