Board of Directors
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.
In 2021, after nearly twenty years in D.C. Heath returned to his home state of California and is proud to be on the San Diego Mountain Biking Association (SDMBA) board. Growing up in Moreno Valley, Heath's childhood was filled with BMX and dirt bike adventures alongside his two brothers and friends. A true outdoors enthusiast, he loves activities such as mountain biking, hiking, and exploring new destinations.
Introduced to mountain biking by his brother-in-law just five years ago, Heath quickly fell in love. Since returning to California, he has actively sought ways to give back to the local and mountain biking communities. Heath's involvement with SDMBA deepened after participating in various group rides and completing his first Full Archipelago Ride earlier this year.
Boasting a diverse professional background that includes federal and local law enforcement, and a long tenure in Information Technology supporting Federal Law Enforcement Agencies, Heath is now a small business owner and entrepreneur in San Diego County. Eager to leverage his skillset to enhance SDMBA's visibility, promote greater participation, and establish strategic partnerships.
He lives in the vibrant community of Carlsbad Village with his wife of 27 years, Nicole. With their daughter away in college, they recently acquired a converted Sprinter van to haul bikes, visit National Parks, and admire the scenic beauty along the Pacific Coast Highway.
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 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.
Alexandra Barr
Alex grew up in the high desert mountains of New Mexico, where she was a long-distance runner for several years. After struggling with running impact injuries, she decided to pick up a mountain bike and hasn’t looked back since.
Alex moved to San Diego in 2016 to grow her career as a scientist in biotechnology and still can’t get over the fact that every day is a perfect riding day here. While she appreciates various forms of riding, her preference lies in all-day rides with friends on an XC bike, punctuated by pit stops for mid-ride sandwiches. When she’s not on the trails, she’s either nerding it up in the lab, swimming with the fish of the Pacific Ocean, or on a sailboat somewhere off grid.
Alex brings experience to the board from her previous ventures as the founder of an all-women’s mountain and road race team, and as a former member of a nonprofit board in Albuquerque, NM whose mission is to support substance abuse recovery by providing transitional housing and promoting the benefits of healthy-living – she also led spin classes there.
As a board member, Alex hopes to help SDMBA preserve trail access and build a community of riders who see the San Diego trails as a valuable asset that needs to be maintained and protected.
Chris Wessels
Chris has loved the outdoors from the day he could walk, and gravitated towards mountain biking after building his first jump in the driveway at the age of five. Growing up in the state of Florida gave him limited access to mountain bike trails, so he spent most of his days surfing. Since moving to San Diego in 2009, surfing has (very surprisingly) taken a backseat to mountain biking. He immediately discovered how much fun riding can be when there’s actual elevation involved, and quickly gained a love for all mountain and enduro focused riding. He calls East County home, and can regularly be seen in Crest and Mt. Laguna.
He had a rough go of finding quality trails after moving to San Diego, but knew they were out there. After some urging from a friend, he created a mountain bike focused YouTube Channel called MTB Trail Review. This channel was created with the purpose of sharing information with other riders in the area about all of the awesome trails San Diego has to offer, as well as building and spreading stoke throughout the mountain bike community. After learning about the SDMBA and the work it does to build and preserve San Diego’s trails, he decided it was something he had a deep desire to be a part of.
Chris earned his bachelor’s degree in meteorology from Florida State University (go Noles!) in 2007, then completed his master’s in special education shortly after moving to San Diego. In his day to day life, he teaches math, physics, and PE at a small alternative education high school in El Cajon. When he’s not on the trails, you can find him spending time with his wife and son, riding his dirt jumper at Sweetwater, surfing, rock climbing, snowboarding, or going to explore other awesome areas of the country.