Schedule your skill session:
Are you a person who loves to ride mountain bikes and wants to improve your skill? Are you worried that you don’t have enough skill to ride a specific trail and want to learn? Are you ready to schedule your private or small group skill clinic? Click the “Play Bikes With Me!” button.
Shanna has been riding all sorts of bikes in the technical mountains of Western North Carolina including Pisgah National Forest since 2006. In 2015 Shanna decided that she wanted to inspire other riders the way she was inspired by so many other skill instructors and mentors and become one herself!
Shanna has also had the opportunity to hone her instruction skills by working for and with various coaches and organizations over the years such as Sue Haywood, Ladies Allride in Brevard NC, Bentonville AR and Santos, FL; Grit Clinics in Brevard, NC; Take Aim Cycling in Michaux PA and Santos FL; Ninja MTB Performance in Brevard, NC and Santos FL; Radical Roots MTB instuction in Bellingham and Winthrop, WA; Queens of Dirt in Bellingham WA; Vida MTB Series in Sedona, AZ, as well as teaching at Ray’s Indoor Bike Park Women’s weekend in Cleveland OH. Shanna taught a Skill Clinic with Susan Haywood at Mulberry Gap twice per year from 2016-2019 taking over at the end of 2019 and offering clinics there on her own from 2019 through 2021. Shanna also offers women’s clinics at the Big Bear Bike Bash in Bruceton Mills, WV. Shanna also teaches mountain biking at She Ventures Earth in Chattanooga, TN.
Shanna has also led advanced rides at Roam Bike Fest in Brevard, NC; Knoxville, TN and Sedona, AZ.
Knowing that there is always more to learn and that we can always be better at what we do. Shanna makes sure to take a certification course and/or a private lesson herself every year.
Certifications are one thing but putting those certifications to use through learning and teaching under various organizations and mentors on various terrain across the country and gaining that experience sets Shanna apart as a skill instructor.
Shanna is coaching certified through the Professional Mountain Bike Instructor Association (PMBIA) as a Level 3 Instructor as well as a Level 1 Instructor Trainer. Shanna also holds a Wilderness First Responder and CPR certification and is insured and permitted to teach in both Pisgah National Forest and DuPont State Recreational Forest and has permission to teach at Ride Kanuga, and The Riveter. Shanna is also a Leave No Trace Master Educator certified through the Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics. As a rider, Shanna would rather be rad than fast but she knows with proper skill, training, and technique a rider can be both.
“Whether it’s working with new riders on the basics of mountain biking or teaching a group skills clinic, Shanna Powell is most at home helping riders feel more confident, safe, and efficient on the trails. “I really love seeing people do the thing that three minutes ago they told me they couldn’t do,” she said. “It’s one of the best feelings to show someone the power that they have in them that they didn’t know they had.”
Powell, who operates in Pisgah National Forest, DuPont State Forest, and Ride Kanuga, recommends lessons to riders of every skill level to get the most out of their bikes.”
-Blue Ridge Outdoors