If you’ve ever ridden the Whistler Mountain Bike Park (WMBP) and you happen to have picked up an issue of Pique last week, I hope you enjoyed reading the cover feature (“Flow state: Looking back on 25 years of progression in the Whistler Mountain Bike Park”) as much as I enjoyed writing it. The story of how the WMBP rose to play such a pinnacle role in the sport of mountain biking is one every Whistler mountain biker should be familiar with, if only to deepen their appreciation of what they’re able to ride on Whistler Mountain between May and October.
Like with any feature story, time and space constraints meant I couldn’t include everything. There was just too much history, too many people involved, and so many nuances to cover. At some point as a writer you have to choose the path of the story and let some things lie on the editing room floor. But there’s one story thread to the WMBP’s history I couldn’t leave behind, hence this addendum: The story of Gravity Logic.
You may have heard the name Gravity Logic (GL) before. It’s a Whistler-based planning, design and construction company specializing in bike parks which now consults and builds all over the world. If you’ve ridden any of the WMBP’s signature trails like A-Line, B-Line or Top of the World, or have ever taken a lap down Earth Circus to Creekside, you’ve ridden GL’s trails. If you’ve ridden a bike park at a resort in the last 20 years, you’ve probably ridden GL’s trails, or at least trails they had a hand in planning and designing. The company began as an in-house consulting department under Whistler Blackcomb (WB) with WMBP general manager Tom “Pro” Prochazka at the helm. Business development manager Rob McSkimming served as the liaison between GL and WB’s senior management team.
“When we got the idea of consulting to other destinations, Rob brought it up with higher management, who replied, ‘Why would you want to teach our competition how to build bike parks?’” Prochazka said in an interview with Single Tracks podcast. “Our response was, ‘If we don’t have any other resorts building bike parks—quality bike parks—we’re not going to grow, because the sport won’t grow.’ They reluctantly bought into it.”
WB’s management was coming from the perspective of winter-resort business, which had already been very competitive for decades. But Prochazka noted bike parks around the world end up having a more symbiotic relationship; you develop riders locally and regionally, and those riders will go on to seek other bike parks and trail destinations around the world.
To McSkimming, that made sense in the long run.
“If we played a role in helping make this happen around the world, our slice of the overall pie may end up being smaller, but the pie was going to be way, way bigger,” he said. The Gravity Logic team travelled to bike parks all over the world and brought their expertise, but they also returned home with learnings of their own.
As mountain biking and bike parks began their rapid growth globally, the services of GL were in such high demand it was starting to stretch how much focus the group could place on the WMBP’s innovation and development. In 2007, Fortress Investment Group acquired WB, another factor that made it the right time to sell GL and separate it from WB’s assets. Prochaszka, OG bike park trail designer and builder Dave Kelly, and Squamish trail contractor Rob Cocquyt bought the company, which has since consulted to more than 75 riding destinations worldwide, with dozens of bike parks commissioned under Gravity Logic’s planning, building, management and maintenance.
The WMBP surpassed one million unique riders all the way back in 2011, with a good chunk of that crowd visiting from far away to ride its famous trails. A smaller portion of those visiting mountain bikers returned home with the desire to build and improve trails in their own regions, or even develop bike parks and trail centres. When those projects received the funding and investment they needed, GL was there to lend its expertise and experience—for a price, of course, but one well worth the money in the long run for burgeoning mountain-bike destinations.
Few places have benefited from this locally-grown think tank as much as Whistler itself. Besides the staple trails like A-Line and B-Line that helped launch WMBP onto the global mountain bike scene, GL is still doing stellar work that makes Whistler the best bike park in the world. Top of the World now has multiple descent options once the alpine trail reaches treeline, including “slackcountry” trails that scratch the adventure itch and test riders’ endurance at the same time. The Creekside Zone now has the scale and variety that it could basically operate as its own bike park. All this with the minds of Gravity Logic helping make the magic happen behind the scenes.
The next time you have that amazing park session or clear all of A-Line’s jumps with the perfect speed, give a salute to WMBP’s amazing trail crew. But also give a nod to the architects of good times at Gravity Logic.
Vince Shuley is ready for some laps. For questions, comments or suggestions for The Outsider, email [email protected] or Instagram @whis_vince.
