13 Jul Road to Ropes 2015 – Terhills Cablepark
Road to Ropes
Recap #10
Terhills Cable Park, Belgium
As the heat wave kept hitting all over Europe, I realized that even though I was pretty darn warm in the camper van, I was probably one of the luckiest people out there, spending pretty much all my hot days on the side of a lake, setting up my “office” in the shade, sipping on some cold beverage.
After the fun times in the Netherlands, I was now heading to a spot I was looking forward to visit, Terhills Cable Park. Why this one particularly? because of one awesome woman, one of the owners, Elke Venken. I met Elke on a trip to Philippines during the winter of 2014, and we have kept in touch since.
Elke is one hell of a rider, always charging and pushing it on the water. Unfortunately, she is injured at the moment (and so am I!), which means we both couldn’t ride… We promised each other that next time we see each other, we’re riding doubles!
Back to our cable park matters – Terhills is located in a pretty cool area, in an old mining zone that was converted into a big park that includes mountain bike and hiking trails as well as another lake and a recreational center.
The cable park opened a few years ago but it was just during last season that they built and opened an awesome clubhouse, built a full on sand beach and added a mini-ramp for skating and put up a 2.0 system. If last time you were in Terhills was more than a year ago, you need to pay them another visit to see how much it changed!
The park itself has a nice set of features, with a range that should satisfy all levels of riders. Most features being Unit ones, you hence know the quality is there! Add to that a couple other features like a corrugated pipe and an A-Frame with a transfer and a pole jam and you have a pretty diverse park!
With all these additions, it’s not a surprise to see the place full of people just enjoying the beach and the restaurant and bar – especially on a hot summer day! The food is diverse and delicious – we’re far from the snack bar “everything fried” kind of food!
Once a month, Terhills also holds a “Ladies Night”, where girls can register to come ride amongst other girls – sorry boys, the cable is closed for you! Timing was great as it was the Tuesday night I was around with the tour. This kind of initiative may seem trivial to a lot of people, but people need to see the value of getting more people into the sport. Most of these ladies would not have come to ride on a normal day – they felt comfortable coming to learn amongst other ladies, as they don’t become the center of attention (of feel like they do) like when there is only one girl on the dock. Most of these girls being total beginners, there were a lot of good laughs and encouragement from everyone on the dock, every time they were going a few meters further – or doing their first full lap.
The night wrapped up with a 20 people samba band and a delicious paella prepared by the Terhills chef, Stefan. Great way to wrap up a good day on the water!
Big thanks for the Terhills crew for a nice and warm welcome !
More info about Terhills:
https://www.facebook.com/TerhillsCablepark?fref=ts
http://terhillscablepark.be/en/
See all the Road to Ropes photos here
And follow @UnleashedWakeMag and @DomGranger on Instagram to keep up with the tour!
