Episode Transcript
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Nat Ross (00:10):
Welcome to a new
American Town.
I'm your host, Nat Ross.
This is a bike episode with alot of great information coming
your way.
We have a special guest that'suh located in California
currently on site.
So let's sit down todayvirtually with Woody, who's the
president and founder ofProgressive Trail Design.
Woody, welcome to the podcast.
Nathan "Woody" Woodruff (00:32):
Thanks,
Nat.
Appreciate it, man.
Nat Ross (00:34):
Yeah, well, I think a
lot of folks uh have seen PTD
around progressive trail design,and you are the founder.
Um that was uh something thatwas very near and dear to you
years ago.
So walk us through um how youstarted the company, what it was
when you started, and wherewe're at now, because that was a
long time ago, and you've donesome crazy projects since it.
Nathan "Woody" Woodruff (00:55):
Oh,
yeah.
Yeah, come a long way in almost20 years now.
So started as uh, you know,Woody's Lawn and Landscape.
Um I just had a uh small lawnand landscape company based out
of Fayetteville, Arkansas, thatthat put me through college at
the U of A and I was actuallystudying to be a teacher.
Um, and then kind of a simpletwist of fate came came my way
(01:18):
when I was, you know, asked tobuild some trails in um in
Bentonville um back in, gosh,this was 2006, um, which I was a
you know very avid mountainbiker at the time.
I had discovered mountainbiking and in high school, you
know, in the in the late 90s,um, and just completely fell in
love with it and startedbuilding trail, you know, all
(01:39):
throughout um Fayetteville andDevil's Den and that area,
started putting on events andand so I kind of became known as
you know one of the guys thatthat you know built trail in the
area.
So, you know, a few few selectuh people there in in in
Bentonville, the Walton familykind of got me to to build some
trails there on their property,which eventually became
(02:00):
slaughter pen trails, as we allknow today.
Um, and uh, you know, that thatwas kind of the that was the
beginning.
That's when I had the ideathat, you know, maybe I can
maybe I don't need to doteaching.
Maybe I can make a living, yes,you know, you know, following
my passion and building trails.
And here I am uh, you know,what 18 years later, um, you
(02:23):
know, at uh designing the the uhLA 28 Olympics course.
So it's uh it's kind of been anamazing journey to say the
least.
Nat Ross (02:31):
Yeah, we have some
catching up to do in between
there too, because like youmentioned earlier, you are on
site, you're in the city ofindustry, you're at Industry
Hills, kind of Pacific Palmsright now, working, building a
future course for the Olympics.
So let's uh figure out a littlebit of what was so special
initially, what kept you in thetrail building business and how
you kind of conceptually startedfrom downtown Bentonville, went
(02:54):
into Slaughter Pen, um, andkind of walk us through that
first five miles and kind ofthat beginning of what is now
the Mecca.
Nathan "Woody" Woodruff (03:02):
Yeah.
So really the the pebble in thepond of the the Bentonville
mountain biking movement wasSlaughter Pen.
Um and that was initially like300 acres, um, you know, that
was um owned by owned by theWalton family.
And and you know, Tom had justgotten back from uh, you know,
uh uh I think it was Universityof Arizona and had gotten into
(03:26):
mountain biking and we connectedand and uh kind of quickly hit
it off.
And so he had me build thatinitial five miles and then that
free ride park.
And I actually teamed up with aa guy by the name of Don West,
who was kind of a pioneer in intrail building in Northwest
Arkansas as well at the time,um, and had a lot of knowledge
of single tracking.
(03:46):
So we actually teamed up in theearly days of PTD and and uh
built out you know that veryfirst phase.
Um and that was such a hit withthe locals um that you know the
Walton family actuallygenerously offered to to donate
that to the city, and thatbecame kind of the first city
park and the first trail system.
Nat Ross (04:06):
Okay.
Well, I think very specialbecause a lot of what you guys
have done has been emulated byother trail building crews.
In fact, a lot of crews have uhkind of interned um in
Bentonville, uh perhaps evenfuture employees of yours
starting their own companies.
And kind of the flow from townand that magical formula that
you started years ago has kindof put you into an incredible
(04:27):
trajectory because you'rebuilding trails all over the
world.
So we definitely want to hit onthe LA part because that's
gonna be huge, especially withBentonville's interest.
Um, so what do you see forfeatures?
Um, like right now, you'rescouting, you've been, I know
you were at the WorldChampionships earlier this year.
Um, you've been working withthe UCI, you've got um the
handbook down, and you'reputting your touch on the
(04:49):
Olympic course.
So um, without revealing toomuch, like what do you see for a
palette that you're workingwith now?
I know it's just starting ofthe process, but for you, you
got a lot to do.
Nathan "Woody" Woodruff (05:00):
So,
you know, going into this, uh I
mean, this of course, thisthing's been years in the works.
I mean, I've I've been kind ofworking this for three years,
communicating with LA 28 and thecity here and and kind of
helping identify the venue andfinally landing on, you know,
city of industry uh here atPacific Palms Resort.
(05:20):
Um and you know, what once weonce we kind of officially uh
landed this design, you know, Ireally started thinking through
how can this be the best Olympicmountain bike course ever
created? And just one of thebest competitive courses in
general.
And so uh a few things poppedout, um, which was one, uh, you
(05:46):
know, we're in California.
This is arguably the birthplaceof mountain biking.
Um, you know, I know CrestDeBute and many others would
would argue uh maybe againstthat, but you know, everyone's
familiar with with Marin Countyand uh, you know, Gary Fisher
and some of the old school guysthat, you know, just took uh,
you know, fat bikes, cruiserbikes, and and put big tires on
(06:07):
them and started mountain bikingin the 70s.
And so one of the things thatwe really want to do here, one
of the guiding principles thatthat we've created is, you know,
tell that story, the history ofmountain biking.
Um, we're here in California,the Olympics are back here.
Um, and so we want to tell thatthrough the course.
In addition, we want to we'regonna kind of tell the story of
(06:29):
trail building.
I mean, something that I'vebeen passionate about for, you
know, 25 years now.
I've been, you know, riding andand building.
Um, and so I want to tell thestory of mountain biking in this
course is really, is really mygoal and my personal passion
that I want to express here.
And so that's, you know,everything from you know, all
(06:52):
the different styles of of trailthat have developed over the
years from the beginning of, youknow, old, old fire roads, um,
you know, to now this new schoolflow jump trail and you know,
dual solemn type experiences,rock gardens, um, that sort of
thing.
So trying to integrate as muchvariety in this course as
(07:12):
possible is is one of the thingsI'm most passionate about and
one of the biggest drivers inthis design.
Nat Ross (07:18):
Man, I love it.
So um the energy around the LAOlympics, especially cycling
with the history and the waythat you're gonna integrate some
of these pieces.
Um, I was fortunate enough tobe involved with the Atlanta
project with Dave Weens and JohnBailey, um, not necessarily to
the depth that you're doing thescope.
Um, we got to kind of come inand uh walk the grounds and kind
(07:40):
of do what you're doing inthese initial stages.
So very exciting.
But talk about the future andwhat you see kind of talent um
arising in North America and howwhy you want to get it back,
tell the story of getting itback, and then kind of the um
elements of that course that arestriking you right now as like
things that are motivating.
Nathan "Woody" Woodruff (08:02):
I like
that phrase, getting it back.
I mean, because that's that'sone of the things here is like
we want to get back uh to theroots of mountain biking.
And like, yes, we want to havesome really new school fun,
flowy stuff with jumps and youknow, something that that caters
to the new school rider,especially like cross-country
riders now are like basicallyall around badasses, you know,
(08:24):
they're basically downhill racermixed with, you know, an
extreme and endurance athlete.
Um, and so they can do it allnow, um, which is cool, and is
really giving us more creativefreedom um to do stuff that's
that's more advanced and andreally will be amazing for
spectators um and TV alike,which is, you know, also a huge
(08:47):
driver in this.
Um and so yeah, we want to justtry to like we want to bring
back, we want to tell the storyof mountain biking and also
bring in like some really raw,um, you know, old school
mountain biking experiences aswell.
So, like one of the things wewere just designing um on this
hillside, like right next to mehere, uh up in up in this
(09:08):
valley, uh is this like oldschool dual solemn experience
going through this valley andyou know, going more like fall
line style um and more kind ofhand cut style in places.
Um, so that's just like oneexample of you know a type of
section or feature that will bein this, what will be a 4K uh
(09:29):
course.
Nat Ross (09:30):
Sure.
And then I think for you, um,the team relay will be a
component of it.
You've got all the juniorsracing and uh the elite are is
kind of like the main highlight.
But cross-country mountainbiking um has kind of really
come a long way, like you'vementioned.
So I think the folks back homefrom Bentonville, um, they've
seen what you've been buildingover the years and all over the
(09:52):
place now.
You've got a following um froma lot of different countries and
a lot of different states andquite the team.
So um describe what it's likewith uh the equipment that
you're using these days and kindof the team that you will bring
in to do this build out.
Nathan "Woody" Woodruff (10:06):
Yeah.
Um, well, it starts with adesign team, and we got, you
know, approximately, I guess wegot like about 10 designers now.
Um uh graphic from graphicsdesigners to landscape
architects, um, CAD specialists,GIS specialists, that sort of
thing.
So that's the phase that we'rein now is design, um, which
we'll go into um which we'll gointo next year, um, probably
(10:30):
around February, March is whenwe hope to finalize the design.
And then we'll get into thebuild, um, which will be in the
spring of 26.
And so for the for the buildteam, I mean, that's obviously
going to be um determined by thedesign that we do.
And we want to bring in, Imean, that that's kind of the
specialty or the magic ofprogressive trail design is that
(10:52):
we hand select not onlybuilders that we have in-house,
but also um other trail buildersum that we bring in as
subcontractors to work onspecific uh trails and trail
styles that that they're bestat.
So, you know, we got some guysthat are just like amazing at,
you know, stonework and someguys that are just amazing at
(11:12):
dual slalom, uh kind of BMXstyle.
Um, and so we we bring thoseselect builders in to work on
these select sections.
So I mean, I think we'll have,you know, possibly uh 20 plus
uh, you know, trail builders outhere going um at the same time
in a pretty tight little area.
So it should be should be cool.
Nat Ross (11:32):
Yeah, I mean it's
gonna be a global showcase, and
it's actually beautiful that thelittle uh panoramic uh action
that you just did behind you.
Um wow, that's exciting.
So we're gonna send folks toPTD.
Where can they hit yourInstagram page and where can
they kind of learn more aboutthis?
Nathan "Woody" Woodruff (11:47):
Yeah.
I mean, progressivetraildesign.com is our um, you
know, our website, and then umour handle is just the same,
progressive trail design.
Um, so they can get on uhInstagram and kind of see some
highlights and and follow theprogress.
And we're also we got avideographer out here now, and
we're actually shooting um kindof the whole process.
So at the end of this, we cankind of create a documentary and
(12:09):
tell the story of the wholeprocess.
Nat Ross (12:12):
Love it.
You've got the vision.
Well, Woody, with PTD, you'vetaken it a long way, and this is
kind of the pinnacle.
This will be a great way to uhhang a feather in the cap, and
then uh hopefully you get towatch the Olympics from the um
grandstands and everything be apart of it as well.
Um, I know you're really busy,so like to thank your staff,
your team, your crew, and umWoody, appreciate you taking the
(12:33):
time out of your day,especially working in
California, to link up withVisit Bittenville and walk
through the new American Townpodcast with us.
Nathan "Woody" Woodruff (12:40):
Thanks,
Nat.
You're the man, appreciate it.
Nat Ross (12:42):
Yeah, we can't wait to
follow the progress, Woody.
Thanks for everything you'redoing for the sport.
Nathan "Woody" Woodruff (12:46):
I
appreciate you, man.
Have a good one.
Nat Ross (12:49):
See you, Woody.
And we are signing off, yourhost, Nat Ross.
Remember, Visit Bentonville ishere to help you find things to
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Thanks for listening.