What is Mountain Boarding?

All Terrain Boarding (ATB) or mountain boarding, is a crossover from many sports and ride styles particularly snowboarding, skating and surfing. Within the sport you can specialise in what suits you and your nearby terrain, for example:

Downhill: blitzing down a hill with other dirt heads
Freeriding: this takes the sport back to its roots. It’s all about you, earth, gravity and a board strapped to your feet. The real deal!
Freestyle: go big… or small, make that grab, spin, flip and rotate. Send us your trick tips and photos.

But like most riders we're sure you’ll give all 3 aspects of the sport a good go.

There's also a subsection within the sport and that is land kite boarding, which is using your mountain board with a kite to ride around a field or open beach. Fortunately the two aspects of the sport are similar enough for most boards on the market to be suitable for everything - it's only when you start getting really keen that specialist boards come into the equation.

Kite boarding is an ideal progression from flying large power kites in the park. You don't need a slope, in fact the flatter and larger the area is the better… without trees, and power lines of course! Once you've mastered going backwards and forwards and controlling your speed, you can start sliding and jumping around - but make sure you're wearing plenty of padding since crashes can really hurt!

Mountain boarding is everything from finding an awesome spot in your local woods and riding it with your mates to joining in one of the ever popular race series and jostling with some of the top riders in the country. The boards at a glance are oversized skateboards (or mini snowboards with wheels), with large pneumatic tyres. You steer by tilting the deck with your toes and heels, and Velcro or ratchet style foot straps loosely hold in your feet.

In the UK there are race events every few weekends over the summer, usually held at established ATB centres around the UK. These centres have instructors on hand and kit to hire out if you want to try a taster session. They are built on a slope, with jumps, berms and sometimes half pipes, just like a snowboard fun park.

What board is best for me?

Downhill and free ride boards tend to be slightly longer and more stable than freestyle boards, which are designed for tricks and jumping. Some boards are fitted with upgraded foot straps that feature a ratchet adjustment like you'd find on snowboard bindings - these fit more securely while still allowing your feet to release when you come off. You'll find these on the top end boards

All boards can be ridden in both directions - your feet are positioned in a duck footed stance that may feel strange initially but does work very well. You can buy footplates that allow you to fit snowboard bindings and adjust the angle of your feet on the deck.

There are currently two major designs of truck (the mechanism that attaches the wheels to the deck and allows you to steer by tilting). One, the "skate style" truck, is a beefed up version of a regular skateboard truck that uses squishy urethane bushings to provide steering. Skate trucks are among the lightest available and are fitted to most junior boards and mid range adult boards, as well as some freestyle models.

Still not sure on what board to buy? Contact our Board Buddy for professional advice!

One thing to consider is that although you can upgrade to channel trucks at a later stage, it's quite expensive. You need to replace your hubs and bearings along with the trucks as the channel trucks use a larger axle (12mm as opposed to 10mm diameter).

The other design is the "channel" truck - these use steel springs instead of the urethane bushings, and are built stronger than skate style trucks, but are heavier. A common misconception is that the springs offer suspension - this is not the case! A board's suspension is provided by flex in the deck

There's a good range of junior boards around at the moment. The main difference between these and adult boards is the length. Smaller people need smaller boards! The wheels are often 8 inches as opposed to 9 inches, some even come with 7-inch wheels to make it easier for little legs to throw the board about. Shorter, lighter adults will be perfectly ok with the stronger junior boards, but bear in mind that they are not designed to be ridden by your 85kg buddies who may just push it over the edge!