Mountainboarding the summer equivalent of snowboarding?
I read an issue of Whitelines magazine a couple of years ago. In it the authors compared various sports to snowboarding and somehow came out with the conclusion that mountain biking is the summer time alternative to snowboarding. Whilst I love mountain biking and think it is an amazing sport and wish I had more time to spend on a bike, the reality is that it does not really have all that much in common with snowboarding. The best I can see is that the trails in the alps make great mountain bike tracks in summer. The sports themselves really do not bear any resemblance in terms of the look or feel.
I have were to choose alternatives it would be longboarding or mountainboarding. Both involve going down slopes or hills using gravity to propel us. Longboarding bears less resemblance but it is widely available to most of us and has the strong carving element to it. On top of that, it makes little sense to keep trekking out to the mountain ranges at great expense when there is no snow unless you truly love the mountains in summer too. Alpine roads make for advanced level longboarding however.
Mountainboarding is easier to compare to snowboarding. The movements are very similar and your feet are still strapped in like with snowboarding. The carving sensation is slightly different due to having wheels instead of an edge but it is not a huge leap. Mountainboarding has now evolved to become a sport of its own and progressed to running a series of events in many different countries. The World Downhill Championships are currently run in France, and the World Freestyle Championships are run in the UK. The top riders such as Tom Kirkman are now doing pretty much the same moves as snowboarders however the amplitude is not at the same level. The lower resistance on snow allows snowboarders to travel much faster and therefore perform larger jumps.
Never Summer SL – What a snowboard!
When choosing a snowboard there is a lot to consider. Now there is so much choice it is pretty overwhelming and even those of us in the industry struggle to keep up to date with all the latest technological advances. There is one thing that remains constant though, and that is that you should try before you buy. Although this is the best advice, we know that it is not always possible. Shops can not be expected to maintain demo boards that you can try for each model they stock. That would be immensely expensive and prohibitive to most shops which already struggle with tight margins.
The next option is to check out the reviews the specific board you are looking at has, and also the brand as a whole. Is it a new brand? If so what makes you want to buy it? The older brands have many years of experience when it comes to designing, manufacturing and selling boards, and thousands of happy customers to back them up. All snowboard magazines write reviews for most boards these days and on top of that you can find a number of blogs which write independent reviews. You fellow riders will also be able to report back to you as many get to test a number of boards each year. Shop riders especially get to test a number of boards.
If I could only take one board away with me then I know exactly what it would be – a Never Summer SL. The reason is simple, this board does it all and does it well. It is light, agile and snappy making all mountain domination a doddle. It is great in the park too as it is twin tipped (not a true twin however). The board can take on powder too with little effort though when it gets a bit deeper it is time to bust out the Never Summer Premier. This is a more tapered board geared towards bombing hills and powder. Fun times.
Are Weird Sports Extreme Sports?
It’s Friday and I can’t wait for the weekend to begin. I am hung over after a fun Thursday night and all I can think about is a conversation we were having in the pub last night. The hot question was Are Weird Sports Extreme Sports? By this I am talking about those rather random (and normally British) sports like Tough Guy, Nettle Warrior and Wife Carrying.
Pro Weird Being Extreme Argument
People jump out of airplanes because there is a chance that the parachute wont open or it will get tangled, people bungie jump because there is a thrill that comes with the risk of the rope being too long or not being tied on properly and people take part in the Cheese rolling festival because there is a risk that they will fall and break their neck, they take part in Tough Guy because there is a risk again of death and serious injury, they push their body to the limit in order to get through.
Cons Weird Being Extreme Argument
Okay this could turn into a rant (like it did last night) so here goes – weird sports aren’t extreme in the sense that sky diving, B.A.S.E jumping and free climbing are extreme. With these sports when you are committed, you are fully committed and you need to be both brave and skilled to survive.
Cheese rolling is more of a race than an extreme actvity, granted that by being a race it falls into the category of being a sport but it is not extreme.
I might be being an extreme sports snob here but once there is an aspect of mass organisation involved this seems to take away part of the risk so what you are left with is a kind of synthetic version of an extreme sport. When I started snowboarding it was pretty new, you were different when you were on the slopes with a board rather than skis. There were no lessons – you just had to kind of learn yourself.
Another example is bungee jumping; and I will admit I didn’t try this until a couple of years ago but there is no sense of death, you know that you are safe, that you will be 6 feet from the ground and everything is rather safe. The thrill is only from the jump where you leap out which goes against everything our body stands for.
I think that weird sports are just that – they are sports that are weird and because most have an element of competition involved in them then they are sports.