Eastern Passage, a small fishing community just 20 minutes from downtown Halifax, now has one of the largest public dirt jump parks in Atlantic Canada. Built on the Eastern Passage Commons: a hub that already includes a skatepark, soccer field and three schools, the new $240,000 facility is the result of years of persistence from builder Devon White of Dirt Love.
“I’ve been bugging the city for probably three years to use this space,” White said. “It’s close to home, so I’ll be riding here. We’re trying to take the small budget and drive it through the roof.”
At just over an acre, about 44,000 square feet, the park has features for all skill levels, including a green perimeter trail, blue and black jump lines, a UCI-sized double black line and a technical rock feature trail. Built entirely from dirt (except for the rock line of course) , the park uses Soiltac on all riding surfaces to reduce maintenance and increase durability.
Built by riders, for riders
White isn’t just a contractor: he’s a lifelong rider who sold his house to launch his business five years ago. Since then, Dirt Love has quietly built trails and bike parks across the Maritimes.
“It’s just me and one guy, man. I’m slamming 100-hour weeks from end of March until December,” White said. “I just want more people on bikes, man. I want a bike community. It’s kind of selfish because I want more places to ride and more people to ride with.”
Whiten grew up digging and riding in the Halifax scene in the early 2000s, building trails when public facilities didn’t exist. Today, he brings that same DIY energy to professional projects.
“The whole goal of my business is basically, I was getting tired of living on the East Coast for riding,” he said. “So it was either stop complaining and help things change, or get out of here.”
Designed to evolve
Beyond the impressive list of features the park design has longevity in mind. Using Soiltac (a standard for Olympic BMX tracks), White is experimenting with the most glue he’s ever applied on a build to keep the surface rideable with minimal upkeep.
“The city doesn’t quite understand that you have to maintain a bike park just like baseball fields,” he said. “So I’ve been experimenting with ways to make it the least amount of maintenance possible, and gluing seems to work awesome.”
It’s also a smarter long-term investment than many cities realize.
“The skatepark next to this one was $750,000….
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Canadian Cycling Magazine…