Olympia Street Jam

First I want to say thank you to Deschutes River Cyclery/Tumwater, Joyride Bikes/Lacey, Oldtown Bikes/Olympia, and The Bike Stand/Olympia who really pulled through with parts, and gift cards for the riders who participated in the event. A special thanks to Grindstaff Trophies in Tumwater for making awards at the last minute for us.

BMX is as subdivided in it's riding disciplines and maybe more so than other cycling. Occasionally you will find a freestyle rider at the dirt jumps, a weekend BMX race, or even practicing a flandland trick in a parking lot but really "Freestyle" is about melding all the disciplines of BMX into one to concur riding curbs, ledges, skateparks, and just about any object you can think of around town.

On Saturday October 3rd I held a little event for the local freestyle riders. We met at the Olympia Farmers Market at noon. The ride started with 10 riders and grew to 25 as we moved around. The basic ideal was to ride from one favorite riding spot around town to the other. The format was really loose but Freestyle is all about disorganization, and doing what comes freely. When it became time to move on to the next spot a vote of who won, meaning did the coolest trick at that spot, was taken and we would move on to the next location.

We ended up making a large loop from the market past the marina up to the east side neighborhood, post office area, capitol, down town and back to the Port of Olympia water front park. The event came to a close as the sun was starting to set. When it came time to hand out awards the Street King Medals went to Morgan Chance, Robin Slootmaker, Dolton Holt, and Rance Hutchinson for the best tricks. A nice surprise of the day for me was that prizes by a vote of the riders went to the riders most in need of parts for their bikes before the top riders got anything.

Unfortunately we didn't have a working camera until the end. Here is a link to some riding from Garrett Reynolds who won three NORA Cups this year (BMX version of the Emmy or Oscar) to give you an ideal of what Freestyle is. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjyGiRrWfgY

P.S. Garrett Reynolds is good but Olympia has some riders that can give him a run for his money.

Oympia BMX contest

We already have a street contest set up for the first weekend of Oct. Starting at farmers market in OLy at noon.
Now the new news!
Keep an eye out for TWO contest in Oct. Not just one. We may get one at the Yager skate park!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Second weekend of Oct!!!!!!!!!! Working on the details with Oly parks and rec.

Cleanup at the park. Now that we are all

Cleanup at the park. Now that we are allowed in we have to work to keep our right to the park.

Park cleanning party of one.

Park cleanning party of one.

Tomorrows City Council Meeting

Tomorrows presentation of the proposed parks plan to the city council has been postponed due to other issues the council wants to look at.

I will still be making comments during the public comments time about the needs of riders in the area particularly pertaining to youth cycling/BMX and the need for youth alternative sports as a whole to have a remodel and expansion of the Yauger skate court.

Anyone who had planned to come out please do as we don't know when the presentation will be rescheduled and an opportunity to speak up will come before the parks plan is finalized. Having as many BMX riders and even skaters as we had at the Yager Park meeting here will help get the importance of this issue across to the council. For any of you who can that can convince your parents to com out and say something about the importance of what you do please do.

So 6:30 PM to sign in to say anything
7 PM meeting open and public comment
900 Plum Street SE, Olympia (Across from McDonald's)
Round building in the center.

Meeting reminder and change.

Meeting reminder and change.
Today 4PM Olympia Skate Court
BMX/Freestyle MTB focus
1. Bikes WILL be allowed. We will be talking about times and days that will work for everyone and how to deal with garbage, graffiti, and attitude toward park staff.
2. We will be talking about Needed action in the next month from riders to make bike features (jumps, track, whatever) happen.

Parks department is having a public meeting

The parks department is having a public meeting at the Yauger Skate Park this Friday at 4PM with the intention of opening talks about bikes and how they can meet the needs of riders.

The format is the carrot and the stick.

The carrot being Parks want to talk to you about building some sort of bike park. They want to get input as to what type of park will fill the needs the best. Skaters will be present also. I'm hoping we can avoid bikes vs. skate argument and make the point that the best solution is a larger properly designed park that offers opportunities for both bike and skate of all types with dirt area.

The Stick being Parks will now begin to enforce the $75 tickets for riding in the skate park. The reason this meeting has come up so suddenly is a flood of calls to parks and 911 from skaters every time a bike shows up on a busy day at the park.

Come out and voice what you want in parks for bikes, no mater what you ride.

If you can not make the meeting email Mr. Rogers below and voice your concerns and most importantly ideals for solving the bike vs board as well as graffiti at the park.

Terry V. Rodgers, Associate Director

Olympia Parks, Arts & Recreation Department
trodgers@ci.olympia.wa.us