Can you dig it?! By BdJ

Mar 20, 2011

Written by Bart de Jong

Read 4479 times

Digging trails is a lot of work. A lot of hard work. But on "volunteer day" we received some welcome help from the SWH crew in Helmond Noord. Stichting Welzijn Helmond had put a team together to help us out at the trails from 10am-12am followed by a lunch. Tons of wheelbarrows full of fresh dirt were placed at the right spots. The "experts" had it easy as the hard work was done by the SWH crew the first two hours. Two here, three there, one more on top here.... so good.

In 2 hours time the kids/pump track looked a lot better than earlier that morning and everyone was happy. The kids had a new place to ride on, the SWH felt good because of what they did and the locals appreciated the help.

More riders showed up to dig, shape and create new lines because riding trails means working on them as well. It goes hand in hand,

just like working together with the local council and the SWH. Maintaining a dirt spot is doing something for your community, for the kids out there. It gives them a free spot to go to, to play outside and do something positive. Over the years we've received great support at the Helm Trails. We've got a fence around the big trails to prevent people from demolishing the jumps, we've got a sea freight container to stall the shovels, wheel barrows etc.

that were either sponsored or purchased with the help of funds that are available for projects like these. We also got a budget to buy three BMX bikes for the unprivilidged kids to use. We now have a new generator so we can plug in that radio, use a water pump to get the jumps in shape if needed, and we're now looking for some lights so we can work/ride when it gets dark too. The two truckloads of great soil were dropped last week so we can build some more jumps.

This may sound too good to you but you can do something similar too. It's too easy to say it won't happen where you live. That shows your lack of determination to make something happen. Sure if can take forever (in your eyes) but there are budgets available, there is ground that hasn't been appointed to any building project plus what you want is something positive and doesn't cost too much money. Some land, some dirt and that's a way to start.

But the building is to tough part. You need to have the drive to get something good going. You need friends and fellow riders to help you out. But it can only grow from there. Look for trust funds that can help you. It doesn't take much more than a nice letter for them to decide if they want to help you out. At the Helm Trails we have received some help from cranes and recently we also purchased resi-mats with the help of Stichting Sportfonds Helmond.

Here are a few more reasons to dig trails:
1. It doesn't cost anything to build something.
2. You can build whatever you want.

3. It's a great work-out (feeling it right now after 7 hours of digging yesterday).
4. If you want to be respected, start digging.
5. Riding trails is digging, part of the job.
6. Once you've created a spot, get some people together for a session, jam or contest.
7. Create your own local riding spot.
8. Do it for the kids.

Thanks to everyone for helping out. Much appreciated. Keep digging.

BdJ