Kids pumped with latest attraction

Kyler White of Napier was all concentration and adrenalin when he headed out onto the new pump track. Photo / Duncan Brown

Napier's latest Marine Parade attraction got off to a jumping start on Saturday with more than 200 riders, from mere toddlers to teenagers, keen to turn a wheel.

Deputy Mayor Faye White carried out the official opening at 10am, although for the young riders the eyes were focused on the undulating, challenging track rather than the proceedings.

The Napier Pump Track is the latest attraction in the ongoing development of the Marine Parade foreshore stretch although has broken the mould by being set up at the extreme southern end of the stretch.

Image 1 of 6: Bikes and riders like Jarrin Bennie (right) from Napier seemed to spend as much time airborne as they were track-borne as their skills and confidence grew.

"The responses we were getting from the kids was fantastic," Mrs White said.

"And it's great to see them out getting exercise and having fun."

She said while the track was finished work would continue on resurfacing the immediate area as well as the placement of permanent fencing.

"To tidy it all up."

Mrs White said the whole development process for the Marine Parade was "active" and the track was the latest addition to that.

The parade would be a changed landscape by the end of 2016 she said.

"There was a real buzz about the place on Saturday and I could see there were a few mums and dads who looked keen to have a go themselves."

With members of the Hawke's Bay BMX Club on hand to run through the "art" of pumping and the corresponding jumping, the riders, who are required to wear approved safety helmets and encouraged to wear additional safety gear, headed out onto the track after the opening.

Even the scooter brigade had a shot with several young riders taking on the jumps aboard two miniature wheels.

One youngster was also spotted having a go aboard a three-wheeler.

Yesterday despite showers and gloomy skies in the morning about 50 youngsters descended on the track.

"Awesome," was how six-year-old Riley Militch from Tangoio described it.

"We come from a farm and they ride around up there a lot but this is something really different," his dad Yordey said.

"We heard about it and decided to come and take a look - the kids love it."

Nine-year-old Jaylen Brown of Napier said she liked "all of it" and wanted to come back again.

Another youngster, a 10-year-old called Kyin, summed it up for him and his fellow pump riders.

"It's pretty cool."

Designed by Jeff Carter of Rotorua's South Star Adventures, it was inspired by a pump track in Switzerland and is the first of its kind in New Zealand featuring 500m of continuous concrete track.