Tasmania's growing mountain bike industry was the focus of a search and rescue exercise in the state's North-East on Saturday.
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Held in Derby, the training operation involved more than 60 people from the Northern District State Emergency Service, Ambulance Tasmania, police search and rescue, the Westpac rescue helicopter, local businesses and community groups.
Northern District Inspector in charge for search and rescue Darren Hopkins said participants took part in a range of training exercises and scenarios aimed at better preparing emergency service personnel for the worst case scenario.
"We are getting an exponential rise in the number of incidents involving mountain bikes in and around derby," Inspector Hopkins said.
"There are more trails going in, so we recognised the need for more training in relation to where some of these trails are and ways we can extract bike riders from those remote areas.
"We had a really good turnout and we tried to involve the community where we could, as much as we could."
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The training operation was carried out in the Blue Derby Mountain Bike trails from 10am to 6pm and was the first of its kind in Tasmania, with a specific focus on mountain biking incidents.
Participants took part in a range of workshops and scenarios including helicopter winching and the use of a traverse Mule stretcher - used to transport patients from areas often difficult to access.
Despite some heavy rain, Inspector Hopkins said the day provided the opportunity for rescuers to learn valuable lessons in a safe environment, while familiarising them with unknown areas.
"We expect to make mistakes in a training exercise - that's where we can learn and change our techniques to improve," Inspector Hopkins said.
"So when we actually get an operation that's real life, we hopefully improve with our techniques.
"We want to give confidence to the biking community that we can respond, and I think we did that today."