Just received my latest toy through the post: a mountain board. I’ve done a lot of snow boarding in the past and had my snow-board optimistically hung up in the living room for a while, ready at a moment’s notice. And I think I’ve used it locally … once, no – I can think of another slushy run I did in 1/2 an inch of snow – twice. I’d considered mountain boarding (aka grass-boarding, all-terrain boarding) in the past but seeing people tearing down forest tracks, I thought well that’ll be sore if they fall over. At least snow is soft sometimes (drifts off into reminiscences about silently floating through an endless powder field – ahh – ouch – remembers years of bouncing down sheets of slushy scottish ice trying to steer around the tufts of grass). Anyhow now that my paragliding wings have been clipped (getting a bit more worried about the damage I can do to myself falling out of the sky) I’ve been casting around for a new pasttime, and we’ve got plenty of mountains so got myself a mountain board.
So it arrived this morning. I dug out all of my safety gear, put most of it back again (probably overkill for the nearby bunny slopes) and headed off across the fields into the rain. After fording a river to get to the nearest steepish field (the adventures never end) I strapped in and headed down the slope. It was a bit sluggish in the long grass but got a fair turn of speed on the steeper sections. All my years of snow boarding came back to me and after a few false starts I was leaning on that front foot, carving up the slope and even managed a feeble power slide.
Back home now, all dried out, but as soon as the rain stops I’m off to find myself a decent hill!
