Bike park opening completes dream of fallen Nanaimo athlete
NANAIMO — A little more than a year after losing a hero, Nanaimo’s cycling community now has a world class bike park to cement his legacy.
Hundreds of people packed Beban Park on Wednesday to officially open the Stevie Smith Bike Park. After years of existing as little more than a concept, the project surged to reality over the last year. Sitting beside the existing BMX park, the new features include a dirt jump course and pump track.
Tianna Smith, Stevie’s mother, said in her last conversation with her son he spoke of his dream of buying property and building dirt jumps so he could start teaching other kids. She said it was his way of offering something he never had access to as a child.
“We went to every skate park that was ever built on the island. I knew where every set of dirt jumps in the bush were because that’s what we had to do. Now they can come here and there’s everything. He would be so stoked.