We all say we’re going to do it. But Stephen Wiggill sacrificed his garden, so his son could have somewhere to ride.
When you are young and don’t know the price of anything, there are projects you just cannot believe are unfeasible for the family backyard.
My personal department of private works project was to convince my dad to build a wave pool in the backyard of our ludicrously oversized suburban garden. I could see no purpose for a lawn that was illogically fed, watered and then mowed. As a child, I was rather keen on wave riding and just could not fathom why a smaller scale Lost City wave pool wasn’t practicable in the back of our suburban abode.
It is a misunderstanding that thousands of South African parents are presented with. Questioning that swiftly turns to cross-examination, by their five-year-olds, as to why they can’t have a wave pool, karting circuit, skate bowl or pump track in the backyard. Explaining the cost and sacrifice required in time and money, not to mention garden, is futile.
It’s what happened on Friday the 24th of February this year. Stephen Wiggill’s son Dylan asked him a question which made the Ybike sales, marketing, and operations man do what some of us imagine we could, but never would. Build an actual mini riding track in the garden. Dylan’s a desperately keen rider but with the Wiggill’s living in suburban Parklands, it has always been just too far away from the nearest quality track at Bloemendal, for the frequency of rides to be sufficient. That Friday evening, Stephen asked a simple question of his son: “If I build you a track in the garden, will you ride it?” The answer was obvious, and it was a 2017 suburban mountain bike moment from the original Field of Dreams script.
With some experience having built Ybike balance tracks, Stephen assumed he had a fair idea of what would be required. Cape Town’s crippling drought meant sacrificing the garden and lawn wasn’t much of an issue and after a bit more than a month of working every weekend and until dark each day after work, D-Spot was ready.
It is an amazing feat of suburban landscaping for the purpose of 16’ wheel and balance bike riding. Stephen has used every bit of what was once his garden to build Dylan a track with jumps, a proper wall ride, berms, rollers, rock garden and a little bridge. There is even a tidy roll-in platform with step-blocks, enabling Dylan to get himself and bike up to D-Spot’s momentum start point, safely and independently.
Don’t imagine the six-week project having been a leisurely pursuit. Stephen lost 6 kg building and wore through 5 pairs of gloves. Soon after starting, he realised this was not going to be quite as easy as laying a Scalextric track through the house on a rainy long weekend. “I think after getting two guys in on the first Saturday to help me lift the grass for the 60m long track which took all day and having 5 dumper loads of clay dropped over the wall that I had to move by hand and sift that I realized the task I had taken on. I made a sieve and it took me a week every night to sift five digger loads of clay. I then had to separate the bigger rocks that I could use for the track and the rest had to be dumped. I think I made a total of 28 trips to the dump in an SUV.”
Unsurprisingly, Dylan absolutely loves the track that carries his name. It’s the culmination of an ambition in the five-year old that started when he was a mere 9 months, on a Ybike Pewi. At the experienced age of two, Dylan was exploring the hallowed trails of Jonkershoek on his Ybike Balance, with dad Stephen running behind him. By four he upgraded to the current quiver of a 16-inch mountain bike (full rigid, the kid’s a traditionalist, you know) and a Ybike Session.
He has even made a promise to mom and dad, that there will be a reward for their investment in his riding and willingness to sacrifice the garden. “Dylan just wants to wear a full-face helmet and chest protector and go fast and do jumps! He loves downhill and dirt jumping. He has told us that when he’s ten he’ll do a backflip. He has 4.5 years to go.”
For Stephen, the issue is how to evolve D-Spot to accommodate Dylan’s growth spurts. As a dad who always appears to have a plan, there’s a contingency on the horizon. “We’ve actually spoken about an inflatable landing and progressive dirt jumps so that he can learn and perfect tricks. We have pumptracks all around us at the wine farms and we are always out on weekends so he’ll get plenty of pumptrack time on them.”
If you love riding, and have a pre-schooler who does too, but the very real demands of South African working hours and city traffic preclude you from taking junior to a proper venue sufficiency often, do what Stephen Wiggill did – and build your own. Be warned, though, it’s never going to be a simple weekend project. Stephen’s suffered through it, so best benefit from his experience.
“If you decide to do this, know that it’s going to be tough! Have an idea of what you want to do and what you will need to do it. If you are lucky enough to have a budget and get clay delivered, which is already sifted, that’s a big win. Wood cut to size too, and you can do this before you start, will save you a lot of time.”
Stephen estimates the entire D-Spot build was less than R1000, excluding his extensive investment in labour hours. “A lot of the suffering depends on your budget. If you are like me and decide to use old materials and scavenge (which is rather fun and rewarding when you find the perfect rock or you make a deal for some clay) then prepare to suffer a bit more. The biggest thing for me was doing all the manual labour on my own. If I could change anything I would have paid the guys who took the grass out on the first day to come back during the week and sieve and move dirt. That was back breaking and the worst part of the whole project.”
Dylan’s favourite rider? Well. That’s a rather an embarrassingly simple question to answer, isn’t it? The greatest ever. Greg. Minnaar. I think GM would most definitely approve of D-Spot’s design – and the principle behind it.
All told, though, Stephen did what many fathers wish they could. When his son asked for a home activity venue, he built one. D-Spot has become a rallying point for young riders in the area, who join to session Dylan’s track. Crucially, it enables five-year old kids to have an experience matchlessly more rewarding than any screen time.
