Photo courtesy of Sterling Lorence

Last week, “Strength in Numbers,” a movie about mountain biking, premiered at the Steinbeck Theater at the Monterey Conference Center. While famous mountain bikers tackle trails as far away as Canada and Nepal, the film also highlights the vibrant local mountain biking community found in Santa Cruz County.

The film features Santa Cruz area pros Ryan Howard, Cam Mccaul, Brandon Semenuk and Greg Watts. Aptos, located eight miles from downtown Santa Cruz, is internationally renowned as a hub of mountain biking.

After the premiere, a “jam session” was held, where professional mountain bikers rode with locals. Swiss professional mountain biker Rene Wildhaber was impressed by Santa Cruz’s quality terrain.

“It’s a big scene,” Wildhaber said. “There’re a lot of spots around town, each one more inventive than the last.”

The Aptos Post Office Jumps, a park in the center of town, is one such spot featured in “Strength in Numbers.” Named for its proximity to the Aptos post office, the park is famous for biker-created jump.

A creation of dirt hills and wood scraps, the park is large enough to have two riders bike different sets of jumps and hills at any given moment. Capitola rider Jacob Hyde believes that the park is important for the scene’s existence.

“This is probably the best park in California,” Hyde said. “The jumps are really close together and the transitions are just so smooth.”

Mountain bikers are not used to such open acceptance of their sport. Riders tend to carve out illegal jumps and ramps on protected forest land. Alex Reveles, a 22-year-old Soquel rider, has been riding the park since he was 11 years old. He said that Aptos riders spend much of their time trail building, if not for the jumps.

“The city is nice enough to us for not tearing them down,” Reveles said. “It’s amazing because the park’s grown from one jump probably started over 20 years ago to something that keeps growing and growing.”

Hyde and Reveles both said riding and maintaining the park has become part of their everyday life.

For both local riders and Red Bull-sponsored professionals, the park’s uniqueness stood out. Despite being a cloudy day, there was always a line of bikers waiting to ride the park again and again.

“[Post Office Jumps] is the only opportunity we riders have to build whatever [we] want, and it’s public,” said Canadian professional rider Anthony Messere. “It’s pretty awesome.”

The park is maintained by riders, who water the dirt hills every morning. Although the park was nearly closed by the city of Aptos for development in 2006, the park has become an integral part of the town in recent years, local riders say.

Post Office Jumps now receives water from the town of Aptos and has been designated as a county park by Santa Cruz County. The park has grown both in size and vision since its inception.

“They’re like a family,” Messere said. “They all share one passion — and that’s for riding.”

Reveles was amazed at how famous the park has become.

“It’s pretty cool that people travel to our spot to ride,” Reveles said. “Anywhere you go to ride, though, they know when you’re from Aptos, and they definitely know the Post Office Jumps.”

“Awesome Land: Women of Dirt,” a film about female mountain bikers, is the culmination of the two-day Santa Cruz Mountain Bike Festival this weekend. Photo by Isaac Miller.

For the Mountain Bikers of Santa Cruz, mountain biking isn’t just a hobby — it’s a lifestyle and a community. This weekend, members of MBOSC intends to share their passion with the rest of Santa Cruz in the biggest event they have ever held.

On Saturday, Feb. 27, the Santa Cruz Mountain Bike Festival will set its wheels in motion, focusing on the growing prominence of women in mountain biking. All of the proceeds will go to the Soquel Demonstration Forest, a favorite haunt of the county’s mountain bikers.

MBOSC is a local nonprofit organization and advocacy group that organizes group rides and club trips, provides volunteer work to build new trails, and raises money for local mountain biking locations.

President Mark Davidson exemplifies the organization’s dedication to the sport. Davidson met his wife mountain biking, and has a daughter who bikes as well.

“I love bikes,” Davidson said. “… I love the sport. Just being part of mountain biking and the mountain bike community is really rewarding.”

The festival begins with a group ride in Soquel Demonstration Forest on Feb. 27 and culminates with the California premiere of the film “Awesome Land: Women of Dirt” at the Rio Theater on Feb. 28.

Other activities will include bike demos and raffles. The festival will feature professional women bikers Lisa Myklak, Emily Johnston, Tammy Donahugh and Kathy Pruitt.

For Davidson, mountain bike enthusiasts make up a tight-knit community, which is necessary when planning the MBOSC’s largest event yet.

“This is the biggest thing that our organization has put on,” Davidson said. “It is going to kind of be a breakout for us, so it’s pretty exciting. The bike industry, local bike shops and local businesses have really rallied around this event.”

Mountain biking has traditionally been dominated by men, but Davidson is seeing more and more women drawn to the sport and hopes the event will encourage even more women to join in.

“A lot of new mountain bikers I’m meeting are women,” Davidson said. “[Our events] are focusing specifically on women mountain biking.”

Lisa Myklak is one of the pro mountain bikers featured in the film “Women of Dirt.” The documentary follows 11 women mountain bikers and expresses their dedication to the sport. Myklak, as well as three other pro riders, will be present at both the group ride in Soquel Demonstration Forest and the film premiere.

Myklak was put in touch with MBOSC in order to promote “Women of Dirt,” and she is confident that the film will encourage more women to give the extreme sport a try.

“I remember watching guys put in videos constantly,” Myklak said. “I think [the film] is going to have a great influence on women’s [mountain biking] because now they can see some women riding.”

The film’s final sequence takes place in Santa Cruz, establishing the town as a prime location for mountain biking. Davidson said that those familiar with the trails will definitely recognize some of the locations in the film.

“The film ends in Santa Cruz, so people who ride in Santa Cruz will recognize some of their favorite trails and favorite spots,” Davidson said.

Myklak is excited about this weekend’s events, and anticipates relaxing after all the hard work she put in to organize the event and promote the film.

“I’m looking forward to sitting down and watching the movie and seeing other people’s reactions,” Myklak said. “I’m just looking forward to riding with people.”