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If you’re headed to Whistler in the summer, you’ll want to look at the Whistler DFX Kids Bike School – one of the top kids mountain bike schools in North America. It’s no wonder that this bike school for kids is so well known, considering it’s located in one of the best mountain biking destinations in the world.
We just wrapped up the most incredible mountain biking trip to Whistler with our kids, and along the way, they took lots of lessons from the DFX Kids Program and we learned a lot to help maximize their experience. Keep reading so you can discover how to get the most out of kid’s mountain bike lessons in Whistler and to decide if they’re a good fit for your family.
DFX Kids Program Overview
The DFX Kids Bike School in Whistler offers a variety of programs tailored to different age groups and skill levels. The goal is to help kids build confidence, improve their biking skills, and overall to help them love biking! The tradtional DFX bike programs are geared towards locals, with weekly lesson days with the same groups and the same instructors. The goal of this is to progressively build skills and teamwork as the kids ride together throughout the season.
The DFX Dailies bike school is geared towards kids who may be visiting the Whistler area, or just want to take a small number of lessons. This is the program that our kids participated in. There are options within the DFX Dailies Program to take anywhere from 1-5 lessons at a time. When we enrolled our kids, there was a deal going on where you could get 3 lessons for the price of 2, if you booked for three consecutive days. This was by far the best value for DFX Kids bike classes in Whistler, and I feel like wee absolutely got our moneys worth.
Age Groups
On the Whistler bike lesson website, it seems like kids will be split up into groups both by age and ability. It shows ages from 5-12 and from 13-16. We were there during Crankworx (the busiest time of the year), and even though lessons were at full capacity, they were not divided by age unless a class was extra full.
For example, my 16-year-old son had kids in his class who were 9-years-old. While I understand the logistics of wanting to fill classes to run an efficient bike school, this was the thing that my kids struggled the most with. It’s really hard to have a 9-year-old and a 16-year-old in the same classes because of the maturity difference. Even if both kids can ride the same terrain (there are some exceptionally talented little kids riding at Whistler), the overall lesson experience suffers when you try to accommodate such a large age range.
Over the course of the 3-day lessons my kids all had days when they were in groups with a large age range and others with kids mostly their same age, and it was always a better experience with kids their same ages.
Skill Levels for the Whistler Bike Lesson Program
While I don’t think that kids aren’t separated well by ages, they are split up by abilities, which is really helpful. Here are the ability levels that they outline on the DFX Kids Website:
Beginner Rider
- I can comfortably ride on pavement or wide gravel trails, maintain balance and can use hand brakes.
- Little or no experience on single track trails or in a DH Mountain Bike Park.
Novice Rider
- I can comfortably ride on green and easy blue single track and freeride trails in the Bike Park or cross country.
- I am confident to ride and carry momentum through bumpy, rooty sections of trail without putting a foot down and have good brake control.
Intermediate Rider
- I am comfortable on all blue technical trails and can ride all green and easy blue freeride trails in the park. My wheels rarely leave the ground.
- I can maintain my momentum and ride through rocky, rooty sections and am starting to look at increasing speed.
- I can comfortably ride raised ladder bridges and small rock faces.
Strong Intermediate Rider
- I am a strong rider on all blues and easy blacks and I can ride all or most of the features.
- I am confident on this level of trail in the Bike Park and cross country.
- I ride at a moderate but safe speed and carry my momentum.
- I can do a rear wheel lift, bunny hops, a track stand, and small jumps and drops with correct technique.
- I am excited to ride steep roll downs, raised ladder bridges and technical trails.
Advanced Rider
- I am comfortable at fast speeds on all black trails both cross country and in the Bike Park.
- I can pick a line through difficult technical sections, ride steep rock faces and raised skinnys.
- I have good technique and can carry and judge my speed to do medium jumps (12ft +/- table tops) and drops.
Expert Rider
- I am confident at high speeds on all trails, I can ride all the features on black and some double black trails both cross country and in the Bike Park.
- I can clear large drops and jumps (20ft +/- table tops) with the correct technique.
What To Expect in a Day at the Whistler Bike School for Kids
After 3 consecutive days, with 4 kids in lessons, we got pretty good at knowing the schedule of the bike school. While the first day was a little rushed with getting the kids fitted for their bikes, by the third day, we had the routine down. Here’s how the day goes:
8:30am: Whistler Kids opens up. Be there as close to opening as possible to check your child in, get their lift ticket, and to get their lesson ticket.
8:30-9:00: G1 rentals opens early just for DFX Kids participants to get their bike rentals. They have the process really dialed in, but it still took about 30 full and rushed minutes to get kids all set up with their protective gear and bikes. Kids will keep the same bike for the whole program, so picking up gear on subsequent days is much faster (take note of what helmet and pad size your child wears to make getting them the next day easier).
9:00am: DFX Kids check in officially begins, though they started checking kids in at 8:45 every day we were there. At check-in, they will do a bike check for every child to make sure their bike is in good working condition and suitable for the bike park (even for the rental bikes), and sign them off from the parents.
9:30am: Groups load the chairlift for early access to the mountain.
12:00pm: Kids have lunch at the mid-mountain Whistler Kids building, provided with the program.
3:00pm: Classes end and kids are picked up at Garbo Kids in Whistler Village.
Our Experience with Whistler DFX Kids Bike School
Our kids all do a good amount of mountain biking back home in Utah. In fact, the oldest three race bikes with their school cross-country team through NICA. While they have spent a good amount of time on trails, we knew that the riding in Whistler Bike Park was completely different. Not only is downhill riding different from cross country, but Whistler downhill is on a completely different level and much more challenging than smaller bike parks at home. We put 4 of the kids in DFX kids because while my husband and I are good cross country riders, we didn’t know enough about downhill to help the kids take their riding to the next level.
The kids were all very excited, but a little bit apprehensive since they didn’t know what to expect. I was taking a class 30 minutes after the kids got dropped off, so I had to rush and go get checked in and get rental equipment for my own clasThisTHis meant that the instructors (instead of mom), placed the kids in classes based on a few questions the kids answered.
MISTAKE #1: Instead of letting the instructors place kids into classes, talk to them about your child’s experience and riding goals. 3 out of my 4 kids were placed in the wrong groups for the first day that were too low for them. Also, don’t make my mistake and book a class for yourself right after your kids are supposed to start theirs!
Even though 3 of our kids were initially put into a class that was too low for them, they still learned a good amount since they were new to the bike park.
The next day, I talked more to the bike school check in staff and directly with their instructors to put them in the correct level. Truthfully, it took some persistence on my end. One of our kids was put in a class a little below what I though they should be, and they said they would move them up during the day.
MISTAKE #2: Same as before. Insist that kids are in the right level from the beginning. My child asked to go in a faster group several times during the day, but wasn’t moved because they said the faster class was already full. We remedied that on the final day of classes, and it all worked out, but day 2 could have been smoother if that was sorted out.
Even with a few challenges getting all 4 kids into the correct level, by the end of the second day, the kids had made more riding progress than we would have expected after a solid week of lessons. They were riding with more confidence, being more aggressive, and had the skills to tackle terrain that was far more challenging than I ever would have exposed them to at this point in their downhill progression.
From the chairlift, we saw our 16-year-old on a path that barely resembled a trail, FLYING down the mountain at top speed. Truthfully, I didn’t recognize it was him until he was past us because he was riding SO WELL!
My daughter, age 14, has always been a more conservative rider. She’s a great climber and really fast on flatter trails, but scared on technical downhill and never wanted her tires to leave the ground. Her lessons took her from being afraid of little bike park features for beginners, to clearing tabletop jumps, riding skinny wooden features through the forest, and conquering technical downhill smoothly. She asked to take a run with me at the end of her second day and as hard as I tried, I could not keep up with her at all (which never would have happened even a week before).
My 10 and 12-year old sons went from novices to very solid intermediate riders, even trying out some black technical trails. I got stuck in the middle of a large group of kids on a trail through the trees, and since there wasn’t a good place to pull over, I ended up riding a super steep rock slab that had an 8’ drop on it (thankfully I did well). As I got out of the trees, I saw that I had been following my boys’ class and they were the ones that led everyone through the woods. I was so impressed and shocked at how well they did!
Is DFX Kids Bike School in Whistler Worth the Cost?
In the last 5 years that our family has gotten pretty serious about mountain biking, we’ve done lots of clinics and skills classes. NOTHING has even come close to comparing to what my kids have learned in DFX Kids bike classes.
At the end of our 3 days of classes, we asked our kids if they thought the classes were worth it. We got a resounding YES from all of them. The classes are NOT CHEAP (especially if you have multiple kids like we do), but they are absolutely worth it. Truthfully, this was the best investment we’ve ever made into our kid’s mountain biking skills.
How to Get the Most Out of DFX Kids Bike Classes
The most important thing you can do as a parent is to communicate with your childs instructor. We talk about this a lot when talking to other parents about ski school, but it’s just as true for biking. We had a day when we didn’t talk to instructors beforehand (thanks to my own class being scheduled so close), and then others where we did.
Not all instructors are created equal (we had one day that one kid got one that wasn’t great), but overall, the kids instructors at Whistler are fantastic. When we talk to them about our kid’s skills and what they specifically need help on that day, it not only makes their job easier, but it helps our kids learn more too because the instructors can focus their lessons on what the kids need.
At the end of every day, it’s important to see what the instructor wants each child to work on, and then go out and ride WITH THEM! With the DFX Kids classes, kids can keep their bike rentals until 8pm and their lift tickets are also good until the lifts close at 8. This gave us TONS of time to ride together as a family. That left time for everyone to show us their favorite runs, for us to help them with some skills they needed to work on and for a lot of fun out on the mountain. If your kids have the stamina for it, keep riding through the evening (one of ours needed more of a break, so we took a lap, had an early dinner and went back to the mountain around 6 for more fun).
What should Kids Take To Bike Lessons in Whistler?
There are a few essentials that kids should have with them when they’re going to bike classes in Whistler. Here are the basics:
Downhill or Enduro Bike – Our kids have great lightweight cross country mountain bikes, but those are not the best fit for the bike park, so we rented them bikes
Hydration pack – Downhill bikes usually don’t have water bottle cages, and most classes rarely stop for drink breaks
Snacks – Lunches are provided with the program but they didn’t fill any of my kids up. Without having a snack with them, they were starving
Sunscreen – It’s easy to apply before they leave, but we sent the kids with a small sunscreen stick so they could reapply at lunch.
Closed toed shoes
A light layer to put in their hydration pack for when the weather changes (which it does often)
The following are required, but if you choose a rental package, they will be provided for your child:
Full face bike helmet
Gloves
Knee and Elbow Pads
Downhill ready mountain bike
Chest protector (recommended but not required)
Who Is NOT a Good Fit for DFX Kids Bike Lessons?
We have 5 kids and chose to only sign 4 of them up for the DFX kids program. While our youngest met the criteria to sign up, we felt like it wasn’t a good fit for him. Here is why we didn’t think he would benefit as much from bike lessons at Whistler:
- He’s a fairly timid rider who doesn’t have a big desire to push his limits on the bike
- He tends to get really nervous in new situations and takes several days to relax and open up (so classes would be almost completed by then)
- He is small for his age and not the most coordinated…
- He really didn’t have much desire to go to classes, and was happy to just ride with mom or dad
