Heading up to Balaklava last week we really stayed true to that phrase ‘rain, hail or shine’, in what seemed to be a race against the weather, it was so amazing to be greeted by so many smiling faces!
We last visited the Balaklava community back in March to deliver our covid-delayed Get Stoked! Community Ride Day, this time the pandemic threatened to derail our plans again, but thankfully we were still able to proceed.
The Wallace Road skatepark is quickly becoming one of our favourite spots on the map. Located just across from the high school it’s an excellent example of how our Community Ride Days can work to revitalise a local riding spot and get the local kids keen to ride again.
As the school bell rang to signal the start of school holidays we were inundated by kids of all ages wanting to hit up the skate park and skills activities we had set up close by. There were some familiar faces back in full force, namely Lottie who we donated one of our bikes to last visit. To see her beaming smile riding around was truly heart-warming. Even though the weather kept trying to hound us inside, everyone was happy to take shelter as the showers blew through and then keep rolling as soon as the sun came out.
During our travels week to week our mentors always keep an eye out for hard rubbish gems in the rough. We recently came around a Airwalk BMX that only needed a minor spruce up before going to a new home. This ‘new home’ was in the hands of young lad, Keenen. Keenen was so appreciative on the day and has since got in touch to offer to donate his old bikes so other kids can end up as lucky as he was.
The best part of these days for all of our crew it seeing the entire community come together to get behind the event. With some recent hard times for a number of Balaklava residents, this day is a way to perhaps shrug off the heaviness of those feelings and just enjoy seeing the future of their town learn new skills and enjoy the moment on the bike.
We would like to thank everyone involved in the hosting of this event. We’ll be sure to come visit soon, hopefully without so much of the cold, wind and rain! To see for yourself what a great day it is have a flick through our photo gallery and hit our edit!
