Let’s face it, mountainboarding is not about stopping. It’s about embracing your fears and conquering the terrain. It’s about movement, speed, and beautiful wrecks. It’s about the ride.

Stopping, though it seems to go against the flow of the sport, is an essential skill. It provides control, confidence, and greatly increases your overall ability as a rider. Simply put, the better you can stop, the better you can go.

The powerslide is an aggressive movement. It is very simple but requires practice. A gentle slope with plenty of space is a good place to start. Let’s go over the basic steps for the heel-side powerslide:

1. As you reach a comfortable speed, scan the terrain for a good place to stop. “Perfect spots,” never seem to exist when you really need them, but you can at least be aware of what your about to slide on. For example, a small amount of sand or pebbles covering a hard surface will feel like ice, while dry asphalt will feel sticky and require more force.

2. Lower your stance and get ready to commit.

3. Shift most of your weight to your front foot. Your rear foot needs to be light on the board so the tail end can whip around.

4. Grab the toe-side of your deck; this isn’t always necessary but it provides a little extra force.

5. Now it’s time to slide. Swing the tail-end of your board forward. Continue to pull on the toe-side of your deck as you apply pressure through your heels. Your goal isn’t to slide sideways to a stop. You want to continue to slide that tail end until you are facing uphill. The key to the powerslide is practice. You have to get the feel for a variety of terrain as well as different speeds, if you really want to learn it.

A toe-side powerslide is basically the same. Some find this to be more difficult. The steps will be the same, only now your goal will be to slide on the toe-side of your board.

1. Scan your terrain.

2. Lower your stance and get ready to commit.

3. Shift your weight to your front foot.

4. Grab the heel-side of your deck (reaching between your legs works well and racks in style points if any one is counting).

5. Swing your tail-end into a slide. Remember, don’t stop sliding until your facing uphill. With practice, you should be able to kill your speed in the exact moment that you’re facing back uphill.

The powerslide is well worth the time it takes to learn it. Practice and repetition is all there is to it.