On Board

Mountainboarding champ Tom Kirkman

Not all extreme sports are a young man’s game, but flipping down mountainsides at breakneck speeds on four wheels? Pioneering that has to be one for the rubber-boned youth. That's the hybrid sport of mountainboarding for you. Described as ‘skateboarding, on a snowboard, with wheels, on BMX tracks,’ it’s no wonder this sport is seen as a mongrel among ‘pure’ extreme sports.

That doesn’t mean that it’s any less spectacular or fun. In fact, according to the 21-year old Freestyle World Champion Tom Kirkman, it’s the exact opposite.

The simplest question first, Tom: what is mountainboarding?

It’s pretty much snowboarding on dirt. Because the surface reacts differently to snow, it entails elements of mountain biking too; and due to the boards having wheels attached it’s similar to skateboarding. As you can see, it gains its influences from a whole range of different sports.  The concept of mountainboarding has been around for the past 15 years or so. It started in the US with snowboarders that were basically looking for something to do on the off-season. That thinking soon made its way over to the UK and Europe.

So if it’s a blend of other sports, what is it that sets it apart?

The great thing about the sport is that is that you can do it almost anywhere. Most other extreme sports submit to their elements. Snowboarding is a winter sport, whereas skateboarding is strictly on-road. Where mountainboarding excels is that you can ride on grass, at skateparks, on the street, on mountainbike trails, you can even go up in the mountains and ride on snowboarding courses.

What got you into mountainboarding?

Growing up in the middle of the woods in Cornwall, you have to make your own entertainment. I left school when I was in my early teens and started up a skateboarding shop where my mates and I started messing around out the back, building ramps and flying off them. From there I started going along to a couple of competitions and ended up doing pretty well. The rest is history!

What is it exactly that you love about this sport?

I guess I’ve just always wanted to fly about in the air spinning around! I think it’s the element of danger that I’m hooked on. I love the feeling of being strapped onto the board and the element of risk that brings. The adrenaline pumps through your body because you know that if you mess up, it’s going to hurt. It’s just the perfect sport for me.

What are the disciplines and how do they differ?

There are currently three different styles: Downhill, Boarder Cross and Freestyle. Downhill is the same as skiing: one-man timed descents, with the winner being the fastest across the finish line. Boarder Cross runs in the same format as snowboarding, with between two and four competitors simultaneously racing down a specifically designed track. Freestyle events vary from ‘big air’ courses, which consist of pulling off tricks over jumps, to ‘slope style,’ which involves a variety of jumps and rails.

You’ve just been crowned World Champion in the Freestyle discipline. What was that like, and is it the area you solely focus on?

It was thrilling to win. I had been having a pretty bad time over the past two years as a result of injuring my ankle, so being able to come back and win the title was brilliant. I wouldn’t say I was exclusive to freestyling at all, I like to dabble in all of the disciplines. In fact earlier this year I won the World Downhill Championships in the no brakes category.

You mentioned your ankle injury. How did you hurt it, and how long were you out for?

A couple of years ago I was out riding with my mates and I hadn’t strapped my foot properly into the binding. It slipped out and I dislocated my ankle pretty badly. It was really frustrating as it kept me out for over a year and a half. It was without a doubt the most serious injury that I’ve ever had. At first I was worried that I wasn’t going to be able to ride at the level I was at before, but after a certain amount of time it starts to get better.

How big is mountainboarding?

The sport is growing all the time. These days pretty much every country in Europe has a mountainboarding setup. I’ve seen and met some excellent riders from all over. Cody Stewart from the US is particularly slick. Plus there are also some great riders from Russia, Germany and Belgium. It really is a sport that is growing around the world, with the level of competition heating up. But the sport is not all about competition. There are thousands of people that just grab their board and go down to their local park, cruise down a hill or even build jumps in their own back gardens. It’s all about having fun.

What’s the sickest trick that you’ve pulled off?

I have a range of tricks in my bag: I can stomp cork 900s, switch 7s, backflips, backflip 180s, frontflips, switch backflips, one-footers. There are people talking about the possibility of pulling off a double backflip, but I’m not convinced about that. What I think is most important about the tricks is the style in which they are done. The tricks people pull off are almost secondary to how stylish they look when performing them. I still believe that the tricks you do are a way of expressing yourself stylistically rather than looking hectic trying to do as much as you can. I’d rather watch someone land a sweet 360 than see someone doing a shoddy looking 720.

Where would you like to see mountainboarding end up?

Ideally I would love to see the sport represented at the Xgames: this is the ultimate end point, as far as I can see. And I don’t see any reason why it shouldn’t keep getting bigger and better. More people taking it up will only develop the sport and the tricks that we do. I mean, it will never be admitted into the Olympics, but who knows whether I’ll still be walking by the time that dream is realised…

What are your personal plans within the sport?

Continue riding and enjoying it for as long as I can. If I can avoid ending up in wheelchair then that would be brilliant!