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Courtesy Windham Mountain Resort
W hat do you get when you bring a whole bunch Community Benefits
of passionate people together to talk about their
favorite subject: downhill mountain biking? A Two keynotes anchored the event, with the first being a
high-energy exchange of ideas and exploration of the topics big-picture look at the effect of a bike park on the local econ-
that matter to lift-served bike parks. omy and how the burgeoning bike tourism industry is bring-
ing riders to the mountain.
From marketing to risk management and from the ROI
of bike parks to incorporating a bike park into the resort Several bike park operators and other industry insid-
planning, the NSAA 2016 Downhill Bike Summit, hosted ers shared their insights, beginning with Drew Pollak-Bruce
by New York’s Windham Mountain Resort, covered the from SE Group who dug into the research available to give
gamut of hot topics and need-to-know issues. a picture of who the bike consumer is these days. Chip
Seamans, Windham Mountain Resort’s president and gen-
Coming off of last year’s first-ever Bike Summit (held eral manager, shared how working collaboratively with the
at Trestle Bike Park in Winter Park, Colo.), NSAA decided town of Windham, community bike advocates, and regional
to take the event East, into the heart of mountain biking economic development groups have helped them host the
in the Catskills. Windham is now into its second season of World Cup without losing their bike shorts, so to speak—
operating a lift-served downhill bike park. This provided and as a result led Windham to develop into a daily operat-
great fodder for several sessions, with representatives from ing bike park.
the Windham team speaking to their experiences in tak-
ing the next big leap: transitioning Windham from a host Jon Schaefer, the GM of Berkshire East, Mass., spoke to
site for the UCI World Cup Downhill to a full-fledged the success of the Thunder Mountain Bike Park and other
bike park. Berkshire East activities helping to sustain the local com-
munity. Darco Cazin, founder of Allegra Tourismus, a
Several themes resonated throughout the Summit, European developer of mountain biking destinations, dis-
namely, the financial viability of a lift-served bike park, cussed how the lift operators/companies in Europe are work-
working collaboratively to attract new riders and grow the ing with their local communities to connect trail networks
sport of mountain biking, and how to run the best park from the town to the mountain and vice versa to create a
possible. And, as one person put it, the conversations have full service bike destination. In some cases, this has involved
shifted from “Is it really viable?” to “What do I need to do to developing new businesses opening in town to support the
make it work?” increase in bike-related visits to the region.
SUMMER 2016 | NSAA JOURNAL | 33
