Lay of the Land: Riding Sydney's Northern Beaches - Video
Sydney has its own North Shore. And, much like its namesake in Vancouver, it’s been home to a rider-driven mountain biking subculture for over 20 years. Behind the beautiful beaches of northern Sydney, lies a deep, intertwined network of trails and friendships, forged from sandstone and clay, Eucalypts and Banksias. The passion for Mountain Biking runs deep, as custodianship for trails and culture has been passed down through the years.
The problem is, whilst the rest of the world has moved on in terms of officially accepting an embracing the sport, Sydney has been left behind. Mountain biking is still viewed by most land managers as a “problem”, and as being inherently perilous to the environment. It’s a constant uphill climb for rider representatives, fighting make sure that there are still trails to ride tomorrow, and into the future. Several more trails have been closed in the past year, including a highly popular DH trail at Warrimoo. Today, under the influence of a small group of well-connected anti-MTB lobbyists posing as “environmentalists”, the powers that be are posturing to remove each and every piece of trail you’ll see in this video.
Sydney’s North Shore has an amazing wealth of natural bushland. And, by far, it is mountain bikers who make up the majority of people out there every weekend making the most of it.
Despite the dark clouds looming above our heads, we all still manage to have the best time of our lives out on these trails. It is such a unique area, made up of rocky, technical trails, freeride and dirt jumps, loamy descents and brilliant weather.
It is not all bad news however, with the constant dedication of advocacy group Trail Care, we are on our way to establishing exciting new trails and parks. Just recently, an idea to build a bike park on the Belrose landfill site has started to come to fruition; fuelled by the constant threat of destruction over the road at Oxford Falls. We hope this project will soon become a world class facility, that will give everyone a chance to really access properly built jumps and trails, as well as bring our community together.
I'd like to thank everyone that helped me along the way - lifts to and from the trails while I was broken, Josh Muncke for being the main feature rider in the film and "Enduro" Will Shaw for helping me film his segment.Thanks to additional riders Matt Ward, Nimmy Stockwell, Jadon Wilson, Tom Wrigley, Sam Proctor, Tom Sanders, and everyone else that got in front of the lens for me.Thanks to the trail builders; we may or may not know who you are, but we owe you years and years of good times.
Thanks also to Matt Ward and Matt Staggs for the guidance and direction in filming, the conceptual idea and borrowed lenses.
Thanks to the trail builders; we may or may not know who you are, but we owe you years and years of good times.
For More information:
//Trail Care
//Friends of Oxy
//Bare Creek Bike Park
Filmed and Edited by Sam Stockwell
MENTIONS: @off-tha-trails
Author Info:
Member since Feb 7, 2015
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This is the calling from the people, us, the ones that fall from the deaf ears of councils NPS, who are know doubt in fear from some lobbyists who have obviously lost their own perspective.
By the way they use force from a reality perspective chosen from their own greed for controlling councils and NPS, simply using fear as a tactical means, all just labels, labels like "this is a Eco sensitive area, mtb riding is prohibited" this really sucks, because public believe in these sorts labels. All because it's done in a way of controlling, and it is then bought by the public. We, the riders are then looked upon as the criminals. This to me is the criminal act.
The crime here is, shutting down the track with the means of force, and then fencing off the track " the moo" this has now then restricted any further growth for the biking community, the good will of the people to unite, to educate themselves every great day out for a ride with there mates, learning more and more knowledge about trail care and the wildlife that lives in the environment.
All councils signs are just labels, and unfortunately council you have just spread fear into the general public that the environment is a sensitive fragile system, that we all know has been here for eons, the envirment is always shifting and adapting, there are also ways to provide care for when ares of trail need care, trust our understanding, we are the ones that know.
It's time too listen outside of the parameters and get with the program, take a look at N.Z.
I have no doubt WHAT SO EVER that mtb riders are greenies in the level sense of perspective, or are learning to be pro active to care for the bushland and the trail if you just gave us the chance, we get it! Without bushland we don't have trails, and that is why we are out there in the environment, we are the ones learning about our environment because we do not fear it, there is nothing to fear when you are learning about what you are doing.
In my own reality a label is all just words, being a rider of the Moo for 10+ years it still very much alive.
Go Ride!
Peace!