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<\/a><\/p>\nThe son of a Kruger game ranger, Patrick qualified as a quantity surveyor and spent years being meticulous about the built environment. In 2011, he decided all the construction he would ever want to do, had been done. After working on the One&Only Cape Town resort project, Patrick decided to retire his QS materials ledger and laser pointer, and left for Spain.<\/p>\n
What was supposed to be a European solution to never building anything again, serendipitously became an evolution: from QS to trail-builder. It was during his Valencia sabbatical that Patrick started riding mountain bikes seriously, on those amazingly raw trails that Spain\u2019s Mediterranean mountains are renowned for.<\/p>\n
Riding flamed an obsession which soon rekindled his building skills too, as Patrick started to work the trails with locals in southern Spain. After returning to South Africa, he applied for the vacant position of Tygerberg Mountain Bike Club (TMB) trail manager. Without a portfolio of work or any notable experience Patrick was appointed and a few years later, he serves the largest mountain bike club in South Africa with 120 kilometres of trails.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t think they\u2019d appoint me, but it\u2019s been the best job ever since. Although having 7000 bosses can be challenging. But I love being out in nature, creating something sustainable and enjoyable within the ecosystem.\u201d<\/p>\n
The man in the middle<\/h2>\n
Today Patrick lives amid the trail network he built, at Hoogekraal farm \u2013 ironically, the first trail project he salvaged. \u201cI remember coming here during the initial project scoping and it was merely going to be a gravel grinder route. Bennett Nel was involved and I could see he was both a gifted rider and builder. He also recognised that my Spanish riding experience has given me a broader understanding of what could be done than was prevalent in the South African thinking framework at that time regarding trails.\u201d<\/p>\n
Patrick resolved to make Hoogekraal a proper project and even today it remains a signature trail, evolving \u2013 and offering an engaging riding experience for everyone. \u201cI apply the 10% rule with my trail-building: ignore the top 10% of technical riders and the bottom 10% of people who possess marginal bike skills. I want to keep the 80% in the middle happy \u2013 I have to, that\u2019s where the bulk of membership money sources from and ultimately they\u2019re subsidising everyone else.\u201d<\/p>\n His success in servicing the demands of South Africa\u2019s largest club have been anchored in the synergy of two skills, ordinarily not found in those who craft singletrack for a living: an acute ecological conscience and innate quantitative ability. \u201cIf you build, you are disturbing nature. And I love nature, it\u2019s the consequence of growing up on the border of Kruger Park. We\u2019re building on private land \u2013 yes \u2013 but I still want to keep it as ecologically sustainable as I can. And with that, are the latent building industry principles I refined in my professional career before: quality, time, money.\u201d<\/p>\n Despite constructing trails littered with features signifying progression, it\u2019s impossible to keep everyone happy, but the cost of doing that would defeat the object of trail-building in itself. An issue unrecognised by most. \u201cFundamentally, I know that most of the trails we are building are for what you\u2019d class as blue riders. Bikes are getting better, people are upskilling a bit each year \u2013 and I\u2019m trying to add features, but to keep many of the trails sustainable, instead of them eroding into ruin, they require smoothing out in winter.\u201d<\/p>\n Patrick does not want to leave a legacy of unrehabilitable trails. \u201cPeople complain that I\u2019m making trails a highway, but I need to at times \u2013 or they\u2019ll erode to a point where you\u2019re ruining the surrounding ecology too \u2013 and that\u2019s just unacceptable; I don\u2019t care how much you value perceived gnar.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s evident Patrick loves the mindfulness of mountain biking, that focus of purpose it brings to people descending trails \u2013 and how it can banish the dark thoughts that cloud us after a testing day, when we\u2019re cranking out a climb, away from everyone and everything else.<\/p>\n For him, the rewards are not financial or even acknowledgement from riders. \u201cWhen I see a skilled rider descending one of my builds, and he\u2019s interpreting it in a way I never could, and loving it. That is my stoke. Similarly, when I see an average rider, having an immersive experience \u2013 being out in nature, facilitated by our trail network \u2013 it\u2019s as rewarding to me.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\nHard work \u2013 with an intangible reward<\/h2>\n