Learn Mountain Biking in Marin County (Mount Tamalpais / Fairfax)

Honest level: Beginner -> Advanced — ask the school exactly how far that goes in the time you have.

ZEP Instructor Academy

A 3- or 5-week residential instructor camp based in the Whistler Bike Park and on Whistler's valley trails, pump tracks and dirt jumps. Riders train four days a week with certified coaches through three phases — riding-skill development, instructor training, then instructor development — and the camp is the only program in the world to include the PMBIA Instructor Certification courses, the cert born in Whistler in 2006. Extra sessions cover suspension setup, video analysis and feedback skills, nutrition, and strength and conditioning. Graduates can be hired directly by Whistler Bike Park / ZEP. Chosen over the Marin heritage site because Marin has no multi-week immersive course; Whistler is the home of modern bike-park riding and of PMBIA.

Next sessions: May 2026 · Aug 2026

Multi-week, live-in, small-group camp at the birthplace of the sport's instructor certification, ending in a recognized PMBIA credential.

Schools in Marin County (Mount Tamalpais / Fairfax)

Checked by hand against each school's own course pages. No school paid to be listed.

• ZEP Techniques / ZEP MTB Camps
  ZEP Instructor Academy
  A 3- or 5-week residential instructor camp based in the Whistler Bike Park and on Whistler's valley trails, pump tracks and dirt jumps.
  https://www.zeptechniques.com/instructor-training/zep-instructor-academy/
• Marin Museum of Bicycling & Mountain Bike Hall of Fame (heritage rides)
  A Fairfax bicycle-history museum and home of the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame at the birthplace of mountain biking; a heritage and cultural site rather than a school offering multi-day instruction.
  https://mmbhof.org/

The credential

PMBIA Level 1 / Level 2 Mountain Bike Instructor Certification · Certifying body: PMBIA (Professional Mountain Bike Instructors Association)

A recognised qualification an outside body stands behind is not the same as a certificate a school prints itself. We name which it is — you should ask the school the same.

Also for Mountain Biking

What I check before I send you anywhere

I'm Arnaud. I cook for a living, and I've spent fifteen years on the water — so I know the difference between a real school and a good-looking website. I built the Atlas because I got tired of the second kind. Here is what a place has to clear before it goes on here, and what I'll tell you straight when it doesn't.

• The craft is actually alive there. A working scene, with people who do this every day — not a demo put on for visitors.
• There's a real teacher behind it. Named, still practising, and certified where the craft has certificates.
• The credential is what it claims to be. A state diploma and a certificate a school prints itself are not the same thing. I check which, and I say which.
• I tell you how sure I am. Most pages here are verified by hand. A few say "still checking" — I'd rather admit that than pretend.
• Nobody pays to be here. No commission, no selling the trip. The order on this map is the strength of the community, never the size of the wallet.
• If I wouldn't send a friend, it isn't on the map.