Blog | Next Level Riding Ltd.

March 23rd CoViD Update

March 23, 2020 by Alan Leave a Comment

Maintaining the Health of Our Community

As the situation develops here in British Columbia, I need to make changes to my operations for Next Level Riding in order to be responsible and to maintain the health of our community.

In the previous update on March 18th, I was planning on continuing with private lessons only after my isolation completes, on April 1st, however with the latest advice from our government in relation to the incompetencies of many people disregarding the recommendations of Social Distancing, businesses and individuals may soon be on the hook for fines.

In light of this news, I will not be offering any lessons in person.

I hope to get some videos out to you on the YouTube channel over the next little while so that you have something to watch and hopefully gain some mountain biking skills knowledge in the process.

For clients of Next Level Riding, I have started a facebook group – please feel free to join in. Hopefully it can be a place of community and emotional support for anyone wishing to connect.

Stay Safe!

Alan Churchill

Online Mountain Bike Lessons

April 2, 2020 by Alan Leave a Comment

Sharing Skills during Challenging Times

Taking mountain bike lessons online!

It’s been almost three weeks now since I closed my doors to offering mountain bike tours and lessons. Whilst I could ‘legally’ continue operations; morally I could not. I do not want my operations being the cause of more suffering. It has been a very difficult journey so far and three weeks has felt like a much longer time. But I feel the sacrifice is worth it.

I really miss teaching you folks on the trails and am really excited to get out there again in the not too distant future. It’s difficult to know what is going to happen, but I have faith that things will eventually head in the right direction.

Free Online Mountain Bike Lessons

Not only did I cancel all mountain bike operations, I was also relieved of my duties at the bike store. Currently I have no income, yet I’m patiently waiting for the government to help out. Money is certainly a little tight right now, however I am taking this moment to learn more about myself and to figure out the direction I want to go in life.

With so much free time; I want to give back to the local mountain bike community. Creating some online mountain bike lessons, seemed to be the logical thing to do. These videos are currently free on YouTube.

I am in the process of editing the third video in the series. This video will be posted soon on my Youtube Channel. For some of you, the lessons may be too simple, but as the lessons progress, so will the content level. Subscribe to my channel and receive notifications of new content.

Training to Race

I’m excited to announce that I have signed up for a training module through Cycling BC. This online course called “Training to Race” and will further my knowledge into the sport of mountain biking. This will allow me to provide even better lessons, courses and training camps when I return to full operations.

Stay Safe

As I monitor our situation globally, I recognize that being pro-active in my decision to cease operations was the right thing to do. My parents live in England, where I am from. The UK seems to have moved a little more slowly in regards to the action taken to prevent the spread, and the situation there has increased a lot more quickly than here in Canada.

Whatever it is you make of the situation, optimizing health is the most important action you can take in your life regardless of any outside influences. Crisis means opportunity and I hope you are all using this opportunity to dig deep inside yourselves to find out what it is you truly are about and to build resilience and health in your life so that you may be the healthiest version of yourself.

Much love to you all during these times. I can not wait to get back out on the trail with you all, I miss you all. In the meantime, enjoy the videos, leave comments, ask questions, get involved in the online community and stay safe out there.

Alan

5 Awesome things about Bike Park Wales

March 2, 2020 by Alan Leave a Comment

Well, it was my Dad’s 70th this January 2020 and so I decided to head back and spend his birthday with him , returning to my birthplace and home of 26 years; England.

I haven’t mountain biked in England since I was in my teens. I used to race XC mountain bike as a young teenager, but gave up once I reached a certain age. I guess other past times stole my attention.

So there was no way that I was going to head back to the UK without checking out the development of the mountain bike scene that has occurred over the last 25 years.

Bike Parks in the UK

Bike parks didn’t really exist in the UK when I lived there. The sport was nowhere near as popular as it is now. We used to ride across farms and fields and go on long adventure rides down bridlepaths, shared with horses, along the muddiest of ankle deep goopiness.

But now the mountain bikers of the British Isles are spoiled for choice. There’s at least 3 or 4 bike parks in Wales and more in England and Scotland. But I only really had time to visit one.

As luck would have it my best pal, who I’ve known since I was 7 years old, just moved to Wales. A trip back to the home lands is never complete without a trip to see Chaz. So I googled his place and low and behold Bike Park Wales was 40 minutes from his new house.

Unfortunately, the plan of bringing Chaz along with me, was foiled, due to life commitments, but I decided to go on my own anyway.

I took the Go Pro cameras for company, so I had someone to talk to and made the video below. Hope you enjoy.

5 Awesome things about Bike Park Wales

Uplifts – I have now discovered that uplifts are not actually cheating. coming down is a whole different ball game. Riding up and down is great, but whilst you’re riding up, you’re not improving your down hill skills. Going downhill is also very physically demanding, especially in a place like Bike Park Wales.
Terrain – Having been spoiled with the magnificent riding in BC Canada, I was, to be honest, not expecting to be wowed by the train at Bike Park Wales, however, the contrast from the riding in BC was fantastic. The HUGE rocks strewn across the trails to compensate for the intense mud was a different, yet welcome challenge. There’s a bit of everything here and something for everyone.
Maps – the maps they provide are really well put together. They are graded, not only by trail colours, that most people are accustomed to, but each trail has been individually graded in order of difficulty. So you can slowly work through each trail starting from the easiest and progressing to through towards the hardest, until you reach your edge. Amazing!
Staff – The staff were super helpful and very friendly. Everyone I encountered appeared to love their jobs, right from the check in desk to the rental tech and the uplift drivers. It made for a great experience. Also the Welsh accent is incredible heart warming (if you can understand them).
Showers & good Coffee – Having to travel back to the midlands afterwards, a 2.5 hour drive, I was stoked to find that they had a shower available at a small fee of £1 (around $1.70 CAD). Nothing better than a quick warm freshen up. The UK is not known for good coffee, yet it seems that these guys got it right with their choice of beans. One of the best coffees I’d had whilst in the UK.

So if you’re in the vicinity of Bike Park Wales, make sure you go check it out. Pay for the uplift and make the most of your day. You’ll still be thoroughly exhausted after about 6 runs! I’m told that if you’re there the full day, that you should be able to fit in about 10 runs!

Thanks again to Bike Park Wales for an awesome afternoon of Mountain Biking.