Like a gymnast on a balance beam you scream down the narrow single-track.  Thick brush and small trees line the sides of your pathway of fate.  You struggle to maintain your balance as you reach a near uncontrollable speed.  Your emotions twitching from pure exhilaration to complete panic and fear.

If you’ve ever experienced mountainboarding a single-track you know that there is only so much to do to control your ride.  As soon as you drop in you are at the mercy of the track.  If it drops steep, so do you.  If it curves hard to the left, then you better do the same.  If a boulder or a log covers a portion of the track then you better figure something out quick.

There is little that can be offered in terms of advise to those mountainboarding single-tracks.  Brakes are obviously helpful, but if you are looking to actually “ride” the track, then they’re out of the question.  This lack of options is what attracts many of the riders of the forbidden single-track. 

Speed management is one of the biggest obstacles you’ll face.   The option to carve is out the window on most single-tracks, but depending on your surrounding terrain you might be able to use it.  If the track is carved into the ground, you might be able to rub the edges to slow your descent.  Brush or tall grass can be used to slow yourself by simply running your arms through it to provide drag.  Watch out for stationary objects if you try this; you don’t want to wrap your arm around a tree.

If after looking at the severe lack of options you still decide to mountainboard a single-track, then buckle your helmet and get ready for a rush. Stay focused or you’ll lose your balance and tweak out.  Mountainboarding is always full of split-second decisions, single-tracks just make it a smaller split-second. Keep your eye on that track, it’s the key to your fate- good or bad. 

During this three part series, we’ve covered the basics on fractures, road rash, and now concussions. Concussions are often referred to as Mild Traumatic Brain Injury (MTBI). While there are different levels of severity, even the mildest of concussions should be avoided. Not only is your brain getting beat up each time, you also become more vulnerable to further brain injury with each repeated concussion.

Inside the skull the brain is surrounded by what is called “cerebrospinal fluid.” This fluid acts as a cushion to protect the brain from low levels of trauma. It has it’s limits however, and if those limits are crossed the brain can be damaged. These limits can be crossed even without a direct blow to the head. If the body comes to a sudden and forceful stop, the brain might still get shook up regardless of where the impact occurred.

Symptoms vary from person to person. They can also vary depending on the severity of the injury. Some of the most common symptoms for mild concussions (though the same symptoms can be present in all levels of concussions) include: headache, nausea and sometimes vomiting, dizziness, and confusion. Momentary loss of consciousness sometimes occurs, along with that “whoa-what happened feeling.”

One should pay careful attention to his or her symptoms if a concussion is suspected. Regardless of the severity, you’ll need to rest. Your body is telling you through these symptoms that it’s extra fragile and that you need to take it easy. In most cases, more mountainboarding, is not the best idea.

More severe concussions can include symptoms such as these: loss of consciousness for over a couple minutes, waking up and then passing out again, an intense “I want to die” headache, your buddy saying, “dude, you hit really hard, I thought you died,” blurred or doubled vision, prolonged amnesia (you can’t remember what happened). The list goes on, the key is if you get up (or don’t get up), and you think to yourself, “Wow, I feel really messed up,” then you probably need to get some professional help.

If it is someone other than yourself that is down for the count, you can help my looking for certain symptoms that the victim won’t be aware of. If the guy is moving slowly, confused or kind of dazed, if he keeps repeating things even after receiving the answer, if his pupils aren’t equal (one is big and the other is small), basically if the guy is simply “not right,” then get him help. Keeping the person awake, contrary to popular belief is not necessary, all though it does make it easier to assess symptoms and vomit without choking.

Also a person who has been out cold for more than a couple of minutes shouldn’t be moved. Further injury could be caused and medical help should be called for as soon as possible.

As mentioned before, even the most mild concussion should be treated with care. Pay attention to the symptoms. Even if you feel okay, if your symptoms worsen you should get checked out my a professional.

So what’s the good news? The good news is that a great deal of mountainboadrd related concussions can be prevented by one simple piece of gear: your helmet. That cerebo-whatever fluid can only do so much. WEAR YOUR HELMET and make sure it fits, it can save your life, or at very least save you from a throbbing headache.

Our more primitive ancestors quickly became accustomed to using what they had around them in order to survive. Whether it was smashing dinner with a club made of mammoth bone, or huddling in a cave to stay out of the storm, they improvised with what was currently available and stayed alive, some of them anyway.

As mountainboarders, we can learn from our ancient cave brothers and embrace this same instinctive behavior. Instead of smashing dinner however, we use it to ride. We use it to turn our line of descent into a beautiful piece of mountainboarding art, sometimes even a masterpiece.

As we ride, we not only look to throw down style points, but we look to survive the ride and avoid injury. Can we do both at once? You bet we can, and that’s what it’s all about. As beginners we might have bailed off every five meters, or powerslide in the middle of what would have been an awesome ride if we could only handle the speed. Regardless of skill level, speed needs to be controlled, though it doesn’t require us to bail or powerslide every five meters.

This is where we harness our inner instincts and we use what we have around us to control our speed and to create our mountainboarding masterpiece. Use of terrain is key to this. A soft patch of dirt or sand, some tall grass, even a rocky, gravely section will slow you down to some extent. Incorporate your own personal style into this and slowing down can even become part of your art work.

Say you’re picking up some tear-streaking speed and you don’t know what’s around the next corner. You want to slow your rate of descent without messing up what has been an epic ride so far. Instead of coming to a stop or bailing out, you see a patch of loose dirt on the bank to your left. You carve toward it and as you reach it you carve hard back to the right throwing dust into the air. Now, ahead of you is a steep embankment that marks the edge of the trail, you slash it like a curling wave and continue downward. Then, just as you reach your mystery corner you throw down what appears to be a powerslide, but you force it into a 180 ground speed and take the corner riding fakie (rear foot forward).

Any onlooker would be stoked by the scene despite the many times you slowed your speed. Your methods of slowing down were so saturated with style that few would even realize that you were trying to gain control of your mountainboard. The loose dirt you threw into the air absorbed a portion of your speed. The embankment, due to the upward angle as well as the slash, took another chunk of your speed. Then, when you reached your corner of uncertainty and wanted to kill even more speed, your 180 ground spin consumed enough of your momentum to make you feel comfortable facing the unknown. Best of all, it all looked and felt awesome.

Use your terrain. Use what you got. Create your masterpiece.

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.

Last week we talked about fractures, this week we will discuss one of the most common injuries in the sport of mountainboarding, “road rash.” At first it doesn’t seem too bad, it gives you something to show off- a nice visual aid to go with your post-ride story. Then it starts to get miserable. Scabs, restless nights, ooze, and a long healing process.

So what do you do? How do you best treat it for the quickest recovery?

Before you can do anything, you need to equip yourself (preferably before the you wreck):

• Bottle of water

• Wash cloth

• A mild antibacterial liquid soap

• Antibiotic Ointment (e.g. Neosporin)

• Non-stick gauze pads

• Self adhering gauze wrap

The first thing you want to do after the wreck is inspect the injury. There are different types of road rash, some more serious than others. If you’ve completely peeled away the skin layer and you feel like you’re in science class when you look at it, then you probably need professional medical attention. The skin can’t heal if too much of the underneath stuff is messed up, or missing.

On the other hand, sometimes road rash effects only a very thin layer of the surface of the skin. These types need hardly any attention at all. Just keep them clean and dry and they heal themselves.

The road rash we will discuss is the kind that fall between the two we just mentioned. These are the kind that sting, throb, and ooze. The following steps are for this kind of injury:

1. Clean the area. If nothing else is done at the crash site, you should at least clean the area. This is done with water, a wash cloth, and mild antibiotic liquid soap (most sporting goods stores sell small empty containers that can easily be filled with soap and packed away). Avoid using hydrogen peroxide, alcohol, or anything like that as they’ve been found to mess with the healing process. Scrubbing too hard will also make things worse. If you’re not able to clean away dirt and debris with gentle washing, you can soak the area until it is soft enough to work with.

2. Once clean, pat the area dry.

3. Apply antibiotic ointment (e.g. Neosporin).

4. Cover the area with a non-stick gauze pad. If you’re gauze pad is not a non-stick type, you’ll regret it later.

5. With a self adhering gauze, wrap the area (some areas are not able to hold a wrap, like the back for example. The non-stick gauze pad will have to do for these areas). The wrap will help to secure and protect the gauze pad so it can do its job.

A few last words…

The road rash is an injury that requires daily maintenance. Your goal is to keep the wound moist, covered, and clean. Only the lightest of skin abrasions should be left to scab and “heal on their own.” When they are deeper, we want to avoid the scabbing process. Scabs tend to crack and they don’t allow enough oxygen to pass through for proper healing.

Keeping the area moist helps to prevent the scabbing process. Each day you need to remove the dressing, clean the area with soap and water, and remove any slimy film (the beginning of scab formation). Then apply the antibiotic ointment (e.g. Neosporin) and a new dressing as you did before. Within a week or two you should start seeing a healthy pink color and the oozing should be done. After this point, covering becomes optional.

So now that you’re a pro at treating road rash, go out and tear up the hill side. If you’re lucky you’ll get to practice what you’ve learned.

Mountainboards take quite a beating and keep rolling. After a long day of riding, it’s not unusual for your board to be jammed with dirt, mud, grass, and whatever else you thrashed that day. Post-ride maintenance is an important habit to develop. Not only does it keep your board running smoother for longer, it also helps to prevent problems on the mountain when you might not be prepared to deal with it.

The level of maintenance you do depends on many factors: how hard you rode, what you rode on, if water was involved, if you live in a dry or wet place, and many more. I do most of my riding in coastal areas, so I have to deal with rust issues more than some riders. Typically I do the post-ride maintenance described below after each day of riding, then once a month or sometimes every other month, I’ll do some deeper mountainboard maintenance work.

The following maintenance steps are for an MBS mountainboard. Some differences might exist for other types of mountainboards.