BEARERS OF THE GREEN WHISTLE
Rotorua’s First Response Unit (FRU) holds a vital role in the wellbeing of riders in the Whakarewarewa Forest. This story is about those at the coal face—the medical patrollers working in the forest. The patrollers are part of Peak Safety’s team, with Mark ‘Budgie’ Woods, Henry Worsp, and Nick Morrison heading up the crew.
With Peak Safety’s professional medics operating the service as often as the budget allows, the medic-trained Mountain Bike Rotorua (MBR) staff coordinate with the patrollers, working to cover any shortfalls. “We fill the gaps,” says Tu Mutu. “Peak Safety are the people who train us, they’re absolutely the experts in the field.” MBR staff are trained to PHEC (Pre Hospital Emergency Care’) level.
“We contribute a service that sits in between, that covers some bases and keeps the service running when Peak’s crew does not staff it.” When asked about business cost implications of this, Tu says, “It’s a space that needs occupying, and we feel a responsibility to the community to do that. It can be hard on the team when a staff member has to down tools to help with an injured rider, but our customers understand if we’re short-staffed because we’re helping fellow riders.”
No snow bro.
The Rotorua FRU medical staff may be called patrollers, but there are more differences than there are similarities with their skifield counterparts.
Skifields and commercial mountain bike parks (where charges apply for access or lift passes) cover the
