AmaRider is fast becoming the leaders in general trail management, risk management programs and trail sustainability, says Meurant Botha. Whether you’re a farm or club owner, or just a rider, AmaRider is an organization that you should know about.
With trail affiliates around the country, AmaRider is leading the way in creating a trails management forum that strives to maintain a positive risk profile while the sport is experiencing tremendous growth.
While many farm owners have turned to mountain biking as an additional source of income, most clubs and trail managers are relying on the goodwill of private properties to allow trails to criss-cross their properties without any remuneration or alternative return. But as the sport is increasingly seen as, and in many cases is, a commercial concern more and more landowners are asking the question: “What’s in it for us?”
It is one thing to give away access for free, but a totally different proposition when the ‘donor’ is exposed to risk and liability.
It is here that AmaRider steps in, with a well-developed and workshopped risk management programme to ensure that trail systems operate on a standardised model, thus ensuring that trail operators and land owners can refer to a best-practice model. Based on IMBA (The International Mountain Bicycling Association) guidelines, the programme addresses issues like signage and trail grading to ensure that users can make informed decisions when accessing trails and routes.
“A recurring question is that of insurance. What if someone gets hurt and decide to sue?”
Additionally, AmaRider provides IMBA based design advice to ensure trail sustainability. More and more trails are accessing conservation areas and without proper environmental guidelines the trail building fraternity runs the risk of finding itself on the wrong side of the law. To address this, AmaRider is in the final stages of completing a very important environmental guideline document to ensure that trail builders comply with South African environmental legislation as prescribed by NEMA (The National Environmental Management Act) and subsequent amendments.
A recurring question is that of insurance. What if someone gets hurt and decide to sue? Thanks to the support of major land owners like SAPPI, AmaRider has been able to develop an insurance policy to assist clubs and land owners who operate trails to obtain insurance to further bolster risk management strategies. It is very important to understand that insurance is pretty useless without a risk management strategy that is actually followed through. Furthermore, the effectiveness in this programme is the combined strength brought along by a collective. The more trail systems subscribing to the strategy, the lower the collective risk.
AmaRider achieves the above by employing full time staff and of course, fundraising. The main revenue streams are the TrailTag system, memberships and donations, consulting and our management of programs like the Spur Schools MTB League. The League is of course the perfect platform from which to launch our trail advocacy efforts – it’s also a programme that we are very, very proud of.
Our fundraising efforts allow us to subsidise our services, making it easy for trail affiliates to run slicker, more sustainable operations. By ensuring that the foundations of our trail industry are solid, riders can look forward to many years of enjoyable riding to come.
