MTB: Masters of Rotorua's empire of dirt

STOKED: Big air at Skyline Gravity Park. PHOTO/GRAEME MURRAY

Putting a bike park together is a massive job.

The new Gravity Park at Skyline opened back in August. It was the end result of months of work by a big team, including Tak Mutu from Mountain Bike Rotorua and trail builders, Empire of Dirt.

Jamie Mead was one of the key components in this. He's 'MTB operations manager' for the park. He took the original idea, implemented the plan and, now the park is set up, he runs it day to day.

The 34-year-old first rode mountain bikes growing up in rural Clevedon, south of Auckland. He got involved in adventure tourism 15 years ago.

"I worked at Franz Josef Glacier as a sea-kayak and raft guide and outdoor instructor," says Jamie.

"I met Tak when we were both raft guides."

After time in Canada, Jamie returned to Auckland in 2008.

"Not too much guiding up there and I needed a stimulating job," he continues. "So police it was, mainly on the streets of Manurewa for six years."

He still continued guiding in Rotorua through that time.

"The outdoors and being active was always my passion, it feels natural."

He began to look around for opportunities to get back into the industry. However, with his level of knowledge and experience he wanted to own or manage a business.

"I'd spent a year trying to find something suitable when one day Tak called and said 'Bro, I might have a job for you at Skyline'," says Jamie.

"Inside a month, I'd left the police and moved to Rotorua, with my wife and kids following six weeks later."

Starting in April the work required seven days a week of commitment to build an international-level park and to meet the opening deadline.

"When I came in I had a whole operation to set up and I was fortunate to have Adam King and Chris Martin from Empire of Dirt and their crew building the trails," adds Jamie. "We spent a lot of time talking about how things would work and it was great having them to call on with their experience.

"I think people could see the potential for the park, so they were generally keen to get on board with sponsorship and advice and the people in Rotorua really impressed me."

The trails went in, the gondola was already there and the team created the necessary infrastructure.

"They're all awesome people. One thing I pat myself on the back for is hiring a bloody good team."

While it was a satisfying process, the work isn't over yet.

"We want to build the park into an absolute destination of choice and make Crankworx Rotorua, next March, the biggest and best extreme sports event New Zealand has ever hosted," says Jamie. "At the moment I'm loving it and life isn't too bad - after all I have a gondola-assisted gravity park to play in."

If you're not an experienced rider, don't get too nervous Simple Jack is grade 3 and is a gentler introduction to the trails after a quiet, relaxing ride up in the gondola. All six trails have soft lines around the more challenging sections.