San Diego Mountain Biking Association (SDMBA) (2023)

Land Stewardship / Liaison Programs. SDMBA Volunteer Liaisons provide direction, education, and hands-on building and maintenance of trails throughout San Diego County. Liaisons work with park rangers, city councils, community groups, and others concerned with maintaining accessible and sustainable recreational trails for our citizenship to provide balanced access for all trail users. Volunteer SDMBA member Liaisons work with park staff and managers, community development groups, local and regional governing bodies, community advisory councils, environmental groups, national and regional associations to promote access to these San Diego parks and other areas:Balboa Park/Morley Field - Black Mountain Open Space - California Riding and Hiking Trail (CRHT) - California State Parks- Crestridge Reserve - Daley Ranch - Elfin Forest - La Costa - Mission Trails Regional Park - Noble Canyon & USFS - North County Coastal - Penasquitos Canyon - San Diego County - San Dieguito River Park - San Marcos/San Elijo hills - Sweetwater/Otay - Sycamore Canyon/Goodan Ranch Open Space Preserves - Tecolote Canyon - Evan Ted Williams

Trail Building and Maintenance: Trail work Days are an important element of promoting access to trails by helping to design, maintain, and build sustainable trails for all users. Trail building includes construction of bridges, cutting fresh trails, repairing damaged trails, working around endangered habitats and species, private and military property owners, securing a wide variety of tools, organizing volunteers into workable trained teams, training team' bosses,' developing robust helpful relationships with area Liaisons and agencies, and providing a majority of work during our brief rainy season when trails are most workable.

Education and Youth Support: Looking toward the future, SDMBA involves youth through a variety of recreation opportunities intended to further young rider's safety, fun, education, and responsible use of sustainable trails and habitat. Volunteer time equivalencies, transportation, bike purchases for maintaining safe bike stable, insurance, waivers, safety materials, helmets, bike transport, trained /certified instructors, event advertising and PR costs, SWAG and other distributed materials, materials reimbursement all contribute to program operations. Featured Program Opportunities: IMBA Take a Kid Mountain Biking Day, portable pump track at community events throughout the county, Guided family rides and clinics in partnership with Sprockids San Diego and other partners.

Bike Skill Park Complex Development: SDMBA Volunteers, from 2008 to the present, researched and prepared materials to support building a family-oriented Bike Parks with skills / trials areas, jumps, and pump track for the city and its guests of all ages in various locations throughout the County. The Sweetwtater Bike Park and the Greg Cox Bike Park both in the South Bay are very successful in providing a safe place for all riders to practice their skills. Other spaces throughout the San Diego County area are also being explored as options for bike skills parks. Help us promote future bike skills parks for the present and future San Diego families.

Bike Bell Program: One of the main concerns of SDMBA, is sharing the trails with everyone. Having a signal for trail users to know that a mountain biker is coming goes a long way to happy sharing of trails. While first started as a way for hikers to let bears know of their presence, bear bells attached to mountain bikes make it very easy for hikers, equestrians, and other bikers to not be surprised by an oncoming mountain biker. This helps everyone have an enjoyable time in nature, helps prevent misunderstandings, and improves safety.SDMBA's first set of bike bells were provided through a generous grant from our friends at REI. SDMBA desires to expand the Bike Bell Program to new locations throughout the county. If you would like to help, SDMBA can always use a few extra funds to buy more bells and build distribution and collection boxes. Bike Bell Stations in San Diego County include Black Mountain, Penasquitos Canyon, Mission Trails Regional Park, and Noble Canyon.