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Kayak, snowboard, mountain board demos highlight GearFest

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By Ken McCall, Staff Writer 10:45 PM Thursday, September 24, 2009

In its fifth year, GearFest, the annual outdoor recreation extravaganza sponsored by Five Rivers MetroParks, will be bigger than ever.

The free event starts next Friday evening, Oct. 2, with a concert and food vendors in Eastwood MetroPark. A Courteous Mass bike ride on Friday afternoon will run from Fifth Third Field out to the park. Free camping will be offered Friday and Saturday nights in the park as well.

And that’s just the beginning of the schedule, which can be found at metroparks.org/gearfest. The event will include about 70 gear and food vendors, but the biggest expansion will be in the activities and demonstrations offered on Saturday and Sunday, said Tom Helbig, special events coordinator for the park district.

The demos will include a mountain biking team, professional whitewater kayakers, snowboard demonstrations (that’s right, they’re bringing the snow with them) and — for the first time ever — a mountain boarding team.

Mountain boarding, in case, like me, you’d never heard, is riding a skateboard with big wheels on dirt trails.

“We’re excited about these guys,” Helbig said of the MBS Big Air Demo Team from Colorado. “They are high flyers. They’re bringing in some big ramps, and they’re going to be doing flips and twists and wowing crowds all day long.”

The kayak pool will feature, among others, Jeremy Laucks, who this month took first place in OC-1 division at the Freestyle Kayaking World Championships in Switzerland. He’ll be doing six demonstrations throughout the day, Helbig said, and will be available for autographs after his shows.

Other free activities will include a climbing wall; a seven-mile bike ride led by the Dayton Cycling Club; a three-mile hike along the Buckeye Trail, which runs through the park; geocaching; a disc golf course; the Youth Zone, which features activities for youngsters from five organizations; and a “Try Kayaking” area on the Mad River.

The kayaking venue, put on by Whitewater Warehouse, will provide several kinds of kayaks — whitewater, recreational and fishing — to try out on a flat, half-mile section of the river. Register at the information tent and try out new and used kayak models.

Then, for the more experienced, there will be competitions in climbing, mountain biking, kayaking, kayak fish casting, river rescue, freestyle snowboarding and disc golf.

“We want people to come to GearFest for more than just to buy gear,” said Helbig, an avid fly fisher, kayaker, backpacker and bicyclist. “Our goal is to really promote all that’s cool and fun about the outdoor lifestyle. We want people to try different activities and hopefully start to realize all these activities are available right here in Dayton.”

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