Posts Tagged ‘mountain boards’

Kiteboarding is brilliant fun, and for many people it’s also far more accessible as all you need are some wide open spaces – and not the luxury of a sea or large expanse of water. An extra bonus is that you can kite landboard in lighter winds and with a much smaller kite than kiteboarding on the water.

Riding Hard, Flying Low! Extreme Kiteboarding from www.pushkiting.co.uk from Dave – PUSH Kiting on Vimeo.

But there’s a dilemma? How do you know which board to choose?

A kite landboard is not so different to a skateboard with longer decks and trucks to give stability and with larger wheels to allow you to use them on rougher terrain.

Using the kite for traction, a kitelandboard can be manoeuvred around an open space kind of like snow boarding without the snow or surfing without the water. A skilled rider can achieve speeds of over 40mph and do all types of tricks and manoeuvers.

Right, that’s the basics, but if you walk into a specialist mountain board shop and take a looksee at the selection you will be stymied by the choice, so here we will try and break it down into a few simple choices.

The first thing you need to know is that the heavier or stronger you are you may require a heavier, stronger and more stable board whilst a lighter weight person will often require a board that is easy to manoeuvre to enable him to do tricks or get air.

If it’s speed you are into then you will need a longer board for stability. A long board helps with balance and allows a rider to reach high speeds with ease. Long boards are also good for carving.

But if it’s manoeuvrability, tricks and air that you are wanting to do then the shorter board is what you should be looking for.  These are lighter, more flexible  and more responsive to rider input. They are not ideal for speed.

However, the intermediate length board is favoured by most people as it is capable of doing both speed and tricks.

A mountainboard, on the other hand, is better if you are planning on going up and down hills or doing what’s called freeriding. It’s a more rugged beast. You will need 9″ wheels for smooth carving on rough surfaces and a brake for safety. Freeriding is really the core of mountainboarding.

A MBS Core 95 Mountainboard is a great place to start. This board features a truck system that allows the board to turn at lower speeds making it easier to make adjustments in your angle with the kite and the wind. Ultralight and designed for use as a KITE Landboard it will make it easier to learn and you should be kiting like a pro in next to no time…

So what’s the thing about the wheels? Some landboards have much bigger wheels than others. Why? What’s the difference?

The larger the wheel and tyre diameter – the less the initial rolling resistance will be… very useful if you’re on soft beach sand for example.

I’ve just picked this up off the news and think it will be a company worth watching. You might well have read it already, in which case I apologise, but if not you might be interested in investigating them further…

Kite business launches shop for extreme ground sports

By Abi Nicholas (Contact)
The Post and Courier
Monday, May 19, 2008

“Air Company, a full-service kite shop serving the local kiteboarding and sport kiting scene, has spread its wings, launching a new shop called Earth devoted to extreme ground sports.

The basic thinking behind the expansion: “When there is no air to catch, you can always ride the Earth,” said Adam Von Ins, the founder of both companies, in a statement.

From skateboards to longboards, ground boards, mountain boards, Freebords and Flexdex, Earth carries anything and everything you can skate, kick or plant.

As with Air, which specializes in kitesurfing, kiteboarding, stunt kiting, buggying, kite flying and kite repair, Earth is an eco-friendly venture.

“Our goal is to promote low environmental impact, green extreme sports,” Von Ins said.

At the same time, Air and Earth promote health and well-being, allowing participants to exercise by interacting with natural elements instead of exhausting them.

To accommodate the expansion, Air and Earth will begin operating Wednesday under one two-story roof in The Shoppes at Seaside Farms in Mount Pleasant, Charleston.”

Way to go Air Company – we all have to do our bit. And how very satisfying if ‘our bit’ helps in the long run.