Mountainboarding - South West Shred
If you go down to some of the woodlands located around the Bristol and South West on a Sunday, you might get a big surprise - and it’s not a picnic. Out on the hills and in the ancient woodlands dotted across the South West (and in other locales too) a new breed of board rider is making use of the great outdoors.
For those of you who haven’t yet heard of mountainboarding (also called dirtboarding and all terrain boarding), the mountainboard is like an off-road skateboard – on steroids. The board is about 1 metre long, has a beefed up turning mechanism loosely based on a skateboard truck and between 8 and 10 inch pneumatic tyres! They can be ridden near enough anywhere, and well, the steeper it is the faster you go. If that sounds plain mental, then you’ve got the right idea.
Mountainboarding is still a very underground scene, but with the cost of snowboarding rising in both financial and environmental terms, this sport offers a more sustainable, if somewhat rugged approximation. The sport is growing and the UK - the South West in particular - is dominating. Back in 2000, Swindon based Stuart Kirk decided that the UK needed a proper race series. Stuart’s series was successful and continues to this day, attracting riders from Europe, Russia and the States to compete against us Brits. At one of these events in 2001, Steve Birkbeck met Ian Williams and together they started team BAD.
By 2004 the Bristol and District Mountainboard Crew regularly polled twenty riders on a Sunday free-ride and while the club is not as prominent as in its heyday with Steve and Ian at the helm, mountainboard riding these days is less about organised clubs and more about groups of friends out to get their fix and push the boards, the equipment and indeed their own bodies to the very limit.
“So much of modern life seems fake - plastic, everything is all about appearances, about image - often with very little backing it up. Mountainboarding is the antithesis. It beats back the futility of modern living with a big stick - it’s like a much needed dose of reality, of substance.” So we’ll see you in the woods then.
Andy Walker
Photos: Chris Williamson
Copyright © 2008
April 11th, 2008 at 5:28 am
[...] picnic. Out on the hills and in the ancient woodlands dotted across the South West (and in … http://www.suityourselfmagazine.co.uk/2008/03/20/mountainboarding-south-west-shred/ SUIT YOURSELF MAGAZINE ONLINE [...]
April 25th, 2008 at 3:21 pm
[...] Mountainboarding - South West ShredIf you go down to some of the woodlands located around the Bristol and South West on a Sunday, you might get a big surprise - and it’s not a picnic. Out on the hills and in the ancient woodlands dotted across the South West (and in … [...]
April 28th, 2008 at 2:34 am
[...] Mountainboarding - South West ShredIf you go down to some of the woodlands located around the Bristol and South West on a Sunday, you might get a big surprise - and it’s not a picnic. Out on the hills and in the ancient woodlands dotted across the South West (and in … [...]
September 20th, 2008 at 8:31 pm
Great work guys, Keep it up… Hope to ride with you some day but for now stuck down on the south coast supporting knockhill and the priory.
G
April 15th, 2009 at 1:09 pm
I can tell that this is not the first time at all that you write about this topic. Why have you decided to touch it again?
April 15th, 2009 at 4:34 pm
Hey, nice tips. Perhaps I’ll buy a glass of beer to the person from that forum who told me to go to your blog
April 15th, 2009 at 6:04 pm
I read your blog for quite a long time and must tell you that your posts are always valuable to readers.
April 15th, 2009 at 6:35 pm
If you ever want to see a reader’s feedback
, I rate this post for four from five. Decent info, but I just have to go to that damn google to find the missed pieces. Thanks, anyway!
April 16th, 2009 at 5:18 pm
Thanks for the feedback guys - keep it coming thick and fast - big up to Mr Whittle - he’s a dude!
July 4th, 2009 at 9:52 pm
Hi,
Thanks for the http://www.suityourselfmagazine.co.uk forum. There seems to be a never ending supply of great information on the net. I love learning new stuff, and will be back to read forum posts regularly! Thanks again.
July 6th, 2009 at 11:16 am
Minnickup… Glad you like, our pleasure, of course, spread out the love xxx