Cam's Jam Tour - Powell River Bike & Skate Park Recap

The Cam Jam in Powell River, British Columbia was the epitome of what bikeparks are all about. Easy goodtimes, roasty lines, lots of trains, all the locals sending it, tunes, the perfect temperature and pizza. After a few hectic weeks of shaking off an appendicitis and announcing all of Crankworks, Cam McCaul made the beauty of a journey out to the Sunshine Coast to round out his stay up in BC. The skys parted for the early weekend and things were definitely jammin'.

The Powell River Bike and Skate Park is quite the sight, and is a great showcase of where action sports parks are today. Its got an old school bowl for all the die hards, a spanky new tech skatepark and what we all went out there for; the bikepark. The team at Alpine Bike Parks did a bang up job on this impressive place. Its got all the bells and whistles for all the hungry slopestyle kids out there. A fast roller double line, a tot pumptrack, an intermediate double jump line and some fast and boosty advanced lines, all done up to the 9's with the newest FlowForm Bike Ramps. Not to leave out the shining poured in place, concrete pumptrack that allows for head to head style racing with its symmetrical design that really seals the deal on Powell River being the leading bike & skate park for anyone with 2 or 4 wheels looking to get rad on the Sunshine Coast. The locals are amped, as they should be and it shows in the riding and the times that they have out there!

A huge shout out to the City of Powell River for providing the space for such a place, all the locals and non-locals who came out and made the jam a rad one, and Gravity for all the prizes. Check the park out on Trailforks!

Cam's Jam Tour - Valmont Bike Park Recap

The Cam Jam. The re-purposed title should go a little more like this; The Cam Can't Jam. To paint this picture we'll start with a large dose of voo-doo, and mix it with a mega-case of appendicitis for none other than the name sake of the Jam, Cam McCaul. The evening before the Jam things were cheerfully shaping up for the next day's festivities, the Alpine Bike Park crew were scheming on free tacos and tying off any other specifics for the Jam, Oskar Blues brews were flowing and times were too good to be nearly true for Mr. McCaul. As the evening expired, Cam comes down with the illness, the type of code red illness. In the early hours of the morning Mr. McCaul steals the rent-a-car and life flights himself to the Boulder Community Health Hospital Emergency room instead of where he should be going - The Valmont Bike Park for his Jam. Cat scans and x-rays later the disillusion becomes apparent; a blown out appendix. Merely hours before his party, Cam's crying because he can.

As one thing tends to always lead to another, there was no other way than to just roll with the punch. Everyone was already on their way and there was Cam, wheelie-ing his way to the underside of the knife. The surgery room instead of the bike park. The other side of this story is a rad, super positive afternoon in Boulder. Celebrating The Valmont Bike Park isn't a hard thing to do. The place is up-kept by Dustin Zeis and crew and it shows. All the lines are hitting, blue grooved and it's a true testament to bike park maintenance. A world class park in a beautiful setting.

Nick Soloninka from the Barnum North Bike Park was on hand to hype everyone up over the mini mega phone and keep everyone psyched. From the groms really going for it, to the Oskar Blues root beer, to Maria at the Izote taco truck hooking up tacos and pupusas, as well as nearly every size wheel in attendance, lengthy trains, and plenty of roasting jumps, things were definitely jamming. The FlowForm Bike Ramps produced a 1080 and a double back flip and no ambulance visits were necessary! The good vibes, easy camaraderie and the entirety of it all were summed up nicely by Dustin "this is the best turnout since the (Valmont) park opened" and that's what it's all about, getting rad with the homies and enjoying yourself.

Huge shout outs to Dustin & Crew at The Valmont Bike Park, Trek Bikes, Troy Mandery at Oskar Blues and Reeb Cycles, Mike Lawless at Gravity Components, Chris Ricci at Influx Productions, Nick Soloninka from Barnum North Bike Park and especially all the locals that came out and sent it.

Jams like these are proof that it's worth having these grassroots gatherings. It brings together community rider groups and celebrates the awareness of legit public bike parks connecting with all demographics of riders from family and youth to core BMX and freeriders at their own local park. Collaborating with passionate bike clubs and associations that play a vital role in the day to day of their bike park's inner workings is a pleasure, Alpine Bike Parks' hats are off to the people that take the parks we build and make them their own! We hope to collaborate with more supporters in the future and bring this park tour to more places and people next year. Keep the stoke high!

Cam's Jam Tour

Cam's Jam Tour is going be rad! This summer Cam will be hitting up some parks with a BBQ and a boombox and getting the locals psyched. All wheels are welcome!

With Cam’s Jam Tour we have the opportunity to connect with all demographics of riders from family and youth to BMX and freeriders at their local parks and bring it back to whats it really about; riding, chilling, enjoying yourself and celebrating the community's bike park. The idea behind the Jam is based around a non-commercial backyard-BBQ community gathering. 

Our first event will be held in Boulder, Colorado at the famed Valmont Bike Park on July 27th. Cam is stoked to get back to Colorado and snag some lines at Valmont the day after the Colorado Freeride Festival. Drop by for some trail dogs and good times.

The second Jam will be at the brand new Powell River Bike & Skate Park in Powell River, British Columbia on August 18th right after Crankworx Whistler. This park is the premier spot on the sunshine coast to roast some FlowForm Ramps and get sideways on the new concrete pumptrack.

More information to come on both stops when we get closer to the dates!

@cammccaul

@flowformramps

The First Concrete Pump Track in North America

For a few years now, our crew at Alpine Bike Parks has been inspired by Claudio Calouri's concrete pump track work in Europe and finally we got the opportunity to build our own here in North America. 

We had our little test rider Eli Shostak take some laps in another torrential storm. It was a beautiful thing to see a kid carving turns in the rain!

Riders in Powell River, BC are the stoked and lucky crew to get a new bike park this winter that includes a concrete pump track, a kids downhill trail and multiple slope style trails. The project was funded by a grant from the Powell River Community Forest with support from the Powell River Cycling Association. When combined with the nearby skate bowl (old school for sure) and new skate plaza by Spectrum Skateparks, it makes a great actions sports facility. 

This is the concept plan for the facility:

By the time we got to design development, we changed the pump track design to the design you see below. The layout is symmetrical and allows head-to-head style racing starting from a slanted start gate. This design was inspired by the SRAM/Adam Billinghurst/Kenny Smith creation at this years Whistler Crankworx. Being based in Whistler is awesome because it allows us to garner inspiration from all the incredible builders in town. For those who are not interested in head-to-head racing and are looking to get creative there are tons of alternate lines for cruising. No need to get stuck in a rut! 

There is also drainage to install if you want to do it right. Professional grade all day long:

The prep process prior to the final surface of concrete is extensive and more expensive than even the best possible dirt. Multiple lifts of highly compacted road base allowed us to build up the design, even in wet weather. Originally we were going to surface the track with asphalt but we were concerned about whether the shapes would be right. It turns out that your features need to be shaped differently so that they work well once concrete is applied. 

Here is the track with drainage installed and the road base fully compacted:

Here's the sub base prepped with wire mesh and rebar with the first truck rolling up:

Once it comes out of the truck it goes into a line pump and then gets spread out before being free formed. Lucas Fulgham of Earth Ramp Bike Parks (Vanier Park in Vancouver/ Kush Trails) has been working with us for two years now and we are proud to have him shaping dirt and here screeding concrete:

Late night finishing work from the boys at Creative Concrete:

Here's the finished pump track. The concrete surface is ever-so-slightly rougher than a skatepark, which maximizes the traction in the berms. By hiring concrete shapers with skatepark experience we were able to get the shapes we wanted. Thanks to Brian from Radius Contracting, Creative Concrete of Comox Valley, BC and Mike and Matt for getting this done in a pinch:

The bike park also includes some pre-released 2015 FlowForm Bike Ramps like the new Up Bank, designed by Cam McCaul. It's modelled after the one the boys put up at Post Office, but it's engineered for 85 psf:

Here's the truck leaving the FlowForm Ramps manufacturer:



















All the new FlowForm Bike Ramps have extendable legs, which make angle adjustment and installation a breeze. This allows builders to more easily fine tune the features to fit into the trail and provides adaptability to future bike park upgrades. Feet are also on a hinge so that you don't need to level the foundation blocks as carefully. Each leg is connected to between 1,000 and 4,000 lbs of concrete: 

BMX is big in Powell River and the riders were vocal about what they wanted in a dirt park. As such there are some custom BMX features that we engineered into the slope style trails, like this handrail and grind ledge:

There is also a big log cannon. This assembly was literally around 12,000 Lbs:

And some neat landscape elements that reflected part of the cultural landscape of Powell River:

We had some torrential rainstorms over the past couple weeks and so we have decided to let the trails dry out before putting the final surface on the trails in the spring. Alpine Bike Parks will come back for a spring tune up when drier weather allows us to get the trails running. Once we are able to test ride all the trails, we will make any changes to get the flow just right throughout the spring of 2015. Alpine Bike Parks would like to thank the City of Powell River, the Powell River Cycling Association, the Powell River Community Forest and everyone else who has helped to make this project a reality.

We care about the future of bike parks and want to design and build the highest quality parks possible. We would love to work with your community to make your bike park dreams a reality. Alpine Bike Parks is a licensed contractor in the USA and Canada and we are insured to work globally. Mountain biking feeds our families so please reach out to us and see what we can bring to the table.