Rob Phoenix, Squamish BC
Rob was born and raised in Burnaby then moved to North Van where he lived at the base of Seymour and was introduced to mountain biking by some friends who lived in Deep Cove. One summer in the late-80’s, he got a job at the Deep Cove Bike Shop. As he didn’t actually know much about bikes aside from how to ride them, he was put in charge of selling helmets and shoes. Everyone who worked for Chaz got a nick name and Rob was aptly named “Helmet-Shoe”. Not super original or creative, but hey, it worked.
Rob spent lots of time riding the North Shore and Burnaby Mountain (where he later taught me how to mountain bike), raced recreationally, and even took part in the World Police & Fire games when they were held in Greater Vancouver. All in all, Rob has over 30 years of cycling under his belt.
Shortly after moving to Squamish just over six years ago, Rob quickly became involved in trail maintenance and volunteer trail building. His first build was when he helped his friend, Gary McFarlane, with parts of Somewhere Over There. Then he helped with Rupert, one of Squamish’s go-to trails and after some logging, he helped re-create Plum Smugglers.
In 2015, Gary asked Rob for some help building an easier ride-around trail on Rupert with the purpose of it being for future use in BCBR. Having recently lost our family dog, Tazer, Gary hinted that he knew what to call the new trail. As such, Tazer’s Alternate was born! Rob didn’t just build a regular old trail though. He made it fun and flowy and even went so far as to build a massive memorial dog house right in the middle of the trail for riders to pass through. If riders stop and check out the dog house, they’ll see a bench to one side and a wall where anyone and everyone can hang their beloved pet’s tags, forever in memoriam. The dog house was hand-built by two father and son teams, Rob and my dad, and a local bike shop owner and his dad.
Having gotten the itch for building his own trail, Rob started planning his next trail. This new one, which shall remain nameless until Rob’s Trail Name Release Party on January 28th, is twice the length of Rupert at 1600 meters, is a blue trail with black ride-arounds (opposite to the norm) and features plenty of woodwork, including a special hand-built wharf (pictured here – not quite finished).
There’s nothing normal, same old, same old, or even standard about this trail (except for the level of craftsmanship, of course). He has spent hours talking with seasoned trail builders, including Dan Raymond from Whistler who just built Lord of the Squirrels, making sure this build is absolutely top notch and sustainable for years to come.
Rob has also made the creation a real community effort. He went around to businesses in the community and generated different levels of sponsorship. For example, Nesters Market provided food for many of the trail days, Squamish Terminals provided some super cool old barge rope for the wharf, Rona provided some wood and nails, and I paid for the t-shirts on behalf of my real estate business. In total, Rob had 11 sponsors jump on board! Nesters Market, Rona, The Nest Restaurant, Dream Wizards, Diamondhead Dental, Ridge to Valley Construction, Studio Kik, Squamish Terminals, Generation Woodworks, SORCA and Macdonald Realty (Julie Phoenix and Jack Fowler).
He has invited friends and family members to have a hand in building this trail and even had an all women Trail Fairy day in conjunction with Isabelle Jacques from Bell Joyride and 7Mesh. In total, there have been 93 volunteers from the community so far and they have logged almost 1,400 volunteer hours (with the estimate of completion taking about 2,000 hours when it opens in the spring). And then the snow happened and put everything on hold…but Rob didn’t stop there.
During the time when the trail was curing under the blanket of snow, he designed t-shirts to give to all his volunteers, had a video made and decided to throw a party for everyone who has helped out. The party will be held at the end of January and at this party, the name of the trail will finally be released.
In addition to trail building in Squamish, Rob is an avid mountain biker and dog lover. He started racing recreationally years ago but in 2015, was invited to join Team Whistler. He has had tough competition in his age group and has achieved some awesome podium
places. One of his favourite experiences racing was when he shot out like a rocket at the start of a toonie race and was in the lead for the first minute or so going up Jack’s Trail. He said there was a strange quietness and he could even hear the birds chirping, and he thought to himself, “wow, this is what it feels like to be in the lead”…until a couple of the elite dudes put him in his place as they rode up beside him asking to get by.
As he just turned 50, Rob is looking forward to continued success in his new age group this year. People often ask him how he stays so fit and he jokes and says, “Whiskey and cigarettes”. In truth, he’s very healthy, rides his bike a tonne, and I think he mostly likes the social aspect of it all best. He can often be heard saying, when asked how he does so well in races, “I’m just trying to keep up!”
We signed up for BCBR together this year (well, not really “together” as in a team, but together as in we are going the event together but will be riding solo in our respective categories), as it is something we have wanted to do for years. Being Rob’s 50th and my 40th this year, we figured it would be the perfect way to celebrate these milestones.
Please consider Rob as a contender for a nomination for the Kazlaw Community Award Contest. He works so hard at everything he does, is humble and really deserves some awesomeness to come his way.
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