Board of Directors




Matt Bartelt

President
Starting at age four with the infamous Schwinn Stingray in the streets around is house in Torrance, CA, Matt has been riding bikes most of his life.

He moved to San Diego in 1988 to attend UCSD and discovered Los Penasquitos and a passion for mountain biking quite by accident. "We used to chase the cattle on our bikes," Matt explained.  "The joy of exploration and freedom in open space has kept me captivated ever since!"

He has lived within riding distance of Penasquitos ever since and has seen many changes over the years.  In 2006, he fell into advocacy with the pending closure of the Tunnels in the adjacent Del Mar Mesa.  Over the next decade, he met many of the people who helped create and maintain the San Diego Mountain Bicycling Association.  Matt quickly discovered the joy of trail work and became more and more involved in various events to support trails in San Diego.

In 2012, Matt joined the Los Penasquitos Canyon Preserve Citizen's Advisory Committee with hopes to make changes to the canyon where he began mountain biking.  In 2016, success was realized with the reestablishment of some of the tunnel trails closed in 2008.

Beginning in 2014 with the approval of the Black Mountain Open Space trail plan amendment, a fledgling relationship bloomed with the Rangers there.  Over the next three years, he organized and led the completion of nearly five miles of new single track, entirely completed by an army of volunteer labor.

Matt's hopes are to continue to build on the successful relationships between city planners, staff, and community official to continue to improve trail opportunities for all mountain bikers and ensure there are sufficient trails for generations to come. He has served as a board member since 2018 and as president in 2021. 






3

Scott Hansen

Vice President

Scott Hansen is a long time North San Diego County resident and has enjoyed mountain biking since long before bike suspension was a thing.  He enjoys just about any outdoor recreational activities with his passion being mountain biking.  He routinely rides mostly North of the 52 and also likes traveling to experience other mountain bike wonderlands wherever they may be.  After volunteering for trail work on the Black Widow trail  Scott became interested in trail advocacy. Scott has been the SDMBA Liaison to Daley Ranch since 2019 and has lived the highs and lows of trail advocacy and the work that goes into protecting and improving our valuable trails in San Diego County.

Scott enjoyed a very eventful and rewarding 35 year career in the fire service and is now retired.  He feels very fortunate to be able to continue contributing to the community through his involvement with SDMBA.  As a board member he hopes to continue the legacy of vision and leadership that has guided SDMBA since 1994.

Scott lives in Carlsbad with Emily his wife of 30 years.  They have one daughter who is away attending college.  Emily and Scott enjoy traveling and are continually working on their bucket list of interesting destinations to visit.  They are also involved volunteering with Canine Companions, AFS Exchange Student program and the  Colorado Desert Association. 

Gerry Krippner

Treasurer

Gerry Krippner grew up in North San Diego County and has been riding bikes as long as he can remember.  He attended college at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo where he got his first fully rigid mountain bike in the mid 1980’s.  The sport has come a long way since then and he still enjoys riding whenever he can (on a much better bike now).  He rides most of the stuff in North County including some places he can’t tell you about.  He became interested in SDMBA after participating in several Archipelago Rides and while seeing access to his local trails in jeopardy (see above).  He shares SDMBA’s commitment to ensuring access and maintaining trails in all of San Diego County.
Gerry is a mechanical engineer (yes, he’s a decent wrench) and has been involved in business management for most of his career.  His goal at SDMBA is to help ensure responsible use of association resources, improve financial visibility, and help us manage to a clear and concise strategy.
Gerry still lives in North San Diego County with his wife and stoker, Renee.  They have three sons who are now out of the house.  When he’s not riding, you will find him skiing, fishing, or hiking often up in Mammoth Lakes, CA. Gerry has served on SDMBA's board since 2020.


Tim Ingersoll

Almost native San Diegan Tim Ingersoll moved here when he was two, and has been biking in and around the region ever since. Tim got the mountain bike bug while attending college in the Bay Area and has been an active and avid cyclist ever since.

Focused on all-mountain trail riding, nightriding and downhilling much slower than everyone else, he's an active supporter of the local cycling industry and travels to areas like Sedona, Santa Cruz and British Columbia to ride as much as possible.

By day, Tim works in biotech and healthcare communications in San Diego and is an occasional freelancer writer for various publications in the region. He supports SDMBA's media and communications efforts and has served on the board since 2017.


Don Sutton

Secretary

Don is pretty much an outdoor guy.  His early experience began at age 10 backpacking with his dad to the Sierras. Ever since Don anxiously awaits his next mountain adventure with skis, bikes, or dogs.   He has lived in San Diego since 1981 when he started graduate school at UCSD.  Shortly after he became a professional road cyclist logging tens of thousands of miles a year training throughout San Diego County.  He jumped on the MTB wave in the late 80's and for a couple of years was a member of the national team.

An avid member of the Idyllwild Mountain biking community he has spent 15 years working with riders and land managers to develop the trail networks in the Idyllwild Mountain area.

Now retired, for the majority of his professional career Don used his PhD working at the San Diego Supercomputer Center at UCSD mostly architecting scientific web portals aimed at curating, storing, and allowing access to valuable scientific data.

As a board member and head of the trails committee, Don hopes to lead in the development of new riding trails, to fight for trail legality ensuring future existence of current trails, and to organize and rebrand the county's amazing riding areas so that San Diego County can truly become a world-class mountain bike destination. He has served on SDMBA's board since 2017.



Karen St. Germain

Karen is rather new to mountain biking but was all in from the first ride.
Her introduction to the world of mountain biking was during her son's first year racing in the NICA High school league in 2014. The friendliness and fun easy-going attitude of the families and racers drew her in right away. By the end of the season she had her first bike and was on the trails as often as possible.
Wanting to branch out onto new trails and find more riding buddies she went to the internet. MeetUp was a treasure trove of groups and organization. Karen's first MeetUp group was with Team Ninja's workout ride at Morley Field. Needless-to-say, she was dropped after the first turn. Karen stayed with it and is now a team member and leading a beginner group every Tuesday night.  She also found SDMBA and to her surprise the trails do need to be maintained and not everyone loved mountain bikers. So, with that revelation, it was time to learn more.
After attending a few advocacy meetings and the "Take a Kid Mountain Biking Day" event, she was impressed with the role SDMBA played in our community. Coordinating events was something Karen enjoyed during her Navy years and thought that experience might be useful now.  
Karen approached the SDMBA leadership and soon was installed as volunteer coordinator. She took her new role in the organization and the community with passion and commitment. After a few Archipelago rides, a half dozen kid's events, the first Mount Laguna Trail Fest and larger spread sheets, it was time for the next step. Karen is honored to serve on the board and is excited to be a part of the promising future of bigger and better mountain biking in San Diego county.    
Mountain biking has given Karen a new way of life filled with great adventures riding in the great outdoors, wonderful friends and a better sense of community. She has served on SDMBA's board since 2019.


Dom Dias

Dom Dias grew up riding and jumping bikes from a young age, starting with banana seats and tall handlebars, and that passion has never stopped.  

Dom moved to San Diego in 2011, where he immediately joined SDMBA and started volunteering doing trail work. Members of SDMBA quickly showed him the vast variety of local trails, and great friendships have come out of that.  In those days, most of the SDMBA official trail work was only to maintain existing trails."  Dom stated, While maintenance of our well-loved trails is important, the advocacy seeds planted by SDMBA are paying off with some new singletrack trails."

Dom moved to the US when he was 18, to go to the University of Rhode Island where he earned an Electrical Engineering degree. He went on to live in Rhode Island for almost 30 years, where he was a member of New England Mountain Bike Association (NEMBA). Riding in New England, enabled him to gain the technical skills for trails with lots of rocks and roots. This passion led him to help NEMBA build technical trails in Rhode Island and Massachusetts all with plenty of challenging features of rock and logs. 

Dom‘s other passions are beach volleyball and sailing. As a Process and Mechanical Engineer, Dom likes creating and modifying machines, be that for work or hobbies, like the purpose-built wheelbarrow with a disc brake for Black Mtn trail work.

As a board member, Dom hopes to help SDMBA continue to improve and build new trails, with an infusion of some technical difficulty in them to improve rider skills. 


Steve Pearlman

Steve has called San Diego since age 5 when his family relocated from the east coast in the late 1960s. As one of many siblings in an era of ‘go outside and play – just be home by dinner’ Steve quickly discovered the freedom, mobility, and pure fun, allowed by riding bikes. Growing up in the east county foothills of El Cajon, his interest in riding took a new turn with the advent of the first mountain bikes. By the early 1980’s Steve was testing his mettle riding the steepest and gnarliest fall line trails he could find. An eye-opening milestone in his pursuit of riding occurred when he realized that purpose-
built mountain bike trails were much more fun, and could be equally as challenging as the unsustainable utility easements that were used to develop his downhill skills.

Steve moved to Rancho Peñasquitos in the early 1990’s and began riding the trails of Del Mar Mesa prior to establishing Hwy 56, quickly discovering the network known as the ‘tunnels’. The ability to easily access these local trails for physical/mental health rides between the responsibilities of family and work proved and continues to prove, essential to his wellness.

A nature lover at heart, Steve attended Humboldt State University and studied environmental engineering and natural resources, earning a degree in physical sciences, and worked in the field of ocean technology until retiring in 2000.

Steve originally joined the SDMBA with a purpose – that natural habitat and trail riding can coexist, particularly in the unique area of Rancho Peñasquitos. This purpose has since expanded to include allowing similar opportunities for others to recreate responsibly. Although his travels have led to many unique mountain bike destinations, he believes that San Diego is one of them, and he can be found riding the PQ area single track as often as possible.