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Canadian Has a Skating Track in His Back Yard
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( * Article Introduction * )
This is the 2nd Home Track Alex Built
I live in southwestern Ontario the town of Harriston. We have 18 acres on a
bush lot. Most of my neighbours still drive horses and buggies. This is
actually the second track we have built. The first track was quite narrow
and not symetrical. It did serve to host the 2000 Nationals and a great
clinic hosted by Robb Dunn and Jay Ingram.
Building the Track
This track took over 500 loads of gravel to build up the banks and level
everything. It is now truly a CIC bank track. In Belgium I was asked many
times why a place like Canada has never hosted Worlds. With my plan to build
the track in my mind, the thought of Worlds fueled the fire. During the
process I had to learn many new skills, from lumberjack to surveyer to
general conractor. This saved me a small fortune. It was a tremendous amount
of work but never the less a labour of love.
Title
I had no idea what bank track skating was all about until I ran into Jan
Porter in 1998 at a coaches convention in Las Vegas. She invited me out to
Colorado to the OTC to work with a group of US coaches (including my buddy
Linda Wood). It was great, I was hooked and have made the trip on several
other occasions since as well as coaching and refereeing at the Brian
Picholo facility in Florida. I wanted to put a total package together for
clubs and skaters and this is what is presently going on. We built a fitness
facility with a good compliment of comercial strength and cardio machines
and most recently a spinning studio for classes of 12.
Future Plans
What's my plans for the future? There is already room for lots of camping
but I am trying to purchase two good size cottages and have dorms. A few
other minor plans would be a beach volleyball court and an obstacle coarse
c/w LOTS of mud. It will be open to skaters from around the world to come
skate, enjoy the fresh air and have a blast. The reason it has taken me so
long to build everything is the fact all the funding has been out of pocket.
I had a nice letter from the Canadian Olympic Association bet no financing.
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Related Links
Alex Perrie Bio and Photo
Index to All Skaters by Country
Skating in Canada
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