Ben: Terrain Park Design

Model of the project site (material:  plasticine).  Image and object created by Ben.

Hello! My name is Ben Baird, and I’m a junior at Kildonan. This is my first year in Edge. My plan is to push my education as much as possible and to make a really impressive project with the time I have. My project is based on terrain park design and mountain bike trail-building. For those of you who don't know what that is, at almost all ski mountains there is some kind of terrain park with jumps, rails (hand railings), and jibs (anything to jump on or tap) to ride. Mountain bike trail-building involves clearing wooded areas, building features (like jumps), and moving obstacles (rocks and roots) to create trails for different riders skill levels. This is a career I want to pursue after school.

The first thing I did was research. I started reading articles like crazy. I also watched a bunch of snowboard videos trying to find new features I could add to my park. I realize that I'm a hands-on learner, so I decided I wanted to build something.  Also its an opportunity for me to do something really fun and cool that will make me stick out when I'm looking for a job or college.

A schematic of Ben's tail-tap feature.
Original design created by Ben.

I wanted this park to be challenging but also fun: the amount of manpower I have (just me)...and the time limit I have (winter isn't long and is unpredictable)...factored into this decision. I've learned a lot already, more than I thought I would. Since snowboarding is my passion, I thought I would already know most of it.  I thought I would be just checking my information.   

Anyway, I came up with a plan to draw the park, make a model of the park, make the features, and, finally, shape the snow and complete the park. I talked to Ms. Charlap, Mr Rivera, and Mr. Bisson about my plan, and they were able to get me plasticine: a type of modeling clay that doesn’t require firing. I made a model base at home, and when I showed it to Ms. Charlap she told me it would be really cool if I could add feet to it to make it the exact angle of the hill. So I decided to measure the hill in a few spots. I dug into the hill with a trowel, making a 90 degree angle. Then, I double checked with a level to make sure it was 90 degrees. Then, I took a protractor and measured the angle of the hill. The first time I did this I made a really, really, really silly math error and measured with the protractor incorrectly. However, after I fixed that I found out that the steepest part was 30 degrees and the flattest part was 10 degrees. It worked out perfectly because the base of the model was perfectly 10 degrees (which was the steepest angle possible).

Then, I thought realistically: what can I build? I wanted something fun but challenging. I designed the park to have rollers (snowy bumps to catch speed on), berms (banked turns), rails (hand rails), jumps, and jibs (anything to jump on).  However, things changed after that. For instance, I changed my mind on the type of rails I was making. I also changed my mind on the type of jib. Instead of having an old barrel as the jib, I wanted to make a wind chime so that, when you tail tap, it makes a noise. This was a idea me and my father came to on the phone.

Ben's project site:  the hill (a.k.a. "Big Bertha") at The Kildonan School. 
Image taken by Ben.

After making some changes, I started to lay out the base. Because of the limited space on the model, I designed it so that the most important features would have the most room. I did this because I know this won't be a problem on the hill because it has plenty of room. Then, I added the clay in the spaces at the angle they’re supposed to be, added the jumps and landings, bent paper clips to make rails, and made a mini-wind chime.

Ben at work on his tail-tap.  Image taken by Ms. Charlap.

I started to design a wind chime. I knew it needed to be tall because, if it's too short, it would have to be next to the landing (which you would be coming at too fast). It had to be tall enough to be at the highest point of the jump where you're going the slowest (because you're transitioning from arcing up to arcing down). This is so nobody gets hurt. I wanted it to have legs so that it could be as tall as possible. When you put it in the ground, you lose height overall. I chose steel and copper pipes as the materials of the actual wind chime (tail tap). After I finished the design, I had one big problem: I needed wood, and it had to be scrap wood. One of the goals of my project was to make this whole park by repurposing stuff. I lucked out because Mrs. Charlap had a 9 foot piece of cedar wood that was 5 inches by 6 inches. It even had a notch (“mortise”) in the top for me to attach the arm to the pole. Then, when I came home a little later, my father, my friend, Owen, and I went and got scrap wood. We cut a “tenon” to about the size of the other notch (“mortise”) and brought it back to school to join together.

Currently I am working on assembling my wind chime stand. I have the arm and eye hook fully attached, so all that's left are the legs. I'm also finishing up a proposal for a possible summer job building mountain bike trails for the Village of Lake George (spoiler!). Soon I will be fixing and preparing some old hand rails for the park. Also, Mrs. Charlap and I are going to get some art students to paint some big cardboard cylinders as tail taps. Then, it is just a waiting game for the first big storm!