This past weekend, we had the pleasure to visit Surrey, BC, where the Surrey Off-Road Cycling Enthusiasts (SORCE), call home. Before arriving, we wondered what this large, but relatively flat city situated south-east of Vancouver would have to offer. Most input we received from others (upon mentioning our next visit) was that Surrey had lots of farmland, but had little to offer in the way of riding.
Boy, were they wrong. What Surrey has is a group of hard working club members and progressive city officials that understands the benefits of cycling and urban bike parks. Get these two things together and you have the recipe for bike park awesomeness!
Surrey, population 468,000, has four progressive bike parks around the city with many options for dirt jumps, pump tracks, and urban singletrack. We had the pleasure of visiting two of the four parks during our time in the city, Invergarry and South Surrey, which were both filled with riders young and old.
Our afternoon field session took place on South Surrey’s trail network, working with a group of SORCE volunteers to rejuvenate existing singletrack into a new, progressive flow trail. It was incredible to see such a great urban cycling facility alongside other city infrastructure like tennis courts, baseball diamonds, and soccer pitches.
A huge thanks to SORCE for planning such a great visit, to Norco for supplying swag and prizes to volunteers, and also to Beast & Brine (@beastandbrine) for providing great lunches to feed our hungry workers!