Ollie Morrison, Tom & Mick Kirkman head down to Mount Hawk Skate Park in Truro, Cornwall for some winter training. The snow and general wetness before and after Christmas has meant outdoor mountainboard sessions are hard to come by. You have to keep riding though!
Last year the Outdoor Sports Show at the NEC in Birmingham was our first demo of the season. A time to get used to mountainboarding again after a really wet and cold winter. The team were on form and you can tell from the smiles on their faces. Video edited by Tom Kirkman
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As you may have noticed, the UK has been pretty much covered in snow for the last week or so. This has meant that mountainboarding (with wheels at least) has pretty much been off the cards. The same applies for kiteboarding with wheels. Whilst stripping the trucks off your deck is fun for a bit, it is pretty hard to do much more than straightline down the hill. For this reason most of us have resorted to snowboarding. Here is a picture of our new local snow park (formerly Bugsboarding mountainboard centre). The last couple of days have been a bit on the warm side of things however we are hoping for more snow tonight. As you can see there are all the usual kickers and rails which work great with a snowboard. On Friday night we had a couple of generators and some lights and tunes. It was like a normal day at Bugs just under snow – quite surreal.
Tom Kirkman and co down in Cornwall have also had a lot of snow and have had to resort to snowboarding for their daily fix. As you can see, Tom’s back garden which features in so many of his mountainboard videos is also now doubling as an excellent little jib park. It also shows just how easy the transition between mountainboarding and snowboarding really is.
Although not technically riding an MBS board he is still our rider! Lewis has proved his skills on land and water and now he is taking on the snow. Equipped with a top of the range Never Summer SL-R and his trusty Flexifoil kites. Kite photographer Richard Boudia is also out there so we are expecting some great shots to make their way back to us very soon.
Photo by Bertrand Boone
Follow Lewis’ progress on his website: Lewis Wilby
A little more footage from Tom Kirkman’s epic trip to Brazil. It shows some cool riding from the Brazilians as well as other pro riders.
It seems to be the place to go this winter. Both Joe Dickson and fellow Pro Team Rider but on the kite side of things Mark Berry have headed out there to get away from the cold. Here is what he has to say:
So I’m out in Australia getting away from the UK winter.. I was staying with the legendary Ryan Slater for a while in Melbourne. Had great times with that crazy cat. Now I have moved to stay with Dylan “Radface” Warren in the suburb of Beaconsfield. Hes got an empty house plot next door so we have been making some sort of ghetto board park. These shots are testing some of the new stuff. It is quite dodgy as you can see, made of rubbish from the building site next door, pallets from here there and everywhere around. Someone had crashed a car into a lamp post and that then became a up rail/pole jam. An old trampoline frame became a down rail and a wall ride. A vert wall and jump were made of random bits of wood and ply from someones bonfire. It all works and we will be having a session with local riders soon.
See the rest of the photos of Joe Dickson and Dylan Warren in Oz.
A while back we mentioned that ATC Productions had organised a mountainboard demo at the Eden Project. Paul Taylor was on hand to capture the moment. There are some amazing shots in there and the Eden Project makes a great back drop too.
Remember this shot of Mick Kirkman from last winter? Has anyone done that this year? Plenty of snow about!
Click on photo to see full size shot.
Tom flew out to Brazil to take part in a competition but had plenty of time to chill out, ride, and get down with the way of life in southern Brazil. I know they loved having him there and he loved being there too. One thing however was the heat. It was really hot (especially compared to the UK) making intense riding pretty tough. Here is Tom just messing about and enjoying himself.
Paul has been taking photos of mountainboarding for many years. He has finally had time to dig through his archives and put together a quick video showing some of the photos he has taken. Anyone who has been in mountainboarding for a while will recognise loads of faces (some much younger faces) and a lot of the locations too. A lot of very classic shots in there.