Close to 30 people representing 12 Trips for Kids chapters attended, and two attendees even came from as far away as Israel and New Zealand. Both of them want to open Trips for Kids chapters in their respective countries, which would be the first international chapters in the organizations 20 year history. Trips for Kids provides mountain bike rides for at-risk youth.

During the Trips for Kids conference topics such as how to start a chapter, how to find and work with volunteers, and how to effectively fundraise were discussed. Along with Jen Nibley, director of Trips for Kids Utah Valley, and Rick McFerrin of Two Wheel View/Trips for Kids Calgary, Canada, I spoke to the group about how to approach and work with a public relations agency on a pro-bono basis.

IMBA, which stands for the International Mountain Bicycling Association, is a non-profit association whose mission is to “create, enhance and preserve great trail experiences for mountain bikers worldwide.” Every two years, IMBA holds a world-wide conference bringing mountain biking advocates, land managers, ski resort professionals, trailbuilders, park and urban planners, tourism officials and the bike industry together for collaboration, planning, and celebration. This year’s Summit runs from Wednesday, June 18 through Saturday, June 21 at the Marriott-Park City.

During the opening ceremonies held at the Utah Olympic Park, Utah Governor and avid mountain biker, Jon M. Huntsman, Jr. welcomed the crowd. He joked that he was “whizzed” that he had to show up in a suit, instead of casual clothes like everyone else. He’s a big supporter of mountain biking and shared use trails in Utah.

Another highlight of the opening ceremonies was a freestyle arials show at the Utah Olympic Park aerials splash pool performed by “The Flying Aces.” The Flying Aces consists of some of the world’s top freestyle skiers and they flew off the parks artificial turf ski jumps into a huge pool. 

IMBA’s Executive Director Mike Van Abel was an honorary Flying Aces team member and started off the show with the first jump. His form wasn’t so hot, but I think he made us all jealous by being the one chosen to get some big air. That’s Mike in the photo above, upside down and wearing a dry suit for the 60 degree water.

As I’m writing this post, it’s Thursday night. I attended some of the seminars during the day, got caught up with some emails in the afternoon, and tonight attended the Mountain Bike Film Festival at the Park City Library. The event was produced by FeedTheHabit.com as a fundraiser for Park City’s Mountain Trails Foundation. The film festival featured a great freeride/downhill movie by The Collective called “Seasons.” You have to see it.

On a side note, at the film festival they raffled off a bunch of prizes (i.e. sunglasses, forks, cranksets, gloves, etc.). The grand prize was a GT Marathon mountain bike. My wife and I were dreaming of winning the bike (Since we hadn’t won anything during the raffle up to that point). But, no such luck. Guess who won it, Melanie Muranaka, Lester Muranaka of Delta 7 Sports’ wife. It’s a small world in the mountain bike community/Utah/PR world (Delta 7 is also one of our clients).

I’ll be up at the IMBA Summit again tomorrow (Friday) for more seminars.

When the Olympics were in town (Salt Lake City 2002), the only event I went to was the skeleton. I had always been a fan of the sliding sports (luge, skeleton, bobsled) and I wanted to attend one of these events when the Olympics rolled into town. So we went to the skeleton.

Last week, I had the opportunity of a lifetime. It was the first time I had been back to the Olympic Park since the day that Jimmy Shea took the gold for the United States. It was a Father’s Day present from my parents to take a ride in the bobsled. And what an experience.

Leading up to the ride, I read all of the information about how fast you go (up to 70 mph), how many Gs you pull (4 Gs), how far you drop (the equivalent of a 40-story building), how banged up you may become, etc. They even had me sign a waiver in case you die. So naturally, my anticipation and anxiety were at peak capacity.

They give you a whole bunch of instructions, ensure you’re equipped with a helmet and load you into the sled one-by-one. They buckle you in and give you straps to hang onto during the ride. It’s a very tight fit. The sled itself is equipped with a roll cage in case you crash at those high speeds.

So, as we loaded ourselves into the sled, I’m thinking two thoughts: 1- Please let us live, and 2 - please let us beat my brothers (who were in the next sled). As soon as we were situated, we were cleared to go, and off we went.

It’s hard to explain what happens on the ride. There are a bunch of turns, a lot of speed and some incredible G-forces. But it was awesome! We finished with the top time of the day at 101.97 and the fastest speed of the day at 68.3 mph to that point.

What an adrenaline rush it was! It had to be one of my favorite rides of all time, rivaling some of the roller coasters or ziplines I’ve been on.

So, if you’re ever in Park City, and you’re in good health, stop by the Olympic Park to check out the fun adventures. It was sweet!

Beyond her witty writing evidenced by phrases describing her guide

Nathan Sosa, a Bluff native and self-described hydrologic navigation specialist, stood on the bow of an 18-foot-long baby-blue raft and described the protocols of the river and the boat. He wore a nylon American-flag jacket, button-down shirt and tie, flimsy prom-queen tiara and rubber boots — you know, traditional outdoorsman wear.

and the landscape

Rolling past a host of almost alien-looking geological formations, cliff-top Anasazi dwellings and pristine wildlife habitat, the river is something of a greatest hits album of southern Utah’s attractions.

this article reminded me of one of the areas of outdoor recreation I have not participated in for a few years-rafting.

However, I will be redeeming myself this summer with a raft trip through Flaming Gorge and hopefully, a few product demos at the upcoming Summer OR Show. Yeah for summer!

Thanks to the team at 1280 for letting Debbie come on the “Jake and Jim Show” to talk about Bikes for Kids Utah and what a difference a brand new bike can make in the life of any kid.

We at SOAR Communications are proud to support such a fantastic non-profit, a 501(c)3 status corporation. In case you didn’t know, Bikes for Kids Utah has donated 1,000 brand new bikes each year (since 2006) to underprivileged children in Utah, along with helmets, bike locks and assorted other items.

After holding the bike giveaways in September in 2006 and 2007, this year’s giveaway will be held this Saturday morning (5-31-08) at Intermountain Healthcare’s fantastic new Intermountain Medical Center in Murray. And once again, yours truly — Poppa P — got snagged to do the emcee duties. 

Anyway . . . here are a couple of the photos from Debbie’s interview on 1280 the Zone on Thursday.

= = = = = = = = = =

Debbie Reid, founder and executive director of Bikes for Kids Utah, being interviewed Thursday, 5-29-08, on 1280 the Zone (Utah’s No. 1 sports talk radio station in Utah).

Jim Fuchuck, one of the hosts of the “Jake and Jim Show” on 1280 the Zone (the best sports talk radio station in Utah), interviews Debbie Reid, executive director of Bikes for Kids Utah on Thurs., 5-29-08.

Understand that this is not meant as a slam against all companies in these markets (although it may come across as such).

I also recognize that almost every company I now find in any industry has a Web site. But for many companies, that’s it. And in some instances, companies have little more than a brochure-ware Website.

Others are beginning to step forward and are beginning to embrace newer forms of interactive media, sometimes known as Web 2.0 technologies. These solutions and tools include

• Blogging,
• Online video,
• Social networks (MySpace and Facebook being the most popular, but not the only ones),
• Microblogging (through such tools as Twitter and Pownce, to name two), and
• Podcasting.

What’s even more amazing to me, however, is the seeming lack of interactive / Web 2.0 sophistication among the media companies serving the outdoor and recreation industries. Here again, I’m not attacking every media-publishing company serving clients and/or end-users in the recreation, sports, athletics and/or outdoor industries. Just most of ‘em.

To be sure, there are exceptions.

In the sports world, ESPN has long been the market leader in many respects, and it has continually looked for opportunities to provide new and exciting ways to cover the world of sports while interacting with sports fans everywhere. 

Case in point, you can now subscribe to Twitter feeds from ESPN — several of them, in fact. I know ’cause I’m following ESPN on Twitter as PoppaP4SOAR.

Another exception is our client Interbike.

Rich Kelly, the marketing director for all of the Nielsen Sports Group trade shows, is a definite Web 2.0 guy who gets the value technology can bring to the table for a savvy company. Perhaps that’s why he engaged our agency, SOAR Communications, to create a blog for Interbike (InterbikeTimes) nearly two years ago. [And I might add, he's been actively blogging for Interbike ever since.]

But to be honest, ESPN and Nielsen’s sports media properties are a few of the exceptions among the “old” media companies. And most of the old media companies should actually be called OMDs — Old Media Dinosaurs.

Meet Two New Media Companies Serving the Recreation and Outdoor Markets

We met the founder of a new media company serving part of the S-O-A-R universe about 10 days ago: Chrir Bennett, a transplanted Cali dude who now lives in Utah (which means he misses cutting up the waves of SoCal, but loves shredding the fluffy powder of Utah).

Anyway, Bennett is something of a search engine optimization (SEO) genius who gets fabulous results for his clients through his firm 97th Floor. More importantly to this conversation though, Bennett and a partner recently decided to put their expertise to work in concert with their love for action sports.

The result? The launch of 5ones.com, an online media property dedicated to covering the action sports of surf, snow and skate. And in a little more than six months, Bennett and his buds have done a great job of capturing a nice slice of attention in the skate, snow and surf news and information markets. (FYI: You can also use Twitter to follow 5ones.)

And about a month ago I met Todd Toth, VP of marketing services for Vital Media Network, at the Sea Otter Classic on the Monterey Peninsula (in California).

Toth and the VMN team have launched three online media properties, much as Bennett group has, specifically

1. Vital BMX,
2. Vital MX, and

 

3. Vital Skate.

Here again, these three online media properties are part of the new wave of media properties that are just beginning to emerge in the Sports, Outdoor, Athletics & Recreation industries.

And you watch.

If the OMDs do NOT adapt, they’re gonna get killed off by the faster, savvier, more customer -facing and -connected new media companies.