By Bonny Burrows
Beaconsfield could soon be home to a multi-purpose dirt park, if a local professional mountainboarder gets his way.
Professional mountainboarder and Beaconsfield resident Dylan Warren is working with Cardinia Shire Council to get a multi-purpose dirt park, for use by mountainboarders as well as mountain bike and BMX riders, built within the town.
The 26 year old, who also established Mountainboarding Victoria, has big plans for the park.
“I’m asking them to build a dirt park in Beacy. A place for people to meet and train locally,” Mr Warren said.
While mountainboarding remains relatively unknown, Mr Warren said there was a big local following for the sport which he describes as snowboarding crossed with skateboarding.
“Cardinia is probably the biggest mountainboarding area in Victoria. There are 50 to 100 riders in the area and the BMX crowd is even bigger,” he said.
Mountainboards, Mr Warren said, were similar to a snowboard “but with wheels on them” and could be used on “pretty much any surface”.
Generally the sport is undertaken on a dirt BMX track, grassy hill in parkland, a skate park or a mobile ‘mini-mountain’ that consists of ramps that enable mountainboarders to generate speed and perform tricks.
Mr Warren said locally, mountainboarders had taken to making jumps in local parks, “but there are a lot of people involved in the sport and it’s growing”.
Cardinia Shire Council recognised the growing sport, which they had “not heard of until recently”, at its 11 December council meeting, and agreed to investigate the development of a local dirt park.
It came after Mr Warren presented the council with a petition of 200-plus signatures, which another 200 have since signed, calling for a track at Beaconsfield’s Holm Park Reserve.
“This would make sense as it would be in the same park as the skate park, but anywhere in Beaconsfield I would be happy with,” Mr Warren said.
Councillors said they were impressed with Mr Warren’s work in the sport, which has included a recent six-week trip to design and develop China’s first mountainboard park alongside a skate park and mountain bike park.
They have asked council officers to obtain a design and a cost analysis for the track, which will be put in to a report to be brought back to the council by June 2018 for consideration.
Mr Warren said he was thrilled the council was investigating a possible dirt park.
“I think it’s great. I would really love to work with the council to see this happen,” he said.
