Cindi Shendell is the President and founder of DROP IN ACTION SPORTS COMPLEX Project. With an extensive background in sports and coaching, she has developed and pursued this creative idea to give youth the opportunity to have a different and unique park, were they can interact, share new experiences while pursuing action sports in a safe and supervised venues. We plan to establish community collaboration to help the youth build leadership skills and strong values. Cindi's first goal is to give back to the community in an "out of the box" innovative and positive way building an inclusive skate/bike complex.
We spent most of the time on the pumptrack and on the outside skatepark area. The staff quickly got the track ready to ride and we rode for most of the afternoon after a pretty crazy rain storm that just rolled thru the area. This red clay pump track was drying quickly and was ready in no time.
To be honest there was no where else I would have rather
been on a Super Bowl Sunday then shredding on my bike with my team mate
Ryan "The Hawk" Fitzpatrick. Check out some videos of us riding the box jump and the pump track.
From there we headed over to Abaoco Skatepark to get some more riding in
for the day. We showed up a little late so we only got in about an hour
of riding, This concrete park is a lot of fun with a small section and a decent box jump.
Ryan is a local at this park so as soon as we strapped our full face
helmets he was out on the park just shredding. We started on the small
size and then worked our way over to the box jump and more of the
advanced side of the park. I had a blast riding with Ryan for the day!
We got to ride 2 parks and even a pump
track.
Just before leaving Drop in Action Sports Complex I was able to speak with the owner Cindi Shendell and heard about how the facility got started and some of her background and passion for action sports. Cindi is one of the people in the sport who is in it for the right reason, she gives a safe, fun place for kids to ride bikes, skateboards, rollerblades, and scooters. She likes to focus on education and understands the more people are taught they further they go within the sport. She then invited me to come out to the facility and coach some of their local kids. I made the flyer above and headed back. Cindi was nice enough to let me set up the Kid Dynamite tent and I worked with kids who came to the park on Monday 2/3/14.
I had about a dozen kids come out to the park to work with. We went over the basics on how to check your bike and safety equipment then we talked about fundamentals of riding how to bunny hop and control your bike better. We worked on the flat skatepark area first then I brought them over to the pump track for them to work on their skills.
Cool thing about the clinic was the staff all listened and observed my coaching so they could pass it on once I leave. I even had one staff member film my coaching so he could share it with the staff. Education is really important on keeping kids safe at a place like this. Kids will try things fearless and can get hurt, but with a little instruction they can understand how to get thru the park safe.
The clinic was over and I rode with the kids for a while, thankfully the light from the soccer field were on so the park had light for the pump track. On Monday's the skatepark is open to bikers from 6 till close. So we got to ride in the park and Ryan and I worked on airing out of quarters and jumping the spine. It is cool to see a kid so talented on the track share the same skills at the skatepark.
Check out more details about the Drop in Action Sport Complex.
http://www.dropinactionsportscomplex.org
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Drop-In-Action-Sports-Complex/342118765844398
http://www.dropinactionsportscomplex.org
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Drop-In-Action-Sports-Complex/342118765844398
