“After years of promoting and advocating for mountain biking in Maui, the Maui Mountain Bike Coalition is embarking on its biggest journey yet, building a community bike park,” the bike park’s gofundme page reads. “In April 2024, we secured a lease for five acres of land in Napili, just 10 minutes north of Lahaina town, which is still in very early stages of recovery from the August 8, wildfire that displaced over 10,000 residents.”

Ray Watson is the president of the coalition and is “stoked” for the bike park after working toward the goal for many years now, and especially in light of the tragedy that occurred in Lahaina last year.

“At the end of the day, we are building the park regardless, but the more funds we have, the more we can scale the project to be completely finished,” Watson said of the project. “It’s an epic project. It’s the first free public biking park on private land as far as I know on Maui and possibly in Hawaii.”

As of Wednesday, the project’s gofundme page had raised $3,245 of their goal of $100,000 to give the community something they have never had before. The project is not solely relying on the donations they are receiving via platforms like gofundme, but it is a crowdsourcing avenue that the coalition will try to take advantage of the best they possibly can to make the park something unique and special.

An aerial view show the site of the future bike park in Napili.

Co-founder of the coalition, Aaron “Moose” Reichert sees the project as something that gives the community and the youth an opportunity to use a physical activity to transition trauma from the mental to physical state. He has seen this take place as the owner of Krank Cycles in Makawao.

“It’s a needed resource, just not for biking on the island, but for the community there,” Reichert said of the bike park.

Reichert recalls a moment a few weeks after the fire last August where he witnessed the transformation of trauma in the youth. He and others went around after the fires and were giving away bikes to affected youths like they were, “Ice cream.”

“Napili was the main hub and so we’d give bikes away there and one time we were up there and there was about 30 kids and they were riding their bikes,” Reichert said. “The Fire Department, and all kinds of guys were up there and they were tripping out about these kids having so much fun.”

It was a moment where the joy and happiness in the children overtook the grief and trauma that laid just below the surface. It made Reichert think that at that moment, these kids were not thinking about their houses that burned down, or the trauma they had endured. They were focused on the bikes. It’s one of the reasons Reichert is confident the bike park will be a great addition to the community and children who will frequent the park.

“It’s crucial that our community members have a safe space for recreation to improve their physical and mental health, and with so much of our town lost to the fires, our resources which were already limited are now even more strained. Our keiki lost the skatepark, community pool, basketball courts, baseball fields, playgrounds, and access to multiple surf spots,” the gofundme page (https://www.gofundme.com/f/lahainabikepark) reads.

The coalition partnered with mountain bike legend Cam Zink, who has called Maui home since 2022. Zink is fresh off winning the 2023 Redbull Rampage and has graciously offered his expertise to help build the bike park to give back to the Maui community that has embraced him and his family.

The building of the bike specific trails will be performed by his trail building company Sensus RAD Trails who has built countless projects around the country.

“We have been building mountain bike trails and parks all over the country and the impact on the community, especially with the youth is absolutely incredible,” Zink told the Maui News on Wednesday. “The positivity, sustainability and sheer joy can uplift a community through a new sport where progression, experiencing the outdoors, exercise and new friendships are enjoyed.”

Zink said he hopes this build and piece of land will hopefully be a hallmark and the beginning of many more trail systems and bike parks on Maui.