Stevie Smith’s hometown memorial bike park gets final funding

Benjamin Haworth

The park in Nanaimo to feature trails, pump track, dirt jump and skills area

Plans for a mountain bike park next to the BMX track where Stevie Smith learned to ride have been unveiled.

The plans for the park include trails, pump track, dirt jumps and a skills area as well as a couple of viewing areas and a further area set aside for future development.

UPDATE 21/11/16: Council spending approved

According to a report in the Canadian news site The Time Colonist, Nanaimo council has approved spending $200,000 on the bike park. Construction of the park has already started and is expected to be complete next year.

As well as council funding, several community and fundraising groups have raised approximately a quarter of a million dollars.

BEBAN BIKE DETAILS

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The budget for the project is around $300,000 to $400,000. This will come partly from the local authority and partly from the Stevie Smith Foundation, the fundraising charity set up in the aftermath of Smith’s death.

The memorial bike park will be situated in a section of hilly woodland right next to the Marie Davidson BMX Park in Nanaimo on Vancouver Island, Canada.

The BMX park was where Smith spent a lot of his time as a kid perfecting his handling skills and speed so makes for a very suitable site.

BEBAN BIKE MAP

According to Smith’s trainer Clayton Smith, Smith had always had plans to build a park like this once he’d retired from top level downhill racing: “That was going to be his priority when he hung up the bike.”

Stevie Smith Foundation founder Michelle Corfield states that the project’s plans comply with the vision that Smith always had for such a park.

Corfield says in a report from Nanaimo News Now: “The reason I can say that is because I’ve had Gabe Fox over from Devinci Cycling to check the conceptual designs out. Darren Berrecloth, who is a pro freeride athlete for Red Bull, walked the site and has had significant input in the design. Everybody feels that this meets the need.”

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The exact name of the park has yet to be decided but the location and trail designs have been agreed upon in principal and digging work should commence later this month.