Riding Stair Sets

Stairs are everywhere. People use them to get up slopes easier. Sadly stairs and wheels don't mix very well because of their jagged nature. It is possible to ride a mountainboard down stairs, but in my experience it isn't much fun. So the best way to get down them is just to jump them.

1. First thing you've got to do is to check out what you're jumping. I chose this 7 set because it's right outside my front door and I'm lazy. When scoping your set you need to take several things into consideration. Firstly whats the run in like? Downhill is a bonus, otherwise your going to have to push or ticktack in. Secondly how big are they? You're going to normally be dropping to flat on a hard surface so there is a limit on what you can drop before either your board or your body gives way. Also look at how long the stairs are to help you gauge your speed. Finally whats the run out like? This one has a fence to stop me falling into a river and a footpath so I run out there to a safe stop, some stair sets will land in to roads or the run out will eventually meet a road, make sure your able to stop on tarmac and a spotter is a good idea to stop you from hitting people walking past and cars.
2. So you've got your speed up. Treat the stairs like a drop off. Stay focused on what your doing and have a quick look around on your way in to check for any walkers etc.
3. Time for a big ollie off the lip. You could nollie if you are so inclined. Gauge how hard you need to jump by how fast you?re going and how far you have to jump. As long as you clear all the stairs then everything is good, just remember if you ollie really high, what goes up must come down!..
4. Throw your trick in. I chose to grab melon. Frontside indys are cool down stairs because they are simple to style out in the short time you have in the air.
5. Get ready to land, keep your weight nice and central and stretch your legs out towards the ground to absorb the flat landing as much as possible.
6. This frame shows how much your board suffers as a result of your stair jumping antics. I wouldn't recommend jumping stairs on anything other than a high end freestyle board, the deck needs to be stiff enough to take the impacts again and again whilst still having some give in it to help you with absorbing the shock of the flat landings. The first time I did a stair set I snapped my board because it wasn't stiff enough.
7. Crouch down to absorb the impact and roll out. Get back up and do it again! Maybe you can 180 it next time?

If you're going out to do some urban riding stair sets will be the most obvious feature available to mountainboard in any town. Because of the boards all terrain ability, we can hit sets with dirt/grass takeoffs and landings that skaters and wheeliebooters can't do. But bear in mind if you are street riding stair sets are definitely not the only thing to ride! Handrails and ledges can make stairs more interesting and a lot more challenging but keep an eye out for banks, quarters, gaps, bollards, kerbs, statues, modern art, wall rides and bomb drops too. Once you start looking at the town/city you live in or near you start to spot a lot of things to ride!