It has been a busy end to 2012 for the club. It may be the holidays, but as we roll into the race season, it is still busy as ever. In this edition of the newsletter we have  a summary of what has been happening and what to look forward to in 2013. Here's hoping the weather is kind over the rest of the holiday season so we can all get out and enjoy some riding!

Way back in August, the committee put in an application for charitable status. After some toing and froing, we received the good news in the middle of December. 

The club is now a "not for profit incorporated society with charitable status" (quite a mouthful). This means that it will be easier for us to apply for funding and that any one who wants to make a donation to the club can receive a tax credit. We will be firing up our donations page on the site in the New Year.

If you signed up for club membership via one of our events, you may need to go back and complete your membership by accepting the club rules and long gully waiver on your web site profile. 

Simply log into the club site, and use the "View Profile" link on the left hand side under the navigation. Use the edit tab and make sure that you have accepted the rules and waiver then save.

If you are under 18, you will need to provide details of a parent or guardian you can accept these on your behalf. In order to ride the Long Gully Trails, you must accept these rules and conditions. 

A reminder that you must have a 4WD vehicle with a valid Welly MTB Club car pass to shuttle Long Gully outside of club shuttle days. These are the club rules and they are in place to ensure your safety and to minimise the impact of vehicles on the private roads in the area. Please do your bit to ensure that we can keep access to this area by following these rules. Remember the speed limit is 30 km/h at all times on these roads. 

If you have signed up for the club, you should have received your gold tag for the 2012/2013 season. There have been a few reported issues with tags getting damaged in the post, so if you have not received yours, then please contact Dan, our Memberships Coordinator at memberships -at- wmtbc.org.nz. 

Diggers Summit 

Over the weekend of Nov 30th / Dec 1st, the Club partnered with the Wellington Trails Alliance to host over 80 people at the first Diggers Summit. We had a wide range of people attend the conference from all over the region.

On the Friday, there was a series of talks covering everything from what is the WTA,  working with land owners, sustainable trail design, and native planting. Jeff Carter rounded out the session with an epic slide show of the work NZ Trail Solutions is doing around the world. The summit also saw the launch of the Trail Fund. Look out for more on this initiative soon. A website is in the works, but for the moment you can follow updates on the Trail Fund facebook page. 

Saturday was on site, with the WCC Ranger team doing sign offs on power equipment, and a series of on track sessions in smaller groups. The Saturday avo ride morphed into a shuttle session at Miramar and Mt Vic, which just happened to coincide with an Enve demo day. Cheers to Ash from Bike Wellington for helping us out with the shuttles. We rounded the Summit off with the Diggers Ball at the Southern Cross on the Saturday night. 

It was great to see representatives from DoC and the local councils, plus trail builders both new and old from right around the Wellington region. There is a national event in the works for the middle of 2013, so if you missed out this time, check back to the club site in the new year for more details. 

Tracks Update

The holiday season normally sees a slow down with new track builds and maintenance as trail builders get out and ride, however there has still been a lot happening. 

The Windmill track and Car Parts upgrades are barely finished and the Brooklyn Trail Builders are right back into it. Just before the holidays, the team received the green light for two new trails in the Polhill area. The tracks will go from Holloway Road to George Denton Park. The existing walking track will be upgraded to a dual use (mtb uphill), and a new downhill track will be built. This is great news for a popular riding area. See the BTB Facebook pages for updates and dig days. 

In early December, Steve Wallace and the Mt Vic Trail Crew gave the Mt Albert 4X some love. Grass and weeds were cleared back and some shaping done. The hope is that this will see the track through summer. Later in 2013, the club will be looking to move some new clay in to complete a more comprehensive overhaul. Keep up to date with the Mt Vic Trails crew on Facebook. 

The dry weather is seeing the Miramar Track Project taking a break for few months. But the new Solitary trail is open for riding. The top half is pretty much done to spec and you can ride just this and join back in (carefully) with Jail Brake at the small rock drop/hair pin. After this Solitary gets much rougher, in particular the corners. If you like it like this, then now is the time to ride it. In the new year, those tetchy corners on the bottom section will be getting built up to be more like those at the top of the track. 

At the beginning of December, submissions for the new Town Belt Management Plan closed. Thanks to all those who did a personal submission. The Club and the Brooklyn Trail Builders both did submissions to go along with the Wellington Trail Alliance one. Oral submissions are in the New Year, and the club will be fronting for these as well. In summary, the plan is encouraging for mountain biking in the Town Belt, and the club is in support of then new plan. 

Club shuttle days are going from strength to strength. After a wet and wild event in town at Miramar and Mt Vic in November, it was great to see the sun come out for an excellent day in Long Gully for the end of year shuttles in December. The plan is to have a shuttle day at least once a month. All shuttle days will be advertised via the facebook page, but you must register via the event on the club website. 

It's race season and the National Cup series kicks off this week in Bluff and it is only 7 weeks till Nationals in Rotorua starting February 15th. All the best to everyone competing. 

• Round 1, Bluff, Jan 4th
• Round 2, Mt Hutt, Jan 12th
• Round 3, Levin, Feb 2
• Round 4, Auckland, Feb 8th
• National Champs, Rotorua Feb 15th-17th. 

The Miramar Trail Project are jumping on the Enduro bandwagon. This year's event will see riders in two categories, Misdemeanor (easier) and Felony (harder) do 3 runs down a combination of Miramar trails. After each timed down hill run, there will be a mandatory, non timed liaison stage back up Conviction to the start. All proceeds will go back into trail building in the area. More details in the New Year. 

The Welly MTB Club will be partnering with PNP to bring the Mt Vic Super D back for 2013. This year it is being moved to May (final date tbc). This should see some more variable trail conditions and will give the Mt Vic Trails crew time to build a few new features for the race. Stay tuned for more details.  

Check our Facebook page for more regular update - https://www.facebook.com/WellyMTB

If you have any questions or queries please feel free to contact either

Dave Preece (Club President) president -at- wmtbc.org.nz or. 

Russel Garlick (Club Secretary) secretary -at- wmtbc.org.nz