Riding a wave of renewed popularity, how is mountain biking shaping up as a sport and family adventure?
Mountain biking, an exhilarating outdoor adventure, is taking the world by storm. From conquering rugged trails to exploring diverse terrains, it offers a fantastic cardiovascular workout, enhancing your strength, endurance, and agility. In fact, it's one of the fastest-growing recreational activities globally. In this episode, Host David Kasten sat down with Paul Braybrook, a dedicated paramedic and paramedicine researcher at Curtin University; and Rod Annear, Assistant Director of Parks and Visitor Services at the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation, and Attractions to discuss the growth and transformation of mountain biking into the loved activity it is today.
Doing a PhD in mountain biking [01:40]
The planning that goes into expanding mountain biking trails [09:20]
Are severe are typical mountain biking injuries? [11:29]
What the next ten years of mountain biking holds [21:58]
How families can casually get into mountain biking [28:11]
Pedal power takes off: Mountain biking benefits outweigh risks (Curtin News)
Paul Braybrook
Researcher, Curtin School of Nursing
Paul Braybrook is a AHPRA Registered Paramedic for St John WA working for the state ambulance service. He is also the course coordinator for paramedicine at Curtin University.
In his spare time, he can be found riding in whatever mountains he happens to be closest to. Paul has a particular interest in sports medicine epidemiology and the management of traumatic injuries in outdoor remote locations. Pauls doctoral thesis aims to investigate the medical events that occur during the recreational use of outdoor terrestrial trails in Western Australia (WA) with particular focus on mountain biking and hiking. This is from both an epidemiological perspective and from a health service resources perspective.
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Curtin staff profile
Rod Annear
Assistant Director Parks and Visitor Services at the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions.
Rod is developing the next generation of supporters and visitors of national parks, marine parks and protected areas in Western Australia.
He is currently responsible for planning and implementing facilities, trails, experiences and information; and leading the management of the Parks website, social media strategy and mobile applications for park supporters and visitors.
Rod has wide experience in national park management and conservation; and recreation facility and activity planning, having spent 30 years in natural area management including 20 years as a National Park Ranger in Western Australia.
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00:00:00:00 - 00:00:30:02
David Karsten
This is the future of where experts share their vision of the future and how their work is helping shape it for the better. Hello, I'm David Karsten. Mountain biking, an exhilarating outdoor adventure is taking the world by storm. From conquering rugged trails to exploring diverse terrains, it offers a fantastic cardiovascular workout enhancing your strength, endurance and agility. In fact, it's one of the fastest growing recreational activities globally.
00:00:30:04 - 00:01:04:16
David Karsten
In this episode, I was joined by two experts in the field Paul Braybrook, a dedicated paramedic and paramedic and researcher at Curtin University, and Rodd Annear, Assistant Director of Parks and Visitor Services at the Department of Biodiversity Conservation and Attractions. We delved into the fascinating transformation of mountain biking from an extreme sport to thrilling, family friendly activity. We explored the development of dedicated mountain bike parks and trails and how you can enjoy the many health benefits of mountain biking while minimizing risk and keeping your family safe.
00:01:04:18 - 00:01:32:16
David Karsten
If you'd like to find out more about mountain biking safety, you can visit the links provided in the show notes. Gentlemen, would it be fair to say that you both have had the good fortune of seeing your passion for cycling and mountain biking overlap with your professional careers, Paul?
Paul Braybrook
Professionally, I guess my exposure into mountain biking with the paramedicine and side of things is we see when things go wrong.
00:01:32:16 - 00:01:51:18
Paul Braybrook
So what initially I came into doing a PhD in mountain biking, I was sort of approaching it from a multitude of angles. I had a sort of a professional interest from the paramedic side of things because it was a job I was seeing more frequently and it was a job I would go into in quite difficult jobs to manage. Personally, I also had a background in mountain biking.
00:01:51:18 - 00:02:10:23
Paul Braybrook
But not only that, but my son, he was about fourish, then three or four or five, and he just started riding on trails with me and we were taking the away to Margaret River and Kalamunda and he was riding so I was seeing him sort of get into the sport. And then I saw a PhD come up which was in mountain biking, looking at sort of the pre-hospital side of things.
00:02:10:23 - 00:02:43:08
Paul Braybrook
And yeah, it was perfect to just sort of ticked every single box, I guess for me. And yeah, an all professional personal sort of academic fronts.
David Karsten
When you look at that on paper, Paul, it really couldn't get any better for you.
Paul Braybrook
It really was it was written for me.
David Karsten
Well well, have you Rod I mean your background professionally is well now with the Department of Biodiversity Conservation and Attractions, which has been around and you've been around long enough to have worked for that organization when it was named under a different banner.
00:02:43:14 - 00:03:10:23
David Karsten
Is that correct?
Rod Annear
Many different banners. Yeah. So I think I started even just before CALM.
David Karsten
There was there something before CALM, was there?
Rod Annear
Yeah, Well, yeah, there was a long, long time ago anyway. Yeah, I've seen a few different name changes over the years, but yeah, my, my, I guess my professional and personal interest does kind of cross over there a bit with bikes and I've always kind of had bikes and, and loved them as a kid.
00:03:11:00 - 00:03:34:23
Rod Annear
And then got involved in a lot of team sport and then came back to bike riding in the late nineties, early 2000 when I stopped the team sport stuff so much and I was looking for something to stay fit and hang out with. Mates and bikes were something I knew so and I caught the bug there. And then I guess where it crossed over with.
00:03:34:23 - 00:03:59:01
Rod Annear
What I do for a job is I came back to Perth. I was in Pemberton for about ten years and I came back to Perth. I was working in Perth Hills and one of the biggest, both recreation and nature conservation issues was around illegal mountain bike trails. So there was a huge boom in people wanting to ride, but no places for them to do it legally.
00:03:59:03 - 00:04:32:09
Rod Annear
And so I was interested in bikes, but I was also interested in looking after the bush. So I started looking at how we could make those two things work together. And the thing that really got me interested is so many young people on bikes, and that to me was a great opportunity to get people in the bush and get them to create a connection to the places that I love and that I want to protect and to try and build the next generation of people who care about, you know, lots of the parks and reserves that we manage.
00:04:32:11 - 00:05:02:12
Rod Annear
So yeah, that's how I got involved, I guess.
David Karsten
You really touched on something there that that is, I guess, fundamental to a lot of the experiences that, that, that a contemporary mountain biker really enjoys and that is that that connection with nature. You talk about and doing it in such a way that is sustainable. That's obviously been a massive part of your role in dragging mountain biking into a modern context and into a sustainable context.
00:05:02:14 - 00:05:25:16
Rod Annear
Yeah, well, that's I guess where we're trying to head, you know, a part of the way there. I don't think we've gone on that full journey yet, but you know, kind of mountain biking before even I was involved was a bit of an underground thing. And part of the attraction, I think, to some of the people involved was to go and cut their own trails and and kids kind of for generations.
00:05:25:16 - 00:05:54:24
Rod Annear
When I was a kid, I had it. Yeah. My trials around the neighbourhood. So it wasn't it wasn't that new thing. And that kind of arc that we're on is is replicated all around the world is the this is a really great opportunity to get people outdoors, to get kids to in some they love to get families together doing something they love and to connect them with places that need people who care.
00:05:55:01 - 00:06:26:11
Rod Annear
Because the worst thing is to have these magnificent national parks and places and have no one who cares about them. So my my job or part of my job is the way I see it is to just create those next generation of people who care. And I don't care why they come or how they come. It's about trying to find the right place for them and the right conditions and the right facilities and protect the places that we want to protect, but also get them out there enjoying and being prepared to speak up for, you know, wherever the place is.
00:06:26:13 - 00:06:50:03
David Karsten
Paul, maybe you can provide us with a little bit of context for for those of us that aren't familiar with the sport, we may associate mountain biking with perhaps that of of years gone by, an extreme sport particularly downhill. But it really has evolved into something that, as you know, as Rod has mentioned, has become a family event or a family a family style activity.
00:06:50:03 - 00:07:16:00
David Karsten
Can you explain to us how it's evolved and how it's become, I guess, more mainstream?
Paul Braybrook
Yeah, I mean, yeah, Rod's right. I mean, the way it started probably seventies in the eighties. The focus was really I mean, it's got out of California, there's a few sort of quite radical guys who are taking old beat up steel bikes basically, and throwing themselves down mountains and then modifying those bikes as best they could to try and manage these sort of downhill mountain biking trails.
00:07:16:02 - 00:07:36:08
Paul Braybrook
And it sort of stayed like this for maybe ten years or so. And there's a few like frame builders got involved and they started creating specific frames for this sort of sports and then mountain bikes as we know it started to develop. And they're still very rudimentary, very heavy. So not really suitable for children at all and only really in adult sizes.
00:07:36:10 - 00:07:54:19
Paul Braybrook
And it was still quite an extreme sport. And then as it's got more and more popular and the bikes and the technology is sort of developed along with that, it has become more approachable for children. And I think the generation of people who started out doing this more extreme mountain biking, they then have children and they want to have their children experience these things.
00:07:54:19 - 00:08:20:18
Paul Braybrook
So then they've started to look for ways they can do that. And that was obviously evolved into more of the sort of family friendly as it is now, and that's running sort of concurrently with the work that Rod has been doing and with developing trails which are suitable for for families. There's various trails throughout WA we have been taking my son since he's been four years old and he's been capable of riding because they’re built for all levels from, you know, brand new beginners into experience riders so much like a ski field.
00:08:20:18 - 00:08:44:14
Paul Braybrook
Now these styles are graded exactly the same. Yeah. So they should be graded, you know, green, blue, black. A Typically where we go double black, a bit of very sort of extreme things. And the idea is with consistency, if you turn up to any mountain biking park or area and you see a green trail, you know, you can probably ride that way a guy or in your friend or your family or someone who's new to the sport.
00:08:44:16 - 00:09:00:10
Paul Braybrook
Whereas when you move up through those grades, you know, to expect more jumps, you know, to expect bigger gaps, you know, to expect things which are going to potentially cause you harm if you don't know what you're doing. So yeah, I think riding is definitely made it a lot easier for for families and beginners to sort of get into the sport.
00:09:00:12 - 00:09:27:05
David Karsten
Now there are quite a number of trails, organized trials that have sprung up over the last decade or so, particularly around the Southwest. And a lot of thought has gone into the their location, their location to in proximity to amenity and towns, Rod can you explain to us a little bit about the planning that's gone into this in terms of making it family friendly and accessible?
00:09:27:07 - 00:09:53:18
Rod Annear
Yeah, so I guess when we and and those people involved in mountain biking started looking at how can we do this better, we looked at other places around the world that had already gone through some of the experiences that we had. And part of that involved looking at where's the best place to put the trails, What are the other opportunities they might bring with them.
00:09:53:20 - 00:10:22:06
Rod Annear
And some of that is around economic opportunity for small towns and changing and diversifying the economy of those places. And so we did a lot of planning and for a long time I used to say when I went to give a presentation sessions about mountain biking, that if Western Australians stood on the top of the pile of all the mountain bike planning we'd done, we could see all the trails being built in other states.
00:10:22:08 - 00:10:51:13
Rod Annear
But that corner was turned probably five or six years ago where that really good planning base turned into action. The sort of thing we did was we created a state strategy and that state strategy looked at all sorts of things from sport to gender diversity to facilities, trails, marketing, a whole bunch of other stuff. And we're actually on our second stage strategy now.
00:10:51:13 - 00:11:22:07
Rod Annear
So the first one, which was a ten year strategy, wound up and we've created a second. Then the next part of that was around regional masterplans and these regional master plans dug into a bit more detail about where should the trails go and what kind of looked at in in three levels. So with a, a national level ride location, a regional level ride location or local level ride location.
00:11:22:09 - 00:11:45:10
Rod Annear
And so you can probably tell from the names a national level is going to have more trail that's going to have perhaps more facilities. The regional, perhaps a little bit smaller, a bit less trail, and then the local smaller again. Then we did a whole bunch of other things. One of the I guess critical things that was developed was some mountain bike management guidelines.
00:11:45:12 - 00:12:07:08
Rod Annear
And those guidelines gave a lot more detail about how a trail should be built and established what we use for All trails now, which is an eight step trial development process for Western Australia, and that that process is an excellent way to make sure you step through all the things you need to do to get a good trail.
00:12:07:12 - 00:12:27:17
Rod Annear
So, you know, the idea, the initial idea, who's it for, who's going to maintain it, how are we going to get the income to manage it and maintain it? Have we got neighbours that we need to speak to? And then it takes you through a whole lot of approvals around flora, fauna, Aboriginal sites, dieback, all those things you need to consider anyway.
00:12:27:17 - 00:12:52:22
Rod Annear
You follow that process and you get to the end and you get a good sustainable outcome. You don't follow the process often you get stuck somewhere along the way is what we found. So it's proven and in and in doing so, how many, I guess organized trials or sets of trials and complexes, shall we say, of facilities? Do we have dotted around the state now as of 2023.
00:12:52:24 - 00:13:27:16
Rod Annear
Well I reckon probably since we wrote that first state strategy, there will be close to, maybe $100 million has gone into developing trials and the location signs now that between state government, local government and private facilities, you've probably got 15 or 20 pretty decent locations. There's probably three or four kinda national level, locations and a few other kind of aspiring.
00:13:27:18 - 00:13:45:24
Rod Annear
And then a bunch of smaller ones. But yeah, we don't have a shortage anymore of trials and there's plenty of places to go.
David Karsten
I'll quote, The field of dreams. If you build it, they will come. And is that apparent Paul, are they you know, have we seen a spike and a bit of a boom in in participation in this growing sport?
00:13:45:24 - 00:14:11:22
Paul Braybrook
Yeah, the I guess the Aus Plays survey I guess which is what we look at for participation in sport. They seem to be the most the longest well-rounded surveys of participation. They seem to show a very steady increase in mountain biking nationally and in the state as well. And when we looked or when I looked personally at ambulance attendances for these cases, we saw a bigger increase.
00:14:11:22 - 00:14:36:16
Paul Braybrook
So that's why I guess disparity we have seen is the is the number of ambulance attendances a disproportionate increase beyond the participation of the the sport itself? Well, that's very interesting. What what sort of injuries are being seen. So minor injuries basically so too to go through I guess some of the figures and to break it down from one of my studies.
00:14:36:18 - 00:15:08:01
Paul Braybrook
So we looked at all ambulance attended mountain bikers in Western Australia over a six year period. So we had a very robust process of identifying this, which involved me locking myself in a dark room for extended periods of time or reading through thousands of thousands of case sheets to make sure we'd identified every single case, which was possibly a mountain biker with an excluded as many as we could that were mountain biking in parks or, you know, down the local shops or any of these sort of places where we're left with this really robust dataset.
00:15:08:03 - 00:15:29:01
Paul Braybrook
And then what we did is then we then classified. So when a paramedic attends a and an injured person like this, they will typically classify the injuries that they find. So I found they have an obvious deviation in the fracture of the right arm or they have a dislocated shoulder or they have abrasions or lacerations. So we took all of that information as well, and then we took the vital signs.
00:15:29:01 - 00:15:52:15
Paul Braybrook
So when I tend you, I take your pulse, your blood pressure, your oxygen saturations, your respiration rate. I take all of these things that builds me up a picture of you. From those vital signs, you can calculate something called a NEWS score, N-E-W-S, And it's basically a score which tells a hospital person how sick you are. So when they check your vital signs in hospital that will trigger, depending on what the new score is, their response.
00:15:52:15 - 00:16:13:05
Paul Braybrook
So we found that they're really good to use these prehospital aid to indicate how sick somebody is or not sick, for triaging. Yeah, well, post-crash, right. So after the triage has been done to see if they're improving or deteriorating, but we found really good this good evidence to show that if you use them pre-hospital, it's got a really good predictive capability for 30 day mortality and morbidity in other things as well.
00:16:13:05 - 00:16:36:19
Paul Braybrook
So you can use them pre-hospital and you can use it retrospectively, which is great for our dataset. So then when we took all this information, predominantly mountain bikers are injuring upper limb injuries. So the shoulder girdle, wrists and arms basically, which is consistent with the mechanism I guess you'd expect to see when you come off mountain bike outstretched arms use a protective mechanism so you see an upper body injuries.
00:16:37:12 - 00:16:56:13
Paul Braybrook
about 20% of all the injuries were head injuries, which was it was interesting because we actually did the at the same city with with hikers and they also had 20% of head injuries so high because the mountain bikers had the same amount of head injuries. And what we think is the reason they had the similar amount was not because hiking was particularly high.
00:16:56:19 - 00:17:17:18
Paul Braybrook
We think that mountain biking head injuries were the number was actually particularly low because of the protective mechanisms. Exactly. So having good quality helmets, having good quality PPE, which is preventing more sort of head injuries from taking place then in terms of the severity of these sort of presentations, so how severe they were and if we were to look at them from a hospital perspective, how severe would they present?
00:17:17:20 - 00:17:55:11
Paul Braybrook
Very minor. So really, really minor. So we're seeing lots of the scrapes, abrasions, lacerations, shoulder girdle injuries, but they're not very sick. These people are not overall a sick cohort of people. So comparatively, are you saying that the injuries sustained in a mountain biking incident are generally not too bad? Completely. If you look at the the risks of participating in it and what you're likely to come out with from participating in it versus the risks of, let's say, sedentary lifestyle, so physical activity, inactivity is a good example.
00:17:55:13 - 00:18:24:23
Paul Braybrook
The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, I've just published some data in August this year which specifically looked at physical inactivity and what's the implications of physical inactivity. So around if you combine someone who's physically inactive with obesity, those risk factors account for about 10% of the entire disease burden in Australia, which is huge. So 10% of the entire disease burden burden is something which is preventable and something we can modify.
00:18:25:00 - 00:18:45:19
Paul Braybrook
Not only is it preventable, when studies have looked into people who undertake exercise like cycling, for example, they've found the biggest benefits you can get for your health The cohort of people who get the biggest benefits of their health when they undertake cycling is not the people who are already cycling. It's the people who are already physically inactive and who are obese.
00:18:45:21 - 00:19:06:13
Paul Braybrook
So it means if you can encourage people like Rod Stephens trying to do to undertake the sport who don't necessarily undertake it now, they're the ones who are likely to see the biggest health benefits. So the emphasis really is not on trying to get people cycling more who already are. It should be on getting people who aren't undertaking these sports out into nature and enjoying it, because that's where we're going to see the health benefits.
00:19:06:15 - 00:19:29:08
Paul Braybrook
Well, just on that, if a listener is sitting there thinking, well, you know what, I'm a bit risk averse. I'm a little bit worried about some of those those injuries that you've you've highlighted that aren't as bad as I could be. How has the sport and the technology attached to the sport actually evolved to to better protect riders?
00:19:29:10 - 00:19:53:20
Paul Braybrook
Yeah, massively. So helmet development, we can look at that. Even in the last ten years, mountain biking helmets, as it used to be, people were wearing a very standard road based helmet for mountain biking. And the problem with this was they have they sit quite high and you had to have very little protection for the base of the skull and around here and a lot of mountain bikers are hitting the head as we know, when they crash new helmets.
00:19:53:20 - 00:20:12:23
Paul Braybrook
Now they extend much further down on the head. So you're protecting the base of skull? most people I see now, they're riding a downhill trail with wearing full face helmet outside. Right. Would you tend to agree to protect. To protect the jaw. So you have a good full face helmet, which it'll protect your jaw and protect your teeth or protect your tongue and all this sort of stuff.
00:20:12:24 - 00:20:33:10
David Karsten
Teeth are expensive.
Paul Braybrook
Teeth are expensive. These have been probably around for over ten years. But the problem with them was they were previously very heavy, very hot. You just weren't well suited to sort of the Western Australian environment, particularly the ones now are really well ventilated. They're so much lighter, they're not even much heavier than a regular sort of helmet.
00:20:33:10 - 00:20:54:12
Paul Braybrook
Now they're built so well. So things like full face helmets are incredible. We're seeing a lot more people who are riding downhill, wearing neck braces to prevent neck injuries, which is great and just simple things like knee pads and elbow pads. So when you do crash, which you will and everyone does crash, we know from our research the majority of injuries are lacerations, abrasions, these kind of things.
00:20:54:16 - 00:21:19:08
Paul Braybrook
You can prevent that. It's really easy to prevent that. So whilst there is risk involved in it, I would argue that the risk is is far less than not taking part in any sports.
David Karsten
Rod, it's it's an exciting moment for the sport to see it grow as it has and to actually meet the demand from a from a facility perspective.
00:21:19:10 - 00:21:55:21
David Karsten
What do the next ten years hold if we've worked out that strategy?
Rod Annear
Yeah, well, I think different things in different places and probably different things to different people. I'll start with what I hope happens and what I have seen happen in other places and that idea that people who get connected with the environment become advocates and they start not to just give back to the trails, which is is what a lot of people do at the moment by helping maintain them or donating, but they actually give back more broadly to the environment that their the trials are located in.
00:21:55:23 - 00:22:29:23
Rod Annear
And that might be through weed control, they might be through replanting programs or just advocacy for those places. And we're seeing that in other places around the world. So the users turn into the next advocates for those places. So that's that's one thing I really hope happens. One thing that is happening already and will continue to happen is that idea that trials and in this case mountain bike trials will bring a change to some of the small towns in the southwest in particular.
00:22:30:00 - 00:23:02:02
Rod Annear
So places like Dwellingup, Collie, Pemberton, Nannup, even down Walpole, now we're going to see and are already seeing new businesses being established on the back of the trails. And I think there will continue to grow and there'll be a broader economy that's built on the trail visitors. So that's exciting as well. Exciting for those places, but also as a trail user.
00:23:02:04 - 00:23:27:21
Rod Annear
So that I think will be something to look forward to.
David Karsten
It really is an activity that ticks so many boxes in terms of, of, of involvement from all levels of experience, gender, age, in terms of families. This must be such a revelation for for so many new families coming to the sport. I mean, what are you seeing out there?
00:23:27:23 - 00:23:52:20
Rod Annear
Yeah, look, some of those towns that have really grasped the idea and businesses have really grasped the idea are seeing huge benefits and are attracting those families. So a place say, Margaret River, this is really quite a modest trial network there, but it's a really nice little pocket park. It's good for beginners, but if you're more experienced rider, there's enough to interest you there as well.
00:23:52:22 - 00:24:19:06
Rod Annear
And there's there's a few businesses that have built up just around that trail network that were initially one accommodation businesses right on the trail network was incredibly surprised that the whole market changed overnight. And so now people are booking a year ahead. They have the holiday and they booking a year ahead. And the hire services are going nuts in some places.
00:24:19:08 - 00:24:41:05
Rod Annear
You know, the shuttle services, there's transfer services, all these things that are kind of growing up around around the trials. And that's that's really exciting to see. But it's also really like mountain biking, like like lots of activities. And I don't think of it so much as a sport. There's a sport component of it, but that's really probably the smallest part.
00:24:41:07 - 00:25:04:23
Rod Annear
But even within the sport and within the activity itself, mountain biking brings a really nice vibe. It get people together. It's like if you imagine being in a ski town, you're in the resort, you all go out to ski during the day, you stop for lunch, you talk skiing, you finish. At the end of the day, you boast about how awesome you were or how the fall you had or while your arms in a sling or whatever, mountain biking is the same.
00:25:05:00 - 00:25:34:16
Rod Annear
So you go to places and you have that whole experience where everyone's there for the same thing and that's really cool. It's really cool to be part of and it just creates a really great vibe for the place.
David Karsten
I was wondering about that, having not experienced it myself, whether or not that there's this this growth in uptake of this activity, you know, whether the the facilities can support it and, you know, whether there is a is any, you know, crowding or or Yeah.
00:25:34:16 - 00:25:59:12
Any any moments where there might be conflicts. A strong word. But yeah, I mean like when when when something becomes hugely popular, there's a huge demand placed on resources. Has it happened yet or are we still at a really sort of sweet spot in the in the development of all of these networks?
Rod Annear
I don't think we've reached the point where we've got more people using the trials than they're capable of accommodating.
00:25:59:14 - 00:26:31:07
Rod Annear
One of the big challenges that we've got is working out how we better maintain what we've now got. So it's it's easy in the planning to say we're going to create this model that's going to be self-sustaining and people are going to contribute. There's a lot of work to do to make that happen. And and there is some great models out there, like the Bibbulman Track Foundation and the Munda Biddi Trail Foundation, where you've got these fantastic user groups who help you maintain the trials.
00:26:31:09 - 00:26:52:17
Rod Annear
But we need to do more than that. And around the world, there's a whole bunch of different models we've looked at. Some of them are direct where users pay, so you pay to play and some of them are indirect in some places which are trial destinations and other kinds of destinations have bed taxes, for instance, or they intercept some landing fees in Tassie.
00:26:52:17 - 00:27:11:21
Rod Annear
You know, you go there now, you're an international visitor, apart from Aussies, you pay a fee to come and that goes back into helping maintain what you're going there for in the first place. So there's a there's still some work to do on that, we’re part of the way there, but we need to do more to embed all those things.
00:27:11:21 - 00:27:41:10
Rod Annear
So we have a really sustainable model to work with.
David Karsten
It must be such an exciting thing for you both personally and professionally, to have been there for this entire phase of, I guess, of of development and then progress into this next ten year block.
Rod Annear
Yeah, it is exciting and it has been really rewarding. And yeah, there's lots of things that haven't gone well and there's so much more that has gone well.
00:27:41:12 - 00:28:14:20
Rod Annear
But mountain bikers, the really hardcore mountain bikers, are a pretty tough crowd, too. So they always want more. So they're really regular, you know, committed riders who've been there for the long haul. They're always looking for more and more and more and more. So they're pretty hard crowd to please. But putting that to one side, you know, mountain biking, if you think of it like a pyramid that really hardcore, really experienced, super skilled riders are right at the top of the pyramid and they're a very small part of the market.
00:28:14:22 - 00:28:38:23
Rod Annear
The main part is right down the bottom. It's those newbies, it's the people who've got a mountain bike in the shed and they might use it once or twice a year. It's the families. It's, you know, that's that's where most of the people are. So it's they're trying to get that balance between catering for the highly skilled, highly motivated and also catering for the masses.
00:28:39:00 - 00:29:04:21
David Karsten
Well, Paul, talking about the masses in terms of getting started in this activity as a family had, do you suggest families best prepare themselves to enjoy this safely?
Paul Braybrook
Yep. Going to somewhere with facilities is a great idea. As Rod was saying about the the place down south there is a campsite down south where they have bike hire there.
00:29:04:21 - 00:29:24:14
Paul Braybrook
You can stay there overnight is on the trailhead. So we've taken friends down there before and families who've come with us who have never ridden before. And the trails are easy, easy to ride. You have bikes accessible to them and you have somewhere to stay, which is on the trailhead in the middle of Margaret River, effectively. So you get to stay there in central Margaret River.
00:29:24:16 - 00:29:42:21
Paul Braybrook
So you can approach that and you can hire a bike, you can go for a ride, you can sort of dip your toes in the water and see if you enjoy it or not. And in terms of sort of, I guess, doing it safely, there's always whenever you hire a bike, you always have access to helmets, You always have access to protective gear.
00:29:42:21 - 00:30:02:07
Paul Braybrook
So they always give you the sort of the main protective items that you need. And if you don't have those things, these typically are the sort of stuff which are not expensive protective gear, from elbow pads, knee pads, things like this is not expensive. Helmets can be if you want to get a really good helmet. Personally, I always recommend to everyone, don't skimp on your helmet.
00:30:02:07 - 00:30:24:19
Paul Braybrook
If you skimp on anything, whatever it may be, don't make it the helmet, because that's the thing that's going to save your life. So yeah, apart from helmets you can set yourself up pretty cheaply. Rod Yes. For many years World Rally came to Perth and a lot of their stages were raised in the forests of the Southwest.
00:30:24:19 - 00:31:01:10
Paul Braybrook
And the drivers would note particularly the challenge of driving on our pea gravel as being something quite unique as a budding trail rider, a mountain biker. New to the activity are there skills that need to be learned to prepare yourself for our surfaces in the southwest. Yeah, that's a really good point. And some of the West Australian riders who've become elite credit the fact that they cut their teeth on pea gravel that hone their skills.
00:31:01:12 - 00:31:34:24
Paul Braybrook
But when you start out, you know, you go skiing, when you learn to ski, you go and do some lessons. So one of the first things you do is you get your gear and then you book in for a lesson and then you go and try out what you've learned. I'd really encourage people, if you're going to get into mountain biking in any kind of serious way, is just do a few lessons with a coach and you'll learn some really basic skills around cornering, around distribution of your weight, just some key skills around braking that are going to make your experience of the trail so much better.
00:31:35:01 - 00:32:10:05
Paul Braybrook
And it's going to build your skill level very quickly. And so rather than learning lessons through mishaps, you might avoid some of those those mishaps. So you stay on two wheels rather than face planting or washing your front wheel out. So yeah, just a few really quick tips. Some of the clubs do this as well. See, joining club can be a good thing as well and you'll learn as a newbie through other people talking to you about riding even basic things like, you know tire pressure can be so critical.
00:32:10:10 - 00:32:33:23
Paul Braybrook
And if you don't know that and you go in with rock hard tires and you're wondering why everyone else is cornering so easily and you're skidding all over the place, it can be a bit disconcerting. So you get some local knowledge and a coach can be a good place to start.
David Karsten
Well, Paul, even if you have that, there is still the scenario that often occurs where ambition outweighs talent.
00:32:34:00 - 00:32:53:06
David Karsten
What are the paramedics noting as one of the major contributors to those minor injuries that they're saying?
Paul Braybrook
Yeah, so we did some really good keyword analysis of text written by the paramedics. So when I attend a job, I would write okay sheet in the case. It will contain a quite detailed description of what I found, you know, what occurred, what treatment was given.
00:32:53:08 - 00:33:12:23
Paul Braybrook
So we did some Q analysis in here and we found around 25% of all of those cases, mountain biking incidents and concerning the word jump or jumping, jumped, you know, jump has something to do with why people are coming off the bikes in a lot of cases. And this is obviously probably a massive underreport. These are just the cases we found with that word in it.
00:33:13:00 - 00:33:35:08
Paul Braybrook
And speaking anecdotally, if I see my son learn to jump on his front wheel one more time, I'm going to scream because he is new to this. And as Rod sort of alluded to with coaching, his only coaching has been from his dad, who has told him 100 times not to learn to jump on his front wheel, and yet he continues to do so.
00:33:35:10 - 00:34:02:05
Paul Braybrook
And I think what we're seeing in the wider community is, as you do, step up through the levels you go from a green to a blue trail, you're probably not experienced with taking jumps and then you add in extra speed, you add in, as Ross said, that pea gravel, which is like riding on marbles, all of these factors and then you throw in a jump as well, which you're taking with a high velocity, there's a good chance you're not going to land the jump if you don't know what you're doing.
00:34:02:07 - 00:34:18:02
Paul Braybrook
So I would 100% echo what Rodd said in terms of get coaching or if you're not going to get coaching, step up slowly. Just work your way up to things, don't you would as you wouldn't go skiing to use that analogy and throw yourself down it a black run, so don't do it. Mountain biking.
David Karsten
Fair advice, Fair advice.
00:34:18:02 - 00:34:36:12
David Karsten
And look just on your son. I would suggest that perhaps if someone else else would give him the same advice, he would listen. It's just because you're his dad.
Paul Braybrook
I can tell you a story about my son. So he was desperate to go over mountain biking with just his dad. So we arranged a weekend away, down in Margaret River, just me and him doing mountain biking for two days.
00:34:36:14 - 00:34:53:23
Paul Braybrook
Day one, the first trial, he had his full face helmet and he had his regular helmet and he said, I don't want to wear my full face helmet. It's too hot. And I said, Yeah, no. I said, I'll carry you full force helmet. You wear your regular helmet. So he threw himself down his first trial, went over the handlebars, put his two through his lip.
00:34:54:00 - 00:35:12:23
Paul Braybrook
Then I had a very awkward conversation with his mum, who rightly said, Why wasn't he wearing his full face helmet? To which I'd say. Yeah, I told him he could not have to wear his full face helmet. So yeah, we learned, we learned the hard way. Unfortunately from that it's not the jumps that are the problem is it's the landing, - or the lack of.
00:35:13:00 - 00:35:38:00
David Karsten
Look, you're both part of this, this growth area coming at it from two, I guess, different angles, but overlapping at the same time. How have your paths crossed professionally?
Paul Braybrook
So I when I initially started this PhD into the research around the incidents that were occurring, Rod had already been doing some sort of work in the background around incidents as well.
00:35:38:02 - 00:35:57:06
Paul Braybrook
So my supervisor sort of made the introduction to us and we've had a few discussions from there about sort of where we want the research to go and other areas we think we can explore. Because what my data has done sort of from an epidemiological point of view is, you know, who is getting injured, why are they getting injured, what kind of injuries are they getting?
00:35:57:06 - 00:36:18:20
Paul Braybrook
We have all this information. But the next ultimate question is really why are these injuries occurring? And that's not something you necessarily get from a macro epidemiological study. That's something you need to really do at a micro level. Or I can sit down with my son and say, why did you crash? What were you doing to cause yourself to crash and try and understand the kinds of things which are causing these crashes.
00:36:18:22 - 00:36:42:02
And then once we know that Rod can obviously make implementations to sort of prevent those things from occurring.
David Karsten
Rod, has that been a real benefit?
Rod Annear
Absolutely, yeah. We're really data hungry, so we want to keep people safe, so we want them out there. But in whatever we do, whether it's walking, you know, mountain biking, climbing, whatever they're doing, we want people to be there but to be safe.
00:36:42:02 - 00:37:07:23
Rod Annear
So the more we know about the mechanisms that are leading to people coming unstuck, the more we can address that either through design, better design through better information to people. And perhaps it might be through better recommendations around what level of skill or how you need to approach a trial or might just be the marking on the trail.
00:37:07:23 - 00:37:33:14
Rod Annear
How we how we do it. So there's a whole range of different things we can do once we have a bit more information. I think the really good thing is out of out of the learnings that we've got already is that for the most part the injuries aren't really bad. So it's not like we're creating this, you know, huge storm of injuries and issues for people.
00:37:33:16 - 00:38:18:04
Rod Annear
And for the most part it's a good experience and good outcomes that people have. So it's around the edges of one of those things or those types of trials that are more likely to lead to problems. And how can we better either design or communicate to to stop that happening? It's really exciting and I guess refreshing to see an activity that that I guess has so much impact within the forest actually being, I guess, endorsed and worked with by the DBCA, who see this as as an opportunity to embrace people who are embracing our wildlife and, and our our flora.
00:38:18:06 - 00:38:39:07
Rod Annear
It's a real credit, I think, to, to the organization for taking this on and and helping, I guess, local economies around the South-West and seeing the potential of this as a as a way, like you say, of connecting us back with nature, perhaps in a in a more modern or a slightly different way to what we're used to.
00:38:39:09 - 00:38:58:12
Rod Annear
Yeah. Look, I guess my approach to it is fairly pragmatic one, and that is there are so many people out there doing it that if we don't do it in a sustainable way, they're going to do it anyway. We don't have the resources to be out there to stop people doing all the crazy things that they might want to do.
00:38:58:14 - 00:39:25:12
Rod Annear
So we need to approach it from a proactive point of view and say, How can we turn this around? And instead of being an issue, turn it into something positive. And, you know, there's there's other examples out there where the type of outcome that we've got from mountain biking we need to start so, you know, off road motorbikes for as another example, you know, there's people out there cutting up all over the place.
00:39:25:14 - 00:39:52:15
Rod Annear
And the problem with that is you can buy one legally, but there's really no place to legally ride it. So with mountain biking, it was a similar kind of issue and we've had some really good outcomes and made great progress. So I'm proud that we've been able to do that and to look at it from a what's the opportunity, not what's the problem, but just ignoring it and saying, no, you can't come here, you can't come here, was never, ever going to cut it and it would never work.
00:39:52:17 - 00:40:12:04
David Karsten
Well, Rod, Paul, it's been a really fascinating chat and I guess a really important juncture for the activity as a as it grows, as you look down, I guess, the barrel of the next ten years of of its development here in Western Australia. Thanks very much for coming in and talking to us about it. You're welcome. Thanks for having us, its my pleasure.
00:40:12:06 - 00:40:28:02
David Karsten
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