Idaho State Parks and Recreation offers free OHV safety courses

CALDWELL, Idaho – Idaho State Parks and Recreation is offering free OHV safety courses for people with ATVs, UTVs or motorcycles. The two-hour course covers the rules of off-road driving, management, safety and maneuvering your machine.

• Participants simply need to bring their own ATV, UTV or motorcycle to use during the course.
• After completing the course, participants receive an OHV safety course certification.
• You can register for OHV safety courses in Idaho here.

(Below is the transcript of the broadcast story)

“They come in, they’re scared, they’re nervous, they’re nervous.”

Rich Gummersall teaches people how to safely explore the world of off-road driving.

“At the end you can see the confidence on their faces. They pay attention to their turns, they use their throttle correctly and you just watch that growth,” says Gummersall, the OHV education coordinator for Idaho.

He tells me that this course provides a good foundation for backcountry safety.

“We understand that [OHV] to explore, take back roads and get to places you wouldn’t otherwise see,” says Sabrina Isenhart, OHV safety course student.

She and her family recently purchased a side-by-side to explore the back roads of Idaho. They chose this course to familiarize everyone, especially their 13-year-old daughter, with safety.

“I think, you know, when a child rides a side-by-side or a four-wheeled vehicle, whatever it may be, they definitely need safety measures,” says Sabrina Isenhart.

In Idaho, drivers under 16 can drive ATVs under adult supervision.

“I think it’s great, especially for someone like a child who wants to learn in a closed environment. “Some children don’t always learn from their parents, which can sometimes be combative. If you do that and let them learn from an experienced teacher, the whole thing is just better,” says Jason Isenhart.

“Father or mother could say the same thing, but they listen to the teacher very differently,” says Gummersall.

For kids like Autumn, classes like this provide a controlled environment in which they can learn the basics of driving.

“I’ve learned how to make sharp turns and how to climb steep hills, really steep hills… This will help me feel more comfortable because I know how to do it on trails without other people,” says Autumn Isenhart.

“It’s a free opportunity to improve, and maybe even as an experienced rider you’ll learn something about what you should and shouldn’t do,” says Jason Isenhart.

The course also focuses on the laws of OHV use, the importance of management, and minimizing your impact when using public lands.

“Idaho has so much public land. “There is so much forest, so much BLM in Idaho, and as long as users keep the landscape open, hopefully that opportunity will continue,” Gummersall says.