Inside Pursuit OCR’s new 30,000-square-foot obstacle course for adults

Wil McLean, a personal trainer and massage therapist, opened the first Pursuit OCR in 2015, with 19 adult-approved obstacles packed into a 10,000-square-foot former woodworking studio. The new-and-improved version opened in Etobicoke earlier this year, and it’s triple the size. “The huge ceilings and open space gave us the opportunity to really play with levels and light in ways we couldn’t before,” says McLean. Every inch is decked out in neon lighting and funky graphic designs (which maximize the Instagram potential of your upside-down monkey bar poses). The obstacles themselves are bigger and better than before, appealing to a wide range of skill levels. McLean’s particularly proud of the indoor drift trike race track, a course for special three-wheel bikes built to skid and spin sideways. Pursuit OCR is only for the 18-plus crowd, and a day pass is $20.

While McLean designed the space and the activities, the building was a collaboration between a few Toronto brands. Clinton Haste was the master builder behind the project, and Mike Whissel from Waveform Collective was responsible for installing all the lighting:

Local illustrator Lisa Johnston painted the wall murals in the mini arcade:

McLean also worked with Jordan Bonifacio from Rydan Ramp Co., who implemented his course designs. “He was able to take my track designs and bend and shape the wood in ways I didn’t think were possible,” says McLean:

The Cove wall has three levels for scaling. The highest is 15.5 feet:

Here’s the drift trike race track. It’s 260 metres long, and wheelchair-friendly. It was important to McLean to build a supportive, non-judgmental environment for all types of participants. “We wanted to create a welcoming space where macho chest-beating feels really out of place,” he says.

Integratron, a monkey bar–inspired obstacle, is two floors full of upper-body challenges. The side-mounted bars are for suspending yourself horizontally (like this):

The goal here is to punch your way through the forest of bags (without hitting any fellow racers, of course):

There’s a massive ball pit, too. At four-and-a-half feet deep, it’s deceptively hard to cross. “It kind of tricks you because by time you’ve jumped in, you realize that you have to wade through another 40 feet of chest-deep balls to get back out,” says McLean.

The “laser” maze is designed to test your agility as you twist and turn to manoeuvre between them. “They’re also just super-fun to bounce off of,” says McLean:

The party deck overlooks the course and can be rented out:

75 Westmore Dr., 647-467-8444, pursuitocr.com.