Your guide to soil shaping by The Groundsman

An intoduction to the joys of building your own dirt park...

Going to your local centre and riding the features and tracks, which have been made specifically for mountainboards, rocks. If you aren't lucky enough to have a mountainboard centre five minutes from your house then the travelling can be a bit of hassle, especially if you want a quick session with your crew or if you are a bit of a freestyle junkie and need to get some new trick dialled before the next comp...

Now if you are lucky enough to have decent sized garden, which your parents don't mind you adding your own additions to or if have managed to get permission to build on someone else's land then you are more than half the way to getting your own dirt park to session with mates and practice as much shizzle as you want.

Before we get too involved in all how-to's and what-for's there's something I have got to do which goes against my yeti heritage but unfortunately there are some blame-monger's out there, so sorry for wasting 30 seconds of your life.

This article is not a complete guide or instruction book on how to build dirt jumps. It is just some advice from what me and my friends have learnt over the time we spend building jumps. Always ask permission from whoever owns the land. Dirt jumping is dangerous activity. So it is your responsibly to ensure you are wearing the right padding, have enough experience and have not built a jump which is dangerous. Always make sure you take a phone with you and try not to ride alone.

Right now that bit's out the way we can get on with what I was going to write about in the first place, starting with the tools you are going to need. If you aren't lucky to have enough cash to hire a digger then you are going to have to plan to do everything by hand which is going to take a little longer. Actually thinking about it, even if you have a digger you are still going to need some hand tools for digging and shaping.

Tools needed: