I stood atop a windy, Alaskan ridge with my gear strapped on and my mountainboard under my arm. I looked down into the valley below attempting to spot a nice line of decent. The moss-covered terrain was steep and lumpy. Large boulders, once carried by glaciers, now lay scattered about on the mountain side. The view was such a contrast from the coastal firebreak roads of Southern California where I had been mountainboarding for the past three years.

I struggled that day to maintain control of my board. The place seemed strange and foreign. Techniques that worked on the dirt firebreaks, failed miserably on the lumpy moss.

Mountainboard experiences like this one can go two ways. First, the rider can find the new terrain frustrating and choose to only ride the type of terrain that he or she is familiar with. Second, the rider can accept the challenge and learn how to ride it. While neither of these approaches are wrong, the second provides a valuable learning experience.

While many of us have a favorite terrain to ride, “mixing it up,” can greatly improve your skill as a rider. You will become more versatile, and your creativity will improve. Even if you go right back to your favorite spot, you’ll still find that the lessons learned improved your riding in some way. The basic principle here is experience.

A simple example of this is sand patches. Let’s say you’re out mountainboarding a hard dirt road and you’ve never hit a sand patch before, and then on this day, you do. You haven’t learned that your wheels will sink quickly into the sand. You might not lower your stance and you won’t know how to prepare for the sudden jolt that you’ll soon feel as your speed drops suddenly. Most likely, you’ll get tossed forward off your mountainboard and thereby learn a little about how to ride over sand patches. Next time you’ll be ready, you’ll be experienced.

So if you want to improve your riding, I suggest finding a place to mountianboard that forces you to learn a new terrain. Don’t freak out if you can’t tear it up like you normally do. You’re expanding your element, and that requires some work. Have fun.