The BMX Bike Park that’s just west of my Toronto neighbourhood in front of the crazy sci-fi arches of Wallace Emerson Community Centre (est. 1979) is a magical fairyland, if you are a little kid whose training wheels just came off.
The park attracts tons of skilled teenage and adults bikers including some pro BMXers but if you go early in the morning (we hit it around 9:30) the littler kids get some time to play around on the ramps followed by a nice trick riding demo when the teenagers start showing up at around 11.
The park was built by Crime Stoppers, working with retired teacher and BMX enthusiast Mike Heaton and Toronto Parks and Rec, who run workshops to teach kids how to freestyle and jump. The ramps and bowls were decorated by local graffitti artists in one of the city’s first legal graffitti initiatives. Last summer, three quarters of the park burned down in an accidental fire. Crime Stoppers and community volunteers raised money to rebuild them.
We hit the park with Purple Shutter on Saturday morning in the pleasant company of our friends Rishma and John and their sons Pierro and Rayn and unexpectedly met up with Pierro’s soccer buddy Jacob and his folks.
Jacob’s dad and John stood at the top of the ramp to spot the boys while Marc rode Purple Shutter and I snapped some pics with my own camera while keeping on eye on my 1 year old. Rishma watched Rayn and squeegeed away giant puddles of water left over from the most recent freak Toronto downpour.
After some coaching from their dads, Pierro and Jacob were able to make it to the top of the smaller ramp! As for Purple Shutter, her big donut tires and giant rear mounted solar panel make her a poor candidate for riding ramps but we gave it a shot.
My son Sam just traded in his trike for a two-wheeler with training wheels and until very recently was a huge chicken about riding his bike but inspired by the fierce riding of Pierro and Jacob, he tried to get up the ramps over and over again, wiping out every time. The kid has guts but we’d like to keep them inside his body, so protective padding will have to be purchased before our next trip to the park.
On the up side, if you can’t get your bike up the ramps, they are also pretty fun to climb.
After about two hours it started to rain and some older kids turned up. After watching them do tricks we headed home and Purple Shutter headed off for her next date.
Next: Brandie Weikle, her son Cameron and Purple Shutter hunt for cookies in Bloor West Village!
