From Idea to Impact: How BUMP’s Skills Park Became a Reality

In 2021, Birmingham Urban Mountain Pedalers (BUMP) had a big idea—but very few answers. The concept of building a mountain bike skills park was exciting, but at the time, the organization had little clarity on what a true skills park should include or how to bring one to life. What BUMP did have was curiosity, persistence, and a belief that Birmingham deserved world-class mountain bike infrastructure.

Learning What a Skills Park Could Be

The first step was education. BUMP began researching skills parks across the country and reaching out to professional designers and builders to better understand best practices. The goal was to learn not only what made a skills park successful, but how to design one that would be inclusive, progressive, and valuable for riders of all abilities.

That learning process took a major step forward in early 2022, when BUMP was accepted into the IMBA Dig In Program. Through this program, BUMP was able to crowdsource funding to commission a professional skills park design and cost proposal. The effort was strengthened by a $2,000 matching grant from Shimano, giving the project its first real financial momentum.

Chasing Funding and Building Momentum

Armed with a professional design and a clear construction estimate, BUMP applied for Recreational Trails Program (RTP) funding in both 2023 and 2024. Despite strong applications, the project was not selected in either funding cycle.

Rather than shelving the idea, BUMP doubled down. The organization continued to share the skills park proposal with anyone willing to look—local leaders, partners, park advocates, and potential funders—believing that the right opportunity would eventually emerge.

The Breakthrough

That opportunity arrived in 2024. Representatives from Oak Mountain State Park (OMSP) informed BUMP that a group was interested in investing in a large-scale project within one of Alabama’s state parks. They asked to present the skills park concept as part of that vision.

The potential investor turned out to be Innovate Alabama, and the result exceeded expectations. Innovate Alabama selected the skills park as a cornerstone of a much larger initiative aimed at elevating Oak Mountain State Park toward an IMBA Silver-Level Ride Center designation.

From Concept to Construction

Once funding was secured, Shelby County stepped in to lead the overall project. BUMP served as the mountain bike subject-matter experts and consultants, ensuring the park would meet the needs of riders and align with national standards.

The skills park design and engineering drawings were completed by American Ramp Company, bringing technical precision and progression-based design to the project. Construction and installation were awarded to FlowMotion, whose team transformed the plans into a fully realized, ride-ready facility.

A Milestone Moment

On December 2, 2025, the journey came full circle with a ribbon-cutting ceremony celebrating the opening of the new skills park. What began in 2021 as an ambitious idea—without a clear roadmap—had become a permanent, community-serving asset.

The BUMP skills park stands as a testament to persistence, partnership, and the power of sharing a vision until the right collaborators step forward. More than a collection of features and trails, it represents years of learning, advocacy, and belief in what mountain biking can bring to a community.

Check out our Year End Review and catch up on everything BUMP has been a part of in 2025! The review features detailed updates and progress notes for Tannehill, Oak Mountain Skill Park & Trail Expansion, New Equipment for Trail & Maintenance Teams, Events, and more. View the PDF below or download here.

If you didn’t make it to the meeting, the vote passed and we have purchased a mini skid steer to help us with building and maintenance at Tannehill and the other parks we service.  Nov 2 we have our first workday planned out there to begin clearing the corridor for phase 1 of the build.  We plan to build the first 3 phases of the expansion which would add about 8 miles of trail to Tannehill.  We are applying for grant funding to fund the final phase that would connect the trail system back into Farley Field.  Until we get that funding the loop can be closed by use of the access road next to the maintenance facility that leads back into the most recent Forever Wild Acquisition. We are currently looking for sponsorship and material donations to assist us in completing phase 1-3 of the build.  Sponsorship in the form of monetary donations, trail building equipment, bridge building materials, and signage are all critical to the project.  If you think you can help with any of these or know someone who can please let us know.  We are also evaluating some of the abandoned horse trails on the property to see if they can be modified to be more bike friendly in the future.  All of the approved trails are shown on the map in dotted lines.  Phase 1 is in dark blue, Phase 2 and 3 are shown in orange and purple.  Phase 4 is shown in light blue.  If you want to look at the full proposal from the meeting you can find it here.

Download the proposal

Schedule

Admission Cost: $35 can be purchased here or on site

Cost (includes event admission)

Level 1 $60

Level 2 $60

Level 1 and 2 $100

Beginner 9-11: Participants should arrive by 8:45 to check-in and create name plates. The clinic starts at 9 with an overview of bike and gear checks to perform before every ride.

We will be covering the basics: Shifting, braking, body/bike positioning, and more before heading out to practice your new skills on the Lake trail.

It is preferred that clinic participants should be in flat pedals (not clipped in) and all participants must wear a helmet.

Intermediate 12-2: It is preferred that intermediate participants have had a beginner’s skills clinic prior to the intermediate skills clinic.

Participants should arrive by 11:45 to check-in and create name plates. The clinic starts at 12 with an overview of bike and gear checks to perform before every ride, including suspension setup.

Skills covered will include wheel lifts, roll-downs, cornering, switchbacks, and more. Riders should be comfortable riding all blue trails at Oak Mountain State Park and be ready to start tackling specifics such as Seven Bridges and possibly Garrets Gulch, time permitting. Intermediate riders should ride in either flat pedals or clipless, whichever they most typically prefer to ride in.

Tie Dye Station

We’ll setup the tie dye station from roughly 2:30 until 5.  You purchase a white BUMP T shirt and we’ll provide the materials and training to die your own shirt.

Short Track Race

The short track race will start around 3:30 pm.  It’s a spectator friendly lap around the South Trail Head with some optional new features added in.

Entertainment

Band Goes on Stage at 5pm at the South Trailhead.

With some big support from Intense, Cane Creek, and Industry Nine; we’ve put together another incredible sweepstakes bike.  Click here to find out more.

For those that missed the Christmas Party, I wanted to give an update on the end of 2023.

Our Membership is still hovering just below 500 but I’m sure we’ll make it next year.

Financially we managed to make a couple thousand dollars while still completing a number of large projects.  Those projects include purchasing a timing system, resurfacing Bloodrock, resurfacing Lightning, and Rebuilding our Website.

We managed to put on the most profitable and most fun Bump N Grind that anyone I know can remember.  The success of the event was largely due to the 87 volunteers that put our 923 volunteer hours on that weekend.

Speaking of volunteers, our top volunteers for 2023 were:
Scott Pruitt, Eric Hagan, Michael Lee, Jeff Palmer, Ken Blackwood, Hunter Nobles, Fletcher Scott, Leo Henry, George Ford, and Freddie Delchamps.

Our 2024 Board will be:
Chase Draper, Will Abner, Reagan Pennock, Jacob Tubbs, Butch White, Scott Pruitt, and Freddie Delchamps

Notable additions to the 2024 event Calendar will be the Sorba Fall Conference/Fall Festival on Oct 4-5 and the return of the Oak Ass Epic on Nov 16.

Bump N Grind XXX will be June 7-9 and the Alz Bike a Thon will be Oct 19.

Thanks to everyone who donated or volunteered in 2023, you made it all possible.

We have several large opportunities coming our way next year, it is a great time to be a BUMP member.

Sunday, Sep 10th we put on a ladies beginner mountain bike clinic with the aid of Bike Link, Cahaba Cycles, and PMBIA level 1 instructor Erin McMahon from HAMR.  Erin kicked off the day at 11 a.m. with the first clinic followed by two more at 1 p.m. and 3 pm.  We had a few volunteers on site helping checkout and setup loaner bikes that were provided by Cahaba Cycle and Bikelink of Hoover.  We had a total of 36 ladies come through for a lesson.  As usual we couldn’t have pulled this off without all the community partnerships we have.  Thanks alot to Joe at Bikelink, Faris and Tammy from Cahaba Cycles, Shelby County, Oak Mountain State Park as well as our dedicated volunteers that helped out with the day of execution.

Bump N Grind was a huge success this year.  We raised close to $30,000 (which might be a record) for the club this year and threw one helluva party.  We had just shy of 400 individual racers representing 13 different states.  Better than half the racers were from more than an hour away.  None of this would be possible without the army of volunteers who showed up to organize and run the event.  Special thanks go to the event committee who spent several months working through the details of the event and helping us put all the pieces together.  We really appreciate our sponsor. Hendrick Subaru, Discover Shelby Alabama, Bike Link of Hoover, Cahaba Cycles, Fox Factory, Trail Trust, Outside Van, Kuat, Therapy South, Ortho Alabama the official ortho sponsor of the XC Race, Andrews Sports Medicine the official ortho sponsor of the Enduro Race, Full Moon BBQ, Cahaba Brewing, Ride the Rebellion, Muc Off, Leatt, NOX composites, Factor Components, Alabama Outdoors, Ride BHAM, Deity Components, Wolf Tooth, Handup, and Pedal Industries. We had a really great environment out there and they were a huge part of it.  We are already working to make BNGXXX bigger and better.  If you’d like to help us out email info@bump.org

Click here to see the Ride the Rebellion follow up video