Adrenaline-fuelled Muscle Building – The Ultimate Board Sport?

Does running seem monotonous? Do gym sessions bore you to tears? Are weight lifting reps getting too . . . well . . . repetitious? If you’re like me, you relish some excitement and even a little danger in your workout sessions. As a self professed adrenaline junkie, I got hooked on a powerful way to increase muscle tone, improve balance, enhance cardio, and proliferate bruising; it’s called mountain boarding.

But beware, the mountain board is highly addictive: its users continually come back for more abuse even after experiencing physical pain from unavoidable falls. In other words, the mountain board craze is just a hell of a lot of fun. Though I’ve so far managed to avoid a calamitous fall, I’m nevertheless an addict.

Mountainboarding - Increase Muscle Tone, Improve Balance, Enhance Cardio, and Proliferate Bruising!

Mountainboarding - Increase Muscle Tone, Improve Balance, Enhance Cardio, and Proliferate Bruising!

I had skateboarded my way through childhood and into adolescence. After a broken elbow and parental pressure to “grow up,” I gave it up. But several years ago, when I was still living in California, I spotted some mountain boards at a local shop. I had to try them, proving once and for all that I would never succumb to that terminal condition known as adulthood.

As I was lugging a mountain board up a small hill, San Francisco Bay Area expert Don Baker gave me a brief history of the sport. Baker’s craze started when he was in high school. Always into board sports, Baker decided to build the ultimate board − a large skateboard with big wheels and fat knobby tires designed to roll over sticks rocks and mud.

Baker wasn’t the only one to come up with the idea – snowboarders who were “dreading the off season” built them because “a few months without snow . . . and desperation overrides common sense.”

Many modifications have been made to the original designs, and companies like Ground Industries, Turfboard, and NoSno offer a variety of boards. Some have pneumatic tires, some have hard tires, and others have only two tires. The light, easy-to-maneuver boards are great for catching air, while the more rigid and heavier boards are great for rough terrain. Most boards have toe clips and a few have brake systems.

On my first try, I opted for the big, heavy and slow board. I started on the top of a grassy knoll with my feet firmly implanted in the toe clips. Baker gave me a gentle push and told me to bend my knees and keep low so if I fell, I wouldn’t have to fall far. I did as I was told, and before I knew it, I was on the bottom of the hill and the board had come to a stop. It wasn’t bad for a first try, but I yearned to do something harder maybe even catch some air.

With childlike enthusiasm, I asked Baker if I could try to go down a steep dirt hill behind the grassy knoll. He demurred and I was on my way. At that time, I could see why I had to wear a helmet and padding – the faster I went, the harder it was to maintain control. On my second try, I hit a speed wobble and suddenly, in quick succession, I saw sky . . . grass . . . more sky . . . and finally more grass. With a bruised ego, I hobbled up and watched Baker sail down the same hill with ease and grace of a consummate professional.

Baker with his partner, Kevin Delaney, started an organization called Dirtheads to promote the sport and offer the best all-terrain boarding services through lessons, demos and equipment sales. Dirtheads biggest obstacle now is finding places to ride. Dirt boarders often get kicked out of local parks and trails because rangers don’t know what to make of them and think that what their doing is too dangerous.

As for Baker, he’ll go wherever he can “catch some air” and turn on more people to the mountain board experience just like he has for the last eleven years. As for me, I’ll go wherever I can improve my fitness and get a needed adrenaline fix.