A New Chapter & New Leadership for HMBA
Meet the New HMBA President
Let me introduce myself, my name is Jason Wise. I’ve been an avid cyclist since early 2000; however, bikes have been a part of my youth and adult life all along. The addiction to two-wheel life began early on with bicycles, dirt bikes and street bikes. My love and appreciation for mountain biking began in 2002 where I lived in Bellingham, Washington for 9 years. I lived just a 5 minute pedal to Galbraith mountain trailhead and under 3 hours to Whistler, BC, making day trips very common.
Upon moving back to Indiana on a high from living in one of the best mountain bike communities in the US I looked for ways to begin helping HMBA at O’Bannon Woods State Park. I worked with HMBA & Subaru/IMBA trail care team, and this was the start of our Groupcamp trail. This is when I met Paul Alringhaus, Alex Steward, Chad Irey and many others. Unfortunately, I lost touch with most everyone I had met that week, and this is when I really started to doubt how this beautiful piece of property was going to become that riding destination I had hoped for.
The trail building team was small but mighty back then, some of the trail builders are still digging to this day at O’Bannon. Efforts were made by some hardworking individuals before my time at O’Bannon to rally the riders to build & maintain, but communicating with the masses and getting more public awareness was needed. Being local to the park and really wanting to see where things could go here, I decided to get more engaged. I created the O'Bannon Woods Mountain Biking Facebook page and slowly started growing our bike community. My hope was to grow our team by bringing awareness to our trail system and our dig days.
Since really taking charge and leading efforts at O’Bannon, we now have several very dedicated volunteers that are excited about OBWMTB, logging more than 10,000 volunteer hours and counting. We build, maintain, and improve our trail system throughout the year. This great trail system we have would not be possible without our volunteers. 2023 alone we had 72 different volunteers with a total of 1,349 hours digging, sawing, leaf blowing, armoring, etc. O’Bannon has classic tight singletrack, backcountry singletrack, and likely one of the best flow trails in the region. Not known for being an easy trail system, you can expect these trails to have a mix of tight, rock, roots, fast, flow, and jumps, and yes, even the occasional hike-a-bike. Many have said if you ride 10-15 miles at O’Bannon you can double that mileage elsewhere in our region for the same amount of time.
I take considerable pride in what we have accomplished at O’Bannon. Our story is an example of how combining patience, passion, determination, hard work, teamwork, & vision can & will yield positive results. We host an annual bike festival on the first full week of November each year called the O’Bannon Woods Adventure Ride (OWAR) and cap at the first 225. This event is something I’ve overseen the growth of from just 12 riders to the 225 we are now, each year trying to make subtle improvements.
Also during this time, we have built a great relationship with our land managers at both the State Parks and State Forest. Communication and strong working relationships are key to growth with our volunteers, bike community, and land managers.
I’m excited to work with our talented leadership team as we move onto the next chapter for HMBA. We have some very passionate board members, which we will formally introduce to you later. Each will bring new ideas, new solutions, and new vision to our association, while remaining aware of what has made HMBA successful for several years, and the ideals that make up the core of this organization.
I understand while being on the HMBA board for many years it will be different sitting as the acting president. A seat that was previously filled by Paul Arlinghaus, a very skilled, knowledgeable, and successful friend who has always tried to do his best for all Hoosier mountain bikers.
I’m a believer of sharing my goals so you can hold me accountable, as well so our leadership team knows the direction I would like our association to strive toward.
My initial goals being president of HMBA will be
First and foremost, learning how to be a great 501c3 president.
Working with our very talented leadership team.
Maintaining the commitment Paul brought to HMBA for many years.
Updating HMBA Website
Improve communication with our community via our website, social media platforms, and the newsletter.
Improving communication/relationship with land managers.
Increasing HMBA membership
Assist other chapters with growing their event and fundraising efforts.
Helping other trail builders and advocates when needed with trail design ideas, networking, resources, and more.
We’ll take a deeper look into these goals in the months ahead. First thing first is working with our new board to put together our 2024 and beyond plan. I look forward to leading HMBA through our next chapter.
Jason
