We recently watched Claudio Caluori take a trip down one of Stevie Smith’s favourite lines during construction of the Steve Smith bike park. construction is complete and the opening weekend was on August the 9th. We found this lovely video from the opening, showing some of the things they’ve built, including a pump track, a monster dirt jump line, and a jump with a heap of wood chippings for people to practice tricks on:
https://vimeo.com/229595382
(Can’t see it? Here’s a link to the video).
“Stevie Smith is a legend to the sport of mountain biking. When we lost Stevie we lost a part of the Canadian mountain bike community and a role model of the sport. The city of Nanaimo volunteered their time and resources to create a The Stevie Smith Bike Park to help carry forth his legacy. Photos: Paris Gore. Music: Florence & The Machine: Dog Days are Over. #longlivechainsaw”
2013 Downhill world champion Stevie Smith died in a motorbike accident in May 2016, with his friends and family then setting up a foundation and raising over half a million dollars to build this bike park. Fittingly, instead of a ribbon cutting to open it, you can see his mum in the video cutting a log with a chainsaw. Here’s another angle on that courtesy of local news network NanaimoNewsNOW.
The park doesn’t seem to have a website, probably because it’s a community bike park and in part council-funded, rather than a corporation owned one, but you can see a few more details and read about the plans it was built from here.
“Steve Smith was born in Cassidy and grew up riding on Mount Prevost near Duncan. He went on to become a legend in the downhill mountain biking world. Nicknamed the Canadian Chainsaw, Smith captured the UCI World Cup Championship in 2013. He died, at the age of 26, after a dirt biking crash in May. Even before the efforts taken up by his legacy fund, Smith dreamed of creating a place for young riders in Nanaimo to hone their skills.”
