#MOREKIDSONBIKES
This is by far my favorite hashtag to use on social media posts.
It’s almost always paired with a photo of a kid on their bike doing something amazing. Big jumps and drops, conquering technical climbs, or making a mad sprint to the finish line. But it’s not the athleticism that makes it my favorite hashtag - although that is certainly not nothing.
No, these photos never cease to impress me not just because of what you see in that photo, but because of what they represent - a community that surrounds them with support and brings families and friends together both on and off the bike.
This, to me, is what #morekidsonbikes is all about and why I am so passionate about organizations like NICA and the Texas Mountain Bike League.
The Texas MTB League
The Texas Interscholastic Mountain Bike League is a project league of NICA (National Interscholastic Cycling Association) that offers recreational and competitive mountain bike programs for middle school and high school kids. With almost 1,000 riders coming back this year, you would be hard-pressed to ride bikes in Texas without hearing about these folks.
My own involvement with them began a few years ago when my friends at Trek DFW approached me about helping out with coaching.
Say no more! I was in with no questions asked.
That first season that I spent with the league as a coach was really eye-opening for me. Most of my time on mountain bikes up to that point had been with my fellow adult riders. I knew some kids loved to shred, but I simply didn’t realize just how many were willing to commit to the sport.
The league covers the whole state of Texas with teams coming from all corners - DFW, Houston, Austin, Tyler, Amarillo. Every one of these cities has kids ready to come together for a weekend of camping, bikes, and hanging out with all your best riding buddies.
The races themselves are professionally produced and designed to offer a challenge to riders of all skill levels. But it’s about more than just racing. It’s about how community inspires friendships, how mountain biking encourages respect for each other as well as for the outdoors, and how it pushes young athletes past their own barriers.
All of this is reinforced by the NICA core values.
Fun: NICA inspires friendship, joy, and adventure.
Inclusivity: NICA believes everyone should be able to participate in our programs and feel welcomed, respected and supported.
Equity: NICA is committed to fair treatment, equal access, opportunity, advancement and elimination of barriers to encourage participation for all.
Respect: NICA expects consideration for all others, oneself, and the outdoors.
Community: NICA unites diverse people, families and communities through cycling by creating fun and welcoming experiences.
Every race weekend these values can be seen waving in the breeze on various flags to stand as a reminder to all. But it’s one thing to have values, and quite another thing to live them.
Practicing What You Preach
Mountain biking is not a solo sport. Sure, you can go on a solo ride or a solo trip to new trails. You will probably have an amazing time and may even come home with a great story to tell.
But when you take that and add a group of your closest friends, everything changes. Just having someone else there to share the victories of your lap at the trailhead or while you take the lift back to the top changes the tone of the entire day.
This sport is meant to be shared.
I mentioned how races are full weekend events, right? This is where the magic really happens and where those values come into play.
You know the old saying “it takes a village”? If you want to see that in action, then you need to volunteer at a Texas MTB League race weekend.
NICA needs an army of volunteers to make each race happen. Between organizing administration and facilities, trail set up and tear down, first aid stations, and course marshals, food trucks, camping, parking - it takes a lot of people coming together to make the race day happen and even more good communication to be a success.
And the magic doesn’t stop there. NICA offers trail work programs that encourage riders and adult volunteers alike to put in work moving dirt.
I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but we have had a very rainy start to 2024 and we all know what that means for Texas trails - riding through the wet clay that makes up so much of our soil is like trying to ride through peanut butter and will destroy trails.
The Warda race in February 2024 is a great example of this. The Friday before race weekend, the skies opened up and flooded almost every inch of the trails in north Texas.
A little rain will not stop a NICA race, but having hundreds of kids riding muddy trails in a single weekend will absolutely demolish any trail system. That’s where the NICA’s values shined once again.
Volunteers gathered after the race with the sole purpose of repairing the trail and making it ready for another group’s race the following weekend. Mission accomplished! Not only is this just common courtesy, but it’s a valuable lesson for these kids and their families - a lot of work goes into trail building and trail maintenance and you should always leave a place better than you found it.
Furthermore, NICA has a leadership program for older athletes who want to help the league evolve for future athletes and an adventure program that is always on the lookout for creative ways for kids to have fun and meet new friends. Needless to say, there are TONS of opportunities for parents to volunteer and be a part of it all even if they can't ride a bike.
And there is one group in this “village” that gathers on Saturday afternoons during race weekend - a group with a little more GRiT than others.
Girls Riding Together
It’s no secret that GRiT Texas is one of my favorite programs to support.
In short, it’s an outreach program focused on recruiting and retaining female athletes, coaches, ride leaders, and volunteers. Together, the ladies work to organize rides and activities that give girls a way to connect, support, and encourage each other no matter their skill level or how long they’ve been riding.
You see, it turns out that it’s not really hard to convince us boys to hop on a bike, zap through trees and rocks, and put ourselves in danger every chance we get.
Girls on the other hand tend to have a stronger sense of self-preservation. But when you give them the right kind of encouragement, they may just end up being the fastest person on the trail.
As passionate as I am about this, I may not be the right person to explain exactly why programs like GRiT are so important. So with that in mind, I’m gonna hand the reins to my wife for a minute because she can talk about it much better than I can.
Going on a ride with other women is a different experience than any other ride.
Jordan and I ride together as often as we can and he is really good at guiding me through how to tackle parts of the trail that I find tricky. But I also know that he is all but fearless when it comes to hurtling himself at sections that give me pause. So when it comes time for me to ride that section, there’s a sort of mental barrier, a question as to whether it’s really something I can do.
But when I see another woman breeze through the same trail, it just seems more attainable.
The first time I experienced this was at Gateway West in Fort Worth. If you’ve never been to this trail, it’s very beginner-friendly but has wooden features dotted throughout the trail to offer something fun for more advanced riders as well. For a while, I was not willing to try several of these wooden features. I would look at them and psych myself out, telling myself “one day” I would attempt it.
Until I went on a ladies’ group ride and watched them do it with ease. It just clicked. If they could do it, so could I.
That’s the value of programs like GRiT. Yes, it’s a community that girls can turn to for support and encouragement, but it’s also a chance for female mountain bikers to ride alongside other women - riders that they can look up to and know that they have what it takes to accomplish the same things.
-Dani
I couldn’t have said it better myself. Every athlete a figure that they look up to, someone they admire and strive to emulate, and I truly believe that programs like this are essential to the future of mountain biking.
Why NICA Matters
With the 2024 NICA race season in full swing, I’ve been thinking about how NICA and mountain biking are different from other sports because it offers parents a way to interact and experience the action right alongside their young athletes.
From my experience with team sports like football, T-ball, and soccer, my role as a parent has mostly come down to paying the bill, playing chauffeur to practices and games, and sitting in a bleacher while my kid puts their heart on the field.
And to be clear, there's nothing wrong with this. I am a firm believer that sports of every kind have a lot to offer kids, not just in the way of athleticism, but also by way of team building and finding confidence in themselves. I know firsthand the pride that comes from watching your kid try their best at something (or, in the case of my daughter, cluelessly standing in the center of the basketball court with her hands in her pockets - I’m so proud).
But once the hour or so of the game is up, the buzzer rings, and the whistle blows and it’s all “Same time next week?”
Sure, those sports typically have parent booster clubs and ways for parents to stay involved. But I played a ton of football when I was a kid and I can't recall a single football game that lasted 2-3 days and had my parents camping in the woods with me.
A few weeks ago, I had a conversation with a father of 2 boys who have been racing enduro for a couple of years. Coincidentally, I met these boys and their dad at their very first race. From that initial encounter to catching up with them at a recent race, I have had the privilege of watching these boys’ riding skill evolve race after race, photo after photo.
This time however I noticed that one of the boys was absent. I asked his dad where he was at when he should be there racing. Turns out, he graduated high school last year and has gone off to an out-of-state college, leaving dad and little bro to hold down the trails back here in Texas.
He talked about how although he wishes his older son were still able to go the races with them, he was thankful for the three years he got to spend with both of his sons, traveling all over Texas and other states to explore as many trails as they could find. All three of them riding bikes, spending time around campfires, and just being a family.
As For Me and My Camping Buddy
As for me, I’m making some changes this year myself.
For the 2024 race season (and hopefully for years to come), my son is going to join me for every NICA race I attend. He’s 9-years-old - so not quite old enough to race in NICA yet - and typically spends his days at home in the same way as most other kids. Namely, glued to video games or hypnotized to YouTube videos.
And I don’t think my family is alone in feeling a disconnect because of these modern conveniences. It's not uncommon for many families to be in the same house but worlds away from each other as we are all engaged in our different screens.
But the thing is, when my son is away from all that, he really does love camping and being outside.
Sure, his biking skills are still a work in progress, and NICA's out of reach for now. But just getting him out there and showing him the possibilities as well as getting him involved has been changing his mindset towards being on a bike. He is starting to see the wide world of adventure that lays before him and not just behind a screen in his next game.
As a mountain biking photographer, I am gone from home most weekends during race season. Having him along as my camping buddy has created more ways for us to spend time together and more opportunities for him to ride some trails.
I’ve talked a lot specifically about NICA in this post, but they are far from the only mountain biking or cycling-oriented organization that aims to get kids on bikes. NICA is a fantastic organization, but if you may discover that it’s just not quite the right fit for you. The point is finding a way to build your kid’s confidence and athleticism in a way that also helps families and communities come together.
Whether you’re on or off the bike, this sport is meant to be shared. And who better to share it with than the next generation. #morekidsonbikes