Choosing The Mountain Board

1.MOUNTAIN BOARDS come in a range of different sizes shapes and colours, from beginner little kids boards to the properly conquaring mountain baords. The prices may vairy in a range from 70GBP up EVEN 1000GBP. You may allready have spent some time surfing the web looking for the boards, and you may be familiar with companies like Scrub, Trampa, Exit, MBS and noSno. All of the boards are fundamentally the same in content of them all having 4 wheels that use pneumatic tyres, steering trucks, a deck and the binding for the deck for the rider to have grip on. So with so many boards available how do you choose the right one for you? Lets start with talking about each parts of the board explaining how they differ and which one suits you the most. Because it does make a difference to your capabilities when it comes to mountain boarding.

2.DECKS - for someone who is a beginner the lenght of the deck is the most important, the common basic rules is that the smaller the person the smaller the deck.

The lenghts vary from 80cm to 100cm which corresponds with kid to adult.

Also you must understand how the decks are contructed, its no big deal for beginners but if you want to get into it more you may want to get the higher performance decks which are mainly constructed from wood. Such decks have a reverse cap construction like a snowboard, or maybe build from woven kevlar. If you are serious about mountain boarding it is more worth it spending a little extra more money getting a woven kevlar material deck rather than having to upgrade the wooden deck in the near future.

3.TRUCKS - the main two different types of trucks you will find for beginners are skate trucks and channel trucks. As the name says it all "skate trucks" they are likely to be used on a skateboard but some may be customized for a more rough terrain with longer axles for the bigger wheels. skate trucks are usually found on the smaller, lighter and cheaper boards. However they are the easiest of all trucks to make a turn with which is the only reason why alot of mountain boarders start off with them.

Channel trucks include a channel shaped axle which is bolted horizontally into a hanger, also with springs and dampers which dictate how much movement the truck can make. Some of the channel trucks allow you to adjust in less or more movement, these are the trucks that are more commonly used in mountain boarding.

4.BINDINGS - There alot of bindings and its really about what suits you most, they range from velcro straps to more of adjustable ratchet straps and you can even use snowboard straps for your mountain board.

All bindings work the similiar way, but some are more secure and can get much tighter than others. Some bindings depend on the deck that you have bought. Bindings can also be upgraded at any time as you please, most likely as you get more into mountain boarding.

5.WHEELS - Most of the wheels on mountainboards are 20cm-8 inches long, there are alot of different hubs and tyres available which also depends on the riders taste. There are metal and plastic hubs and up to 9 inch tyres.

For a beginner, we recommend sticking to plastic hubs with 8 inch tyres and you can always upgrade and experiment the difference.