Pro Mountainbiker Builds Dream Compound at His Oregon Home

Backyard Builds is a Bike Mag series featuring some of your favorite riders and the unbelievable builds they have on their personal properties. For the third installation in the series, we chat with Oregon born-and-bred professional freerider, Carson Storch, whose at-home compound certainly makes the rest of our backyards look like they’re not trying hard enough.

Athlete name, property location, property nickname?

Carson Storch, Southern Deschutes County, Storch Compound.

How did you find your property? Were you looking for land that you could build on or did that idea come later?

I found my land during COVID, and honestly had no plans of moving out of my old house, but found a good deal on a pretty decent chunk of land and went for it. As soon as I acquired it, I did some digging tests with an excavator and was stoked: Central Oregon is full of bedrock, lava tubes, and rocks, but the zone where my land is an ancient lake bed from the ice age, which means there are no rocks in the soil. I started building a new training compound before I secured my construction loan for the house!

Who came up with the design for your property’s build and/or did you have help with the construction?

Honestly, it was all my ideas from the start, and every year the design changes and the compound gets more and more efficient! I've rebuilt every feature including my stacked container roll-in about three times. I have had a ton of help from friends that are much better carpenters than myself, but almost all of the dirt moving has been me. I enjoy brainstorming over the winters, and as soon as the ground thaws, I go to town changing everything. I love the process, and it gets me more stoked to ride and practice all year.

What was the most challenging part of the build?

The most challenging part of the build was for sure the container setup. I originally purchased the three, twenty-foot containers for storage while I was getting my house built, and stacked them three high, equating to about thirty feet tall. I had a good friend weld the corners of the containers together, rented a telehandler, and, in a very sketchy manner, hoisted up the face and stairs of the old roll-in from my previous compound to the top of the containers.

I decked the top of the containers with plywood, and built a sketchy railing around the side and back. Last year, we did a full revamp of the setup to get more speed out of it, and I had my good buddy, Austin Aldrich, fabricate a six-foot extension box as well as a twelve-foot flat drop extension off the side of the top container. I rented another telehandler, and he welded the box and drop extension to the containers and married it all together with wood. Now, the roll in is thirty-six feet tall for the airbag/mulch jump, with a rolled transition, and there is a six-foot mini roll into the side going into an eighteen-foot flat drop line.

Any stories from construction that you want to share?

There are too many to name... an incredible amount of danger and redneck ingenuity were involved, all I can say!

What’s been a highlight / the best part of having the build on your property?

It's definitely a childhood dream of mine to have a compound like this. I just love hosting friends from out of town and getting on a program of riding and training in between travels. It is very convenient; my way of working from home!

Do you have a favorite feature or section?

I am currently very stoked on my flat drop line. I got hooked up with some ramps from American Ramp Co: I gave them a radius for two custom eleven foot ramps, and they ended up feeling amazing, so the flat drop leads into a poppy step-up and it's been super fun to session.

Anything you’re looking forward to with regards to your build (jams, films, expansions, etc)?

As far as the MTB side of builds, I am fairly maxed out with what I can do on a dead flat piece of land. Only thing I have plans to expand is my 'dirt jump' line. This line has a smaller twenty-foot roll-in, and it is all ramp to dirt to minimize digging. I plan to expand outwards to make hip lines, a small mulch jump, etc.

After that is completed there is not much more to do as far as expansion! I built a Can Am track out back on my property, and plan to add in lines for motos so the dirt moving will push more towards motorized vehicles from now on. I feel as though I am happy with the bike setup and it is 'complete!’