Mountainboarding is nothing new. It’s been around since about since 1978 when skateboarder Mike Motta rode down a hill called Seven Bumps in Malden, Massachusetts. In some form, mountainboarding continued under the radar until 1992 when snowboarders Jason Lee, Patrick McConnell and Joel Lee went looking for similar summer style sled riding fun. Without much to hand the crew co-founded Mountain Board Sports (MBS) building four wheeled, all terrain oversized skateboards with added carving performance to shred the same hills but without snow on the ground. NoSno formed around a similar time in the UK with an additional focus on mountain board trucks for better carving ability and stability at speed.
Mountainboarding in 2023.
Mountainboarding continues to draw enthusiasts from all over the globe looking for similar feels to that of snowboarding and surfing. Only on land and away from the white and wet stuff. As with all boardsports past the inception stage mountainboarding ebbs and flows in terms of participation.
Whether you refer to the activity as mountainboarding, dirtboarding or all terrain boarding is down to personal choice. One thing remains, however, mountainboarding is as fun as it ever was.
Forest mountainboard wins.
At time of writing, seasons are switching from autumn to winter. The clocks have changed and we’ve lost a large chunk of daylight in the UK. This can make getting your regular fix of surf board sliding tricky. Unless you skateboard or mountainboard.
Unlike skating, mountainboarding is more able to cope with inclement weather such as rain. Skateboards don’t much like the wet. Whereas taking a mountainboard out in such conditions isn’t a problem (as long as you clean your whip down afterwards). Also, sloping forests and hillsides are perfect for a spot of mountainboard shredding. Riding at night is also possible.
All terrain ability.
With their oversized wheels and ability to cope with offroad terrain there’s a lot more scope to riding mountainboards in places you wouldn’t skate. We know a few who dirtboard on mountain bike trails – as pictured in the accompanying images. This is perfectly applicable for mountainboards.
If you have access to such facilities then it’s game on. Likewise, conventional skateparks and pump tracks might also be for the taking as a mountainboarder. And of course, any old hills or offroad incline is ripe for some shredding.
Additional mountainboard versatility.
Mountainboards are versatile machines. Whilst they’re primary role is for ripping hills and trails there’s no question you can add things like power kites and wingsurfing wings for additional versatility. Power kiters have long used mountainboards as their trusted steeds. More recently, with the explosion of winging, this type of rider is also adopting the four wheeled plank.
With a kite or wing, the ability to rip along on the flat is suddenly open to mountainboarders where it wasn’t before. The all terrain nature of dirtboards gives them a slightly broader ‘canvas’ than a longboard skateboard. In our opinion this is a big win for mountainboards and sliders have even more opportunity to get outdoors and rolling fours.
NCW and mountainboards.
Here at NCW we retail a small selection of mountainboards that can be used for battling hills, power kiting or winging. As keen and longtime skateboarders the addition of mountainboards is a logical one that has plenty of synergy with how we’ve always ridden.
You can check out NCW’s range of MBS mountain boards as part of skateboard offerings here. You’ll also find power kites in the mix too. For wings try our sister site Foilshop UK here.
If you have any questions about mountainboarding, power kiting or wing skating message us here.