Our story
SMART Programs stands for Snowmobile, Motorcycle, ATV Rider Training and is the product of its founders life long commitment towards motorcycling, teaching and entrepreneurship. Clinton Smout became fixated with motorcycles from an early age and it was only a matter of time until he devised a business model to fund the purchase of his first motorcycle.
At the time Clinton's family lived in the country and he decided that he would catch salamanders and sell them to his classmates as pets. The operation was a big hit and things were looking great for our young entrepreneur, over time however, the principle of his school started receiving a number of complaints from home. It seemed parents were none too pleased to discover salamanders crawling out of the pockets of school clothing and once word got out that it was in fact Clinton supplying all of these pets, the principle had to put a stop to his operation. It didn't matter though, he had raised enough to purchase his first bike and thus had set the wheels in motion of a life long passion.
Let's jump forward a few years, we find Clinton still involved with bikes, now working as a Chief Instructor at Humber College; teaching and certifying students who were taking the course to obtain their motorcycle license for street riding. After years of interacting with students at Humber, Clinton realized that although there were many schools offering instruction for road riding, there was no one offering off-road rider training and no training for kids whatsoever. He started running courses on behalf of Humber on select weekends and eventually decided there was enough demand to do this full time.
This was the birth of C.M.T.S. (Canadian Motorcycle Training Services) which was run out of a site in Midhurst for 13 years. Eventually the course changed location to Horseshoe Valley Resort and as we expanded our available curriculum's and vehicle offerings the name was updated to SMART to better reflect our offerings. During this time period we also started a YRA Program (Yamaha Riding Academy) which is still running strong 15 years later. We follow the Canadian Motorcycle show circuit across the country and offer indoor training and rides to kids aged 6-12 to give them their first taste of motorcycling right on location at the show.
We believe that when rider training is conducted in a controlled environment with progression based lessons taught by professionals anyone can experience the excitement and empowerment of learning to ride for the first time or further honing their skills. Our mission is to provide our students and their friends/family with an unforgettable experience in a safe environment.
We have had the privilege of training over 100,000 students, about 70% of which were first time riders! We are very proud of this milestone but we couldn't have done it without the faithful support and trust of all the families and individuals that have taken a course with us over the years.
At the time Clinton's family lived in the country and he decided that he would catch salamanders and sell them to his classmates as pets. The operation was a big hit and things were looking great for our young entrepreneur, over time however, the principle of his school started receiving a number of complaints from home. It seemed parents were none too pleased to discover salamanders crawling out of the pockets of school clothing and once word got out that it was in fact Clinton supplying all of these pets, the principle had to put a stop to his operation. It didn't matter though, he had raised enough to purchase his first bike and thus had set the wheels in motion of a life long passion.
Let's jump forward a few years, we find Clinton still involved with bikes, now working as a Chief Instructor at Humber College; teaching and certifying students who were taking the course to obtain their motorcycle license for street riding. After years of interacting with students at Humber, Clinton realized that although there were many schools offering instruction for road riding, there was no one offering off-road rider training and no training for kids whatsoever. He started running courses on behalf of Humber on select weekends and eventually decided there was enough demand to do this full time.
This was the birth of C.M.T.S. (Canadian Motorcycle Training Services) which was run out of a site in Midhurst for 13 years. Eventually the course changed location to Horseshoe Valley Resort and as we expanded our available curriculum's and vehicle offerings the name was updated to SMART to better reflect our offerings. During this time period we also started a YRA Program (Yamaha Riding Academy) which is still running strong 15 years later. We follow the Canadian Motorcycle show circuit across the country and offer indoor training and rides to kids aged 6-12 to give them their first taste of motorcycling right on location at the show.
We believe that when rider training is conducted in a controlled environment with progression based lessons taught by professionals anyone can experience the excitement and empowerment of learning to ride for the first time or further honing their skills. Our mission is to provide our students and their friends/family with an unforgettable experience in a safe environment.
We have had the privilege of training over 100,000 students, about 70% of which were first time riders! We are very proud of this milestone but we couldn't have done it without the faithful support and trust of all the families and individuals that have taken a course with us over the years.