Mountain boarding

December 5th, 2006

Mountain boarding, also known as dirtboarding, or all-terrain-boarding, is a new board sport, derived from snowboarding. It was originally intended to take the place of snowboarding during warm months while there was no snow available. It was only in the last 8 or 9 years that mountain boarding has developed into a sport in its own right.

A mountain board is similar to a snowboard. The size of the deck is shorter than the average snowboard, approximately 110 cm in length with four wheels. The wheels consist of small alloy hubs with tires of between 7″ and 12″ diameter. The wheel size varies depending on which type of riding is done. For example, an 8″ wheel would be for freestyle riding and jumping. The larger wheel is used by the downhill rider. Like a snowboard (and unlike a skateboard) the feet of the rider are attached to the board deck with bindings, however boots are not required. Most mountain boards are equipped with ‘channel trucks’ which are similar in appearance to a skateboard truck but are spring-loaded to stiffen up turning. One revolutionary new board design, by Howla mountain boards, uses polyurethane bushes to give the most efficient steering available at present.
The two main styles of riding are downhill (freeride & racing) and freestyle.

Freeride is done on a variety of terrain, from ski resorts, when the snow has melted away, to downhill mountain bike courses, to woodlands and forests. More and more dedicated centres are being opened around the world specifically for the sport of mountain boarding. Racing tends to be either of slalom, two riders weaving between poles, or boarder cross, a category of racing that is similar to BMX courses, with berms and jumps.

Freestyle riding consists of ramp jumping; performing tricks which can be rotations (180, 360 and more degree turns), inverted tricks (back flips, front flips), board grabs (tail grab and front grab) and one foot variations (or even no foot variations like “supermans and superman fingerflips”.

A variation on mountain boarding is kite landboarding. This involves using a power kite to pull the rider on a mountain board and gives them the ability to use the kite to generate enough power to get some lift, normally several feet up in the air and perform tricks.

Entry Filed under: Extreme sports, MTB freeride, BMX, skating, other, Video