It wasn't the average spring break trip for one teacher at Gibsons Elementary School (GES).
For two weeks in Israel, Doug Detwiller - or "Fish," as he became known - watched wheels turn as he ran riding clinics and shared knowledge with 74 new Sprockids leaders in the Jewish homeland.
"When it comes to kids, they just don't seem to worry about language, difference in cultures and other barriers adults create," he said. Ergo the nickname. Detwiller found out his name is phonetically similar to the Hebrew word for fish and used that to forge a bond with the young riders.
Detwiller founded Sprockids in 1990 at GES. It began as a self-esteem and anger management program and evolved into "a multi-faceted program now running in 17 countries," Detwiller said. In Israel, a land to which he had no connection prior to the trip, his goal was to help local organizers move towards getting the cycling program adopted by the Israeli Cycling Federation as their national youth program.
It was two weeks of training and promotion and new experiences for Detwiller. Many of the skill-building structures like drop-offs and teeter-totters had been built from designs found in the Sprockids instructional manual that Detwiller wrote, and the students in the clinics ranged from some of the country's top young riders to those who'd been on a bike for less than a week.
But the trip wasn't all skill clinics for Detwiller. On his second day in the country, he took a long trail ride through Jerusalem Forest with a group of 39 Grade 9 students. It was the end of the rainy season; the countryside was green, and the weather was sweltering.
"It was hot, 39 degrees in the shade - I've never ridden in stuff like that before," he said, adding it was Israel's hottest March in 100 years. But there were tropical benefits, like groves of orange trees they passed through.
"You stop, pick an orange, and there's your food and your juice," he said. The next day, the wind picked up off the Arabian Desert, and Detwiller noted it began to "rain sand."
His trip was also steeped in history. He rode near Caesarea Maritima, a city built by King Herrod from 25 to 13 B.C. - a place Detwiller noted was "the gateway for the Crusades going to Jerusalem."
Some of his riders were amongst the first generation of Ethiopian children born in Israel, from families who traced their lineage back to Kind Solomon. Detwiller said they were part of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel, who some claim were exiled by ancient Assyria in 700 and 600 B.C. "The story of how some 20 years earlier, their parents had been smuggled out of Ethiopia and brought to Israel by way of ships, submarines and airplanes is one worthy of an epic Hollywood movie," Detwiller said.
He spent the two weeks based in the coastal city of old Tel Aviv. After his days of running clinics and training presentations wrapped up each evening, his hosts - among them the builder of the country's first single-track bike trail - gave him a taste of Mediterranean culture in an ancient, diverse city.
"No one goes out for dinner there until 9:30," he said. "I didn't realize it's such a living city, and it's phenomenal - there's a Christian quarter, a Jewish quarter, a Muslim quarter and the Armenian quarter. It's an amazing, vibrant city."He also had a unique chance to gain an understanding of the mindset of people living in an isolated country.
"They can't go anywhere - it's all Muslim countries around them, and most of them aren't very friendly towards Israel," he said. "My wife was freaked out that I was going. Just before I went, there was a bombing in the Gaza Strip.
"But when I went there, I felt totally safe. At two in the morning, I'd go buy a bag of pistachios, buy a beer, and sit there and watch people. I'd walk to a café at two in the morning and have a glass of wine. I never felt unsafe."
On Israeli-Palestinian relations, Detwiller said people he spoke with were fairly open. The situation is "a lot more complicated than we see here," he said. "When they were firing rockets a months ago, they had a mountain bike race scheduled in that part of Israel," he said. "They kept it going - they had 200 bikers come to ride while the rockets are firing over. It's a way of life.
"It's not an easy situation - I don't know if they'll ever solve it. But in many places I went, it felt no different from here. People were just doing their daily thing."
Some also mentioned the Israeli government had made mistakes by subjecting the nomadic Bedouin tribes to checkpoints and forced settlements - a parallel Detwiller said can be drawn to Canada's past treatment of First Nations.
Detwiller said despite the differences, he saw the universal appeal and bond of the bicycle and how it affected the children he met in Israel.
"Being able to guide them into the magical world of mountain biking has to be one of the greatest adrenaline adventures of my life," he said.
