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Tuff City Bike Park - Tofino, BC

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TUFF CITY BIKE PARK IS FUN FOR EVERYONE!!!

The dedication of a small community resulted in the completion of an awesome bike park that everyone can enjoy in Tofino, BC. The Tuff City Bike Park has been in the works since 2006, when Jay Hoots first went out to meet with local Alex Cutler to do a site visit. Over the years, Alex worked with the Rec Commission to raise funds and convince Council a bike park would be a great facility for both locals and visitors.

Over the years, many site proposals and site visits later, it was in late 2011 that the decision was finalized. The bike park would be built next to the Community Hall, bordering the rainforest near the entrance to a walking trail down to the beach.

Hoots was contacted and hired to come up with a design that would make use of the unique space dedicated to the bike park. Tofino is known for surfing and having a great skatepark, Hoots wanted to make sure the bike park played off of those two key activities in the community by ensuring maximum flow in the bike park. The goal of the community was to keep it fun for everyone and ensure that everything from run bikes to full suspension bikes even to cruiser bikes would find something fun to ride in the bike park.

With the design set, the Hoots crew ventured to Tofino in December 2011 to start the build. With a little bit of luck, the torrential downpours held off until we could get site prep and basic layouts complete. Challenges popped up, like the 70 foot by 30 foot rock in the middle of the park. Luckily, with the help of local Gibson Brothers Contracting Service we were able to “work around it”. The site was cleared, keeping only a couple of safe cedars on the site, dirt was brought in, rock was blown up and laid on top of the dirt and finally gravel was dumped over the entire site to create a ride able surface.

It’s no lie that Tofino gets 3 meters of rain every year and so we had to use extra materials just to get the site ready before starting to build with wood or dirt. In the end, the floor of the site was raised approximately 4 feet to create a solid and well graded site where water could literally disappear into the ground and not wreak havoc on the features.

The Hoots crew returned in May 2012 to continue building. With the site settled and set it was time to build all the fun stuff. Local cedars were brought in to create rock lines and milled into the lumber used for the wood features. Dirt jumps were built using local dirt. And finally the “BIG” feature of the park was imported from the Czech Republic. The wooden pumptrack from Bikeparkitect will stand up to the precipitation that Tofino receives and require little maintenance. The first of its kind installed in North America, Tofino is excited to call it their own unique piece of the biking world.

Hoots is excited and proud to be a part of the Tuff City Bike Park. The volunteerism showcased in Tofino during the construction of the park was second to none. The food at SOBO kept us very very happy. The comfy beds at Affinity Guesthouse kept us well rested and the friendly faces throughout our stay and the dedication from the District of Tofino to make the park great was fantastic. The kids in Tofino are super awesome and their community should be proud, not only did they help build but they said “Thank You” to everyone that made this park a reality. Way to go Tofino – your community is amazing!

Our parting gift was beyond what we could ask for – on our last day of work in Tofino we got back to the park after lunch only to discover a birthday party being held at the bike park for twin 6 year olds. Talk about kids and bikes everywhere! The community embraced the park from Day 1 and its very evident that they are as excited as we are that Tofino finally has a bike park!

Very kind words from Artie Ahier, volunteer extraordinaire and owner of SOBO, “Incredible work by Hoots Inc.  Jay you are gifted in your communication skills with the kids. You make them all feel special! Thanks for what you are giving to our town, it’s more than a bike park.”

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