BAADR Monthly Family Ride This Saturday Sep 12th, 9am!

We will be having our Monthly Family ride this month back on the normal day of the 2nd Saturday of the month. We have also decided to move the location down the road 3 miles to "Morris Bridge Park" site due to better access to those trails (no road crossing involved) and the site is more secluded and we can be by ourselves a little more. We will be having a class once again for those new people who want to take it.

This will also be the site of the "Take a Kid Mountain Biking Day" event we will be holding on October 3rd. That event will take the place of our "Family Ride" for October.

Watch for "Trips for Kids Tampa" on Fox 13 News Tonight!

Tonight on the 6pm newscast, Trips for Kids Tampa will be featured in Kelly Ring's "Whats Right with Tampa Bay" section! I hope it shows up on their website soon after so I can send it around to every one!

We will also be shooting a story with Bay News 9 this Thursday around 10:30am at Trout Creek.

Getting Ready for Trips for Kids Tampa 1st Official Ride!

Well, after months of planning and getting things all set-up, Chris and I are ready to have the 1st Official "Trips for Kids Tampa" ride! We are going to incorporate it into our BAADR Family ride at 1st just to make it easier for the new volunteers and the kids. We have been working on getting the word out there that we need volunteers and donations so we can get a few more bikes and equipment to meet demand we already have.

We also have a few fundraiser ideas we are working on. I will be starting a "Trips for Kids Tampa" blog to keep everyone up to speed on whats going.

We are also registered with IMBA to have a "Take a Kid Mountain Biking Day" on October 3rd and we hope to be working with SWAMP and local bike shops on this event. I plan on making this a larger event that can help promote BAADR and Trips for Kids Tampa and the sport of Mountain Biking in the area. If all goes well we can make this an annual event.

More information to follow soon!

Trips For Kids Tampa Test Ride 7/29

Chris and I were supposed to meet a reporter from channel 10 news for a story on Trips for Kids and we brought some kids to get video footage. She had to cancel due to a heavy news day. Since we had all the equipment and 8 kids in tow, we decided to take a test run of the program. We were all pleased with the results, especially the kids!

Of The 5 boys Chris brought, only one or 2 had ever ridden off-road before. The ones who had not really enjoyed themselves and all of them said they could not wait to do it again! Spencer and I brought his friend Dustin who had never ridden a 26' bike, or a bike with gears and never been off-road. He struggled a little in places, but overall he had a great time as well. We took the all to Cici's Pizza for lunch after and they could not stop talking about how much fun the had!

Trail Work Day at Croom was HOT!

Me and Shawn met up the SWAMP club for a ride and trim at Croom today and it was Hot.. I don't know what the temperature was, but swinging the machete and riding after made me feel like i was going to pass out. When I got home my shoes were so wet from sweat they felt like I went swimming in them. I left them out in the sun to dry for 3 hours!

Although it was hot, the trails are in really good shape up there right now. if you have a chance, you really need to ride up there before the sand comes back.

CPR Class and A Nice Ride After

A few of us who plan on being ride guides for Trips for Kids Tampa met at Lithia Springs Park for a CPR class the Head Lifeguard taught as a favor for Chris. After that a few of us went and rode Balm Boyette even though it was hotter than all get out.

Kevin Acevedo, his son Stephan, his brother in law Ken, myself, and Jonathan Hill had a great ride at boyette that included about 14 miles of trails.

I will be working this week on getting some press coverage for the Trips for Kids Tampa kick off ride to be held on August 15th at Trout Creek!

Wow, Been awhile since my last post....Sorry.

Time sure does fly! I guess I better take some of that time and post a few updates..

1st of all we did have our Family ride last Saturday, but it was a light crowd since people were still traveling and doing other things after the holiday weekend. Our family celebrated both my son Spencer (8) and daughter Rachel's (2) birthdays last week so we had family over Saturday for lunch, which meant no cookout after the ride. Jonathan Hill, a member that joined a couple months back and not been able to attend rides yet made it out that day. He did a great job after not riding for 6 years! We did about 14 miles on the Flatwoods side of Wilderness Parks..

One other great thing that has happened is that Chris has finally been approved for the "Trips for Kids" Tampa Chapter! That means we are now able to fully operate and get TFK Tampa off the ground! 6 months of planning are now put into actually getting kids riding. The bikes that Trek has donated are in the shop at www.justridebicycles.com and will be completly built today and David Luppino, the owner of the shop has done this for no charge, thank you! The 5 bikes they donated are all 2009 4500 series which retail for $689! Nice bikes to start out with, huh? We are planning to have our 1st TFK Tampa ride as part of our August 8th family ride at Trout Creek Park and hope to have some prizes to give away, some press coverage, and a BBQ lunch after the ride to celebrate, so please come out and join us if you can!

With that, we are going to start making a big push with marketing both Trips for Kids Tampa and push for members for BAADR to make this club into the most fun Mountain Bike club in the state!

Darrin