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.
