This is the Scottish Mountain Bike Conference 2018 - Future Proofing the Trail Ahead
I think mountain biking in Scotland at the moment is in a really healthy and vibrant position
It has obviously grown massively over recent
years and I think events like this are fantastic at pulling everyone from across the sport
and recreation together to focus on how do we keep that growth and momentum going
You see across the board that numbers are up at our trail centres, the numbers are up
at events, the number of people going along to the Fort William DH WC are up, there has
been investment into 50 new facilties since 2010, you can see by the number of pump tracks
that are about and the numbers that are using them is great and our trail centres and our
access allows people to explore our countryside in a really good way
Coming in from outside, from a European base, I am really impressed by the co-ordination,
the energy, and really importantly the cross agency working.
There is so many stakeholders involved, land managers, policy makers, people from the industry
- it is one of the few times where you get all these people together in one room together
to share ideas, share concerns and I think it is an enriching experience - everyone walks
away from this with new outlook - mountain bikers have a new outlook on land managers
and land managers have a new outlook on mountain bikers
I think the biggest thing is the networking and the sharing of ideas its talking about
what could be possible you may look at the future as impossible but when you get great
minds together and people are really passionate about the sport the impossible becomes possible
We are at a place now ehere we have been driving mountain biking forward for about 9 years
we need to think about what we are going to do over the next 6 years and we have a strategy
which I think can drive the whole sector forward but we need to get everyone involved so this
conference is about getting people together part of that is getting people thinking and
get people on board and get reactions strong reactions to the new strategy we have put
forward for the next 6 years
I think this brings people together I have
seen it grow now from its early inception and you can see and feel the buzz that is
here today and it gets people talking and discussing some of the issues and how we can
move things forward and there is a discussion about the new strategy moving forward and
people an feed into and that is fantastic We need the biking community
to engage with the projects we are involved in and if we get the stakeholder buy-in then we will have a project that people
want to be a part of and that is the key thing
We have talked about mountain biking being
on a journey, I think that journey needs to continue, it is a journey of innovation as
we have heard in the conference and also a journey of modernisation and continued to
be relevant and contemporary whether it is in discussions with government or with discussions
with communities or discussions with land managers
I think we need to encourage people from socially
marginalised and economically marginalised backgrounds into what has been traditionally
been quite a wealthy sport to look at it from the outside in you might just say that is
not for me it is just a bunch of middle age white blokes on really posh bikes and I think
we have still got a way to go to break that down and promote Scottish mountain biking
as a thing that anybody no matter what your background is can access so that everybody
can access this incredible network of trails, the Scottish wilderness and be part of this
growth that is Scottish mountain biking
I think that Scotland is doing it pretty pretty right
I wouldn't know what to tell them how to improve keep doing what you are doing you have the
urban part which is the pump tracks, you have the trail centres and you even have a World
Cup here so what more could you ask for!