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Recent Feedback From National Parks Ranger
Came past a National Parks ranger on Sunday whilst doing Perimeter trail. Stopped for a chat and asked him how things were going with us mountain bikers. He said the cross-country riders were not the problem, but the downhillers who build ramps and create all sorts of damage, etc. were a constant headache. He suggested that things were under way to open further tracks for mountain bikers, but that progress was going to depend on whether the downhillers start behaving or not. He said we should try to talk some sense into them. I said I would do my best, but that giving them some land to play with (other than National Park land of course) would be even better. Nice bloke really, but you could tell he was very frustrated with some of the rebels out there. Fingers crossed that things continue to evolve in the right direction.
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probably the best long term solution is to work along with local downhillers,open a dialog with them, work along with them, to find an everyones happy approach. I'm sure the local Downhill Riders are just as frustrated.
In VIC and other places all around the world this has been done successfully, to the point where excellent sustainable downhill facilities have been brought to fruition.
The problem is not the riders, its the fact there is ZERO legal Downhill Trails on the Northern Beaches.
except for both oxford falls and belrose...they are legal, oh as is red hill
Manly Dam is an authorised trail. It's maintained by Warringah Council and they publicise the fact it's for MTB riding.
That is why we always say that Manly Dam is the only authorised single track on the Northern Beaches.
Yes, there might be areas (such as Red Hill) where councils/planners/whoever is supposed to be looking after the land turn a blind eye to what goes on, or other private land owners (everyone keeps saying half of Red Hill is owned by the Church) don't care. I don't know if this actually makes them legal riding. Because of this there's nothing to stop the powers that be deciding to build all over the trails, or suddenly decide to have a crack down on access, or whatever.
Oldest trick in the book
divide and conquer. Turn "us" into police to enforce bogus standards on "them" and then can the whole thing because the unrealistic expectations of an unworkable plan were not met.
That used to be a big problem over here, even in the designated Downhill Park (Victoria Park in Chch) in the area, there were still problems with 'illegal' trails, and people adding stuff to legal trails that was a) ridiculous, b) crap or c) poorly built. The Park Rangers here are pretty good though with dialogue between groups, which really started to work well a few years ago when some of the downhillers worked with him in order to plan new trails.. Since then new tracks have been built by downhillers, that both them, and the rangers are happy with. All the riders (incl. the DHers) get pretty pissy when people start messing around with the trails, which in way works as enforcement to stop younger guys messing about. When they work with local riders, its a lot better, they stop getting frustrated at new unauthorised stuff appearing, and riders stop getting frustrated at not being allowed to build, or having their tracks closed and things removed.
Do you guys have Rangers that are prepared to allow people to build tracks? Since some of the Rangers started doing regular track building sessions, or almost seminars really, where they helped teach people how to build, relations improved dramatically. Obviously theres always going to be some who ruin it for the rest though I guess, and theres always going to be a bit of tension in trying to strike the right balance.
Are there local DH clubs on the northern beaches?
.. is that the "club" thing isn't really done on the northern beaches.
Part is no doubt due to folks in Sydney generally being time-poor due to the high pressure culture, but part I reckon is also due to commitment phobia. Clubs require legal structures, officeholders and administration. Unfortunately that means the burden falls on a few, while the rest just turn up when there's fun to be had and stay away when work is required. The officeholders either get sick of it quickly, or they're the type who likes throwing their 2 ounces of power around, and are exactly the wrong sorts for the job anyway. It isn't really worth it just for social riding, which is where most of us are at. For racing, well, maybe. I find it interesting that most of the big races are conducted by event management companies, and not clubs.
Unfortunately that means there is no single contact point for rangers to go to, and trying to encourage reasonable behaviour and self-regulation becomes an exercise in herding cats.
I can understand their frustration, but equally I get pissed off that they lump us all together as a bunch of vandals and yokels.
We need to encourage them to see us as a group they can work with, but they need to also need to be supportive when we want to take initiatives that support our common goals.
http://mwmtb.com - although their site seems to be currently down.
They are involved in the Northern Beaches MTB trail plight, I'm sure alchemist can shed some more light on the subject.
I wonder also, if part of the bigger problem is liability. If someone crashes and decides to sue NPWS for damages (as no-one seems to be able to take responcibility for thier own actions these days) for riding an unsafe track on thier land.
It's a far fetched scenario, but one the lawyers and powers that be are very concerned with, when it comes to un-certified persons building trails/jumps etc. There's be some legal bullshnit that would stop any sort of fair and realistic solution to the problem that has been outlined regarding DH/FR tracks.
Can't be that. Otherwise how could NPWS maintain the Oaks firetrail and allow riding in the single track there? Otherwise how could they allow trail maintenance days on single track in the Royal National Park?
Clearly this is not an issue in those locations so why would Northern Beaches be any different?
Some other exciting plans in the works in various NP up this way too (though it should be noted out this way the park isn't likely to suffer same pressures as a park right in the middle of suburbia)
The way I read it, and Anthony Seiver has a paper on this somewhere, is that if you engage in a dangerous activity you must take on the risk of that activity and therefore your chances of successfully suing someone if you injure yourself is very low.
IMBA separate Risk and hazard as such.
Risk
A risk can be said to be the voluntary taking of chance.
If the risk is obvious, i.e. one that would have been obvious to a reasonable person, then a rider can look down a difficult section of trail and decided to go for it. It is their choice, a risk they are willing to take, assuming any consequences of that risk materialising.
Hazard.
Hazards are hidden, unexpected dangers. Trail managers are expected to anticipate that injury may result if nothing is done to remove the hazard, warn of its presence or close that section of trail until the hazard can be addressed.
MTB has a certain amount of inherent risk by participating I take that risk on. On the other hand if I decide to go for a mountain bike ride on a signed mountain bike trail and find myself, unwarned, faced artificial steps placed at dangerous intervals that have sharp pointy corners I could probably argue that they were unexpected hazards...
Then again anyone who chooses to go mountain biking and falls off then decides to sue the land manager who was kind enough to allow trails in the first place needs to be reamed with a pineapple... sideways.