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A Year in the Life of a Freerider The concept of freeriding is, for some, the very soul of the sports like skiing, snowboarding, mountainbiking and mountainboarding. And the history of freeriding stretches back as far as the 1930’s and ‘40’s when adventurous skiers were dropping into the couloirs and gullies around Mt Blanc and Chamonix. In the '60’s and '70’s the term "Ski Extreme" was coined, and freeriding began to attract global attention. Mostly due to the hard-charging styles of the men who pushed the limits of downhill riding in a way that had never been seen before. Snowboarders began using the term Freeriding when referring to boarding off piste, free from the rules and restraints that go along with it, and from its inception in the early 1980’s, it was clear that snowboards were the ideal tool for attacking gnarly terrain and steep drops. More stable and easier to manage in difficult or changing conditions, the snowboard replaced skis as the weapon of choice for many big mountain adventures. And so to mountainboarding, the youngest of the freeride sports. Freeriding has been part of mountainboarding since its birth. There were boards before there were tracks and jumps, and the originators went out riding the natural terrain just for the love of it. The original concept of freeriding was that there was no set course, goals or rules to abide by, it is just about enjoying the ride. It is using the natural terrain for recreation, riding rocky mountain roads, hitting singletrack lines through trees, or carving grass slopes, just enjoying the freedom to go and explore anywhere. My history began with buying a board, going out in the woods looking for somewhere to ride, and bumping into the Max Extreme Boarding Association. Since then I've been freeriding at every chance I get, and last year I was lucky enough to spend quite a bit of my time out in the woods and mountains to get myself as varied an experience of freeriding as possible, and to think about what freeriding means to me. And now I get to look back at my freeride adventures 2009... JANUARYThe plan was to try to organise a freeride meet in a different location each month that riders could hook up with if they wanted. Macclesfield Forest was the first and by far the most successful of the meets. Actually it was the only one, but the idea was there. I wonder how many people there are out there freeriding? Most of the mountainboarders I meet are at competitions which since they are held at centres, mostly attracts centre-riders. This probably gives me an unrealistic view of the mountainboarding world as I see lots of BX-ers and FS-ers and very few FR-ers. Maybe I should start looking for more freeriders. FEBRUARYSo far I've done fifteen out of forty-five, so I'm a third of the way there. It's also interesting to ride alone. I've always ridden with a big group, but riding somewhere on your own feels closer to the spirit of freeriding; it's all about enjoying the ride for it's own sake, not trying to impress anyone, or be judged, or prove yourself. In contrast to riding just for the enjoyment, is riding with an aim in mind. We wanted to get better at going fast, and going fast meant riding roads, which meant riding them at night when there isn't so much traffic around. We started on the brake board (just in case) with two cycle lights and a headtorch. As we got more comfortable with the darkness and with the roads we used only one light. And by the time we were really comfortable we could ride the roads with no lights at all. The next stage was to move on to riding less predictable terrain. The plan was to start with using the lights again and work up to riding woodland tracks in total darkness. But that would have to wait. Night ride Video MARCH'Dave' is one of my favourite firetracks. It's a 1.8 miler and pretty busy by firetrack standards with tight bends, rocky corners and slidy chicanes. It's also one of the few you can drive up so having an uplift is easy, which makes it an easy days riding for Joe, JC, Dunstan, Scully and me. This collective of freeriders came together from hundreds of miles apart, but with facebook, email and mobile phones, geography is no longer what binds groups of riders together, instead it's common interest in certain types of riding. Perhaps the future of freeriding is to be in the hands of a groups of like-minded individuals who join together in collectives, perhaps just for a day, before disbanding, going their own way, and joining up with other riders in another place at another time. APRILThe plan is to, eventually, draw on all the runs at every single location and then create a downloadable .pdf for each location so riders can print it and take it a map to places they haven't ridden before. It's another of my efforts to get more people freeriding by creating a resource for current and future freeriders (and all the centres are on there too). MAYIt was beautiful day, I remember because I was wearing my shorts and JC's straw hat. This was my second time riding Skiddaw, JC's first time with Brakes and Myles' first time with brakes and doing any kind of downhill, not to mention the fact he was on someone else's board. We went up there to get some downhill experience ready for the European and World Downhill Championships, and just because it's an amazing place to ride. It's the best mountain descent I've found in the UK. Skiddaw video JUNEJULYEven when I'm not freeriding, I'm thinking about freeriding. AUGUSTAfter my summers riding not being what I'd expected, I experienced a bit of a change in attitude about freeriding. I'd grown up (in the riding sense) in the tradition of day-long freeride missions to places where if there wasn't enough runs to keep you busy for a day it wasn't worth going. But I started going out to a ride just for an hour or two. Going for an easy, relaxed kind of riding, craving the carve, carving the grassy goodness of somewhere like Tom Burts hill. It's riding that isn't about being the gnarliest, or the fastest, or performing a trick for the cameras; it's getting out and feeling free with your board. It's not a riding style, but a riding mind-set. SEPTEMBERBeing unemployed has it's advantages, like being able to get out and spend days freeriding with people all over the country. The idea of riding free seems to imply crossing boundaries, not just in the terrain you ride but also geographically, being free to go to new places.Another day, another county; Kent,and hitting KentATB's spot at Sandgate with Ian, Godders, Evil C and Spud. It's my first time riding at Sandgate. It's full of mountainbike tracks that are rideable on a board, a nice gap jump, and a really weird shrine for a biker who was decapitated in the woods. Reminds me of the three mountainboarders who went into the woods to learn 180's and were never seen again: The Blair Switch Project. Garway Hill, on the border between England and Wales: It's 6am and i'm late for meeting up with Mutley and GoofyMark. They're gooing to show me one of their favourite riding spots. It's wet and windy but we soon warm-up when we start straight-lining the grass trackways and sliding around on the dew-covered grass. I'm impressed. It's the kind of place you can ride however you want and not worry about running into walkers or getting kicked off. I love meeting up with mountainboarders from different places, with different riding styles, different stories, and different reasons for riding. OCTOBERWith the evenings getting darker earlier, and weekend riding just not being enough, I started to get back into night riding. I had some discussions with other riders about this, with opinions varying from 'That's crazy!' to 'Get lots of big bright lights.', but I wanted to take a different approach. I wanted to learn to be able to ride places I'd ride in the daytime, in total darkness. Wendover Woods seemed like a good place to start. I knew it pretty well, and most of the tracks are wide enough to do silly things on. I took a torch just in case, but went determined to ride as much as I could in the dark. And it was fine. I took all the same lines I would have in the daylight, and went with the feel of the ride, feeling it for real! NOVEMBERAnyway, the four of us explored Cannock Chase and found a real variety of runs: from grass slopes to singletrack through the woods to rocky roadways. And we probably only explored about an eighth of the area, so we'll have to get back there soon. DECEMBEROff to Macclesfield Forest on Sunday. Macclesfield Forest had more mountainboarders in one place than I'd seen for a long time. It was a good thing to see. We sessioned a pretty steep (but slow) 'S' bend, Robbie impressed some walkers with his slides, Joe showed off his perfect pendulum slides, and JC and Rob filmed it all: Macclesfield Forest video no.1 Macclesfield Forest video no.2 So, as 2009 comes to an end, what deep and meaningful insights have I reached this year? What have I learned from all this freeriding?I guess I re-learned that life is like freeriding; you've got to find you own way down the track and not do it the way everyone else does it. And I learned that they are lots of people out there doing just that. I started the year convinced that not enough people were out freeriding, and certain that I needed to do something to encourage more. But what I found was that there are lots of people out there doing their own thing their own way. But there could always be more... ;) Words by Roger Swannell, photos by Roger & friends. |
