This season, our HopOn Chase instructors returned for their 2nd season and facilitated both a spring and autumn 6-week program.
HopOn Champion Ashton Sweetnam shares the team’s experience below.
Looking back at the HopOn Chase spring cohort, it is safe to say that it was a succes! Our community has embraced the program and our available spots filled up quickly!
We live in a beautiful area and our team wished to help all of the participants explore the community so we decided to use four different locations across the 5 week curriculum. Our spring program welcomed kids with Level 2 – 5 skills, from just being able to stand & coast, to those who can lift the front wheel and ready to explore trails. So we split our big instructor team into 2, one group for those less experienced riders who need to spend more time in controlled learning environments, and one group who is more experienced and ready-to-shreddy!
Our program started at Haldane Elementry School and then visited John Evdokimoff, and Mt. Tuam Community Park. Our last few weeks included visits to the Wade Road Trails at Tsutswecw Provincial Park, followed by a BBQ and a game of parking lot bike polo afterwards.
My highlight was meeting all of the new kids and families, with over half of our participants brand new to the HopOn program. There were so many smiles and laughs and the families shared how much their children enjoyed the fun and social nature of the program.
Just like last autumn’s program, our HopOn Chase autumn program focused in skill level 4-5 to explore more challenging terrain. Riders focused more energy on skills like climbing, ratcheting, stop’n-go’s on hills and even a trip to the Kamloops Bike Ranch! The long-summer made for a dry and dusty program, providing a new challenge for the participants.
Our autumn instructors, Cindy, Paul and Tristan, did an excellent job of ensuring that all children learned new skills, pertinent to their ability and I could see it in the kids’ faces. Look at those smiles!
Everyone here at the Chase Young Learner’s Society is very excited to continue building next spring! – Ashton Sweetnam, HopOn Chase
Stay tuned for more information on our HopOn After-School page.
