First Time - Pointers?

[Hamil]

Hey Guys,

I'm heading out on my mountainboard this weekend for the first time (no kite at this stage). I'm a pretty confident snowboarder - what should I know about mountainboards, and how are they going to behave differently.

Any pointers would be much appreciated!

Cheers,

Christie.

[Ouch!!]

hay man

I would make sure that you have the board attached to your leg. so if you kiss the ground you don't have to run after a board heading down the hill solo. start small and get a feel for the board u might have to adjust the trucks depending on how you like it. I have mine turning tight for carving through a lot of trees but I still get the speed I want. Have Fun!!

cheers Ouch!!

[plummet]

armour up dude. yourl be falling off for a little bit. Theres more grip and less sliding. sliding is more difficult than on the snow.

to stop you need to learn to punch a slide. carve hard and lean back (heal side) it helps if you get an old welding glove and slap your hand on the ground to unweight the board when you want to slide (without the kite).

[Ouch!!]

with the slide to stop I always put most of my weight on the front and kick out the back

[Hamil]

Thanks guys,

How do you attach the board? like a surfing leash or something? I think I can do that.

With all this talk about armour I'm starting to think about puting on my motorbike leathers...

[SoutherlyBuster]

When starting out (before you can jump up and rotate the board around) at the top of the hill (or as far up as you dare), align your board down hill or 45 degrees to it, put your hand on the rear wheel, step onto the board, get feet settled in, let go of the wheel. You should now start rolling.

The fun begins.

Don't bomb it straight down hill first, you will be amazed how fast these things can accelerate given a descent hill. Learn to carve the board from side to side as you do snow boarding to control the speed.

Speed wobble is the next thing you need to master. Start by not going to the top of the hill, start out small to keep the speed down. So first off speed wobble should not kick in. Then as you go further up the hill, the speed also increases. What can happen is that you over correct your steering and you end up doing violent carves from left to right until you fall off. Tightening up the trucks can help reduce the speed at which the wobbles begin. It's mainly the control system steering the board that needs the tuning, ie your reactions. Putting just enough pressure on the front foot helps to reduce the wobbles. Keep calm and loose, do not get all tense and stiff .... then with plenty of practice you will master the speed wobbles.

Actually mastering the speed wobbles on down hill runs without a kite, helps to keep the wobbles at bay when kiting. When kiting leaning back hard against the pull of the kite helps to reduce the wobbles.

You will also need to master stoping when you need to, ie the power slides, I think the fellas have already mensioned that. This is quite important for down hill runs, even more so on narrow tracks (but keep to nice open hills at first). When you have a kite, stoping is easy, you use the kite as a parashoot to stop and/or go upwind until you stop.

Enjoy your first run. Get your hubby armed with the cam for the bribe shots ....

Oh right, the board leash ... I had one for my board and that was the first thing I took off it. Really when you are starting out you should not be going that hell bent fast that you are worried about your board flying loose off into the wild blue yonder. Learn to keep your board with you if you fall off, but hey that's my opinion. Even when I bomb it down the hill I do not wear a leash and have never had a run away board. Remeber for kiting DO NOT use a board leash ---- it is a dissaster waiting to happen, there are a few threads floating around on that one, the most recent the kite surfer that got injured when the board sling shot back onto him from the leash under full tension.

Regards,

Norman

[Ouch!!]

For armour all I have is elbow, knee, wrist pads and a helmet (skate boarding pads). They seem to do just fine. also wear jeans, motorbike leathers will give you great protection but if you are planning on having more then one run down the hill you still have to haul your arse back up again and a couple of times doing that with leather will make you sweat.

[Hamil]

Thanks for your advice guys

I flew my first kite on Sunday, so I'm on my way,..

[Spork]

Some good info here, thanks guys.

Still working on my power slide-stops, but in the meantime, what stance should I have?

Stand straight up, or squating down? Or does it vary depending on speed/ what you're doing?

Thanks.

Also, I have 100m of downhill dirt road to work on without a kite.

Is this enough room to do anything decent, considering the road is probably only 4m wide before it gets loose on the edge and drops off at about a 45 degree angle!

[plummet]

What stance should you have?

i presume your talking landboarding with a kite?

it depends on what your doing. in general the more power you are holding the further back you lean. here's a quick vid of mine. it shows a bit of general riding jumping and sliding

[Spork]

thanks for the info plummet.

i noticed you were flying an Ozone in that vid.

what is your opinion of them?

I was told that they are only good for landboarding if you want to go for long cruises, but no good for doing freestyle.

[SoutherlyBuster]

Haven't seen the vid yet as I'm at work, but if you want to know about Ozone kites and freestyle for the land action give Spartan on the EK a buzz, that is his speciallity (Ozone Frenzies).

[plummet]

Anyway the Ozone frenzy and Manta are great for freestyle kites.

the frenzy is a more "park and ride" kite with obvious power and lift. its easiest to use and get big air on. The manta requires more flying speed for power/lift. so its harder to get big air from. but once you dial into it you get way more glide than the frenzy.

[Goz]

Seeing as your new to all this Spork you may not have seen these videos but seeing as it's Saturday Morning grab your favourite Hot Beverage and check out some of these Push Kiting videos, to see what can be done with a kite and a landboard.

WARNING: These guys are CrAzY

[JKS]

Now ..... which one of those lads was using the mighty Manta ... and which one was floating under his freny .... ummmm ..... none eh .... april fools right Plummet

heh heh .... is it too early for a s^1t stir ?

The push lads are at the forefront .... I have seen nothing equal to the show they put on.

I have seen people like this get called darwin award rednecks .... narcissistic show ponies ...

Call em what you like .... they go off

[plummet]

yeah those push kiting lads are certainly mental.

[MadNicko]

Looking at trying some landkiting and got some questions re gear.

I've got a couple of kites already that I use with my skis and (very rarely) snowboard. Interested in trying some landboarding so that I can use them during the long summer months as well.

I've got helmet and knee, elbow & wrist protectors already. Any other protective gear I should get to start with? I've a lifejacket with kidney and rib-armour and neck-guard with spine protection (long-story) but they seem like an overkill for this type of thing.

What sort of board should I start out with? Not looking to fork out too much for this as I intend to make one as soon as I know what works well for me, but I can't see the point of buying something low-quality either.

Cheers for any advice you can pass on.

[Dave Shepp]

For kiting I use crash pants, mx elbow gaurds, gloves n helmet

For Downhill I add mtb knee/shin gaurds

For excitment helmet cam

[MadNicko]

Heh. Yep, I got an HD GoPro last summer and tried it out on snow one day this year. Still working on getting the mount set up the way I want it for video but I got a couple of nice pics out of its time lapse.

[SoutherlyBuster]

Have a look at the MBS Comp 95's. WIth the Ausie dollar in good shape the prices have dropped quite nicely. Personally I would not bother making one unless for a special purpose landboard. Getting all the bits and pieces to make one is about the same or more than a fully assembled bought landboard.

The MBS Comp 95 have the matrix trucks, great stability, tracks well and percise steering. I started out on skate trucks --- eventually you will get sick of them as you progress and want a more stable board to push it further. The MBS Comp 95 has proven great for me for both kiting and downhill runs, very pleased. My previous board was a FlexiFoil with Skate Trucks and the Tracker deck.

Don't go for one of those bannana bender decks, no good for downhill. I think it's a gimick they don't bother with these days.

Regards,

Norman.

[MadNicko]

Cheers. I'll check those out.

Not looking at making a board because it'd be cheaper. I just prefer using gear I've made myself whenever I can.

[Nocando]

Heres another good one

http://youtu.be/IvjmV_7u32c

[Sean]

One of my faves:

[Sean]

Sorry meant this one:

http://www.youtube.com/user/1991daniels ... Cbk9_m2RE0