Meet Craig Smith – the new Scottish Borders Trail Co-ordinator!

I trained as an engineer before spending 30 years in the Fire and Rescue Service. For the past six years, I’ve been teaching first aid and guiding mountain bikers around Scotland, mainly in the Tweed Valley.

I got into mountain biking in the late 1990s after trying a few other outdoor sports that were often limited by the weather. I soon realised that weather matters far less on a mountain bike, which makes it an ideal sport for Scotland.

I was born and raised in the Borders, originally in Galashiels. I then spent six years in Edinburgh before moving to Peebles in 2006 so we could be closer to the trails.

Hopefully, they’ll find someone who is willing to get involved and help make progress on any issues they’re facing. There’s a wealth of experience within the DMBinS team, and I can help people access that support.

When I read the brief, I realised it covered a lot of the things I was already trying to achieve — and someone was going to pay me to do it. I had also been working alongside the DMBinS team at the Scottish Enduro Series and really enjoyed the team’s approach and atmosphere.

The Borders has so many different hills to ride, each with its own character. There are hundreds of trails, from green through to black, backed up by great scenery, friendly communities and plenty of bike-friendly businesses that support the riding scene.

Definitely — I’m excited to support the rollout of the customised Level 5 mountain biking award as a trial with Galashiels and Peebles High Schools. Hopefully, it will help keep more young people engaged in education and highlight future pathways into employment. If it’s successful, we can roll it out nationally and support young people across Scotland.

Building trust and stronger relationships between those stakeholders — including trail builders — is hugely important if we want to maintain the progress already made. Getting everyone working together can only strengthen the Borders’ reputation as a great biking destination.

For me, it’s the people who make a really great trail network. The quality of the trails and supporting facilities is vital, of course, but it’s the people doing the digging and maintenance, creating a positive and welcoming atmosphere on the hill, and taking the risks to open and run great cafés, pubs, accommodation and restaurants who make the difference between a good place to ride and a truly great trail network.

As I said earlier, building relationships and trust will create more success. Through better dialogue and stakeholder engagement, we can hopefully build the right trails, in the right locations, for the right reasons and for the long term. That can bring more prosperity and investment into the area and, hopefully, help raise the funds for full-time maintenance crews. It happens in other places around the world, so why not here?

I’d like to see more people feeling confident and welcome on the trails, whatever their background or ability. More adapted public busses that were able to take bikes and an expansion of the cycleways between the borders towns like the success of the bike path between Walkerburn and Eddleston.

The local riding community will be central to it. Riders, clubs and volunteers know the trails better than anyone, so their insight, energy and feedback are vital. My role is to listen, bring people together and help them turn good ideas into practical progress.

I’m looking forward to working with people who care deeply about mountain biking and the places where it happens. There is so much passion, knowledge and energy in the Scottish mountain biking community, and I’m excited to play a small part in helping it move forward.

I’d probably head for the Tweed Valley. There’s so much choice, from a quick local loop to a bigger day out linking different trails together. It’s hard to beat having that variety right on the doorstep.