It's hip to be square

Re-inventing the wheel!

Tops rem contributor Daz Dirt-Monkey Murphy got us these unbelievable shots of re-discovered prototype tyres that are, yes, square (ish).
The 4 sets of square tyres were recently unearthed from under a ton of store-room crap at a UK mountainboard centre. They're apparently from 2003 when Primo Strikers were the kings of rubber, adorning all manner of boards like Scrubs to Earthboards. They tried all manner of developments; tread, thickness, density etc when (legend has it) the inspiration came from driving 'corrugated' roads in Australia. Only half the roads in Oz are tarmac and these majorly rutted red dirt tracks can shake your car apart so you have to drive at under 10mph. Or over 40mph! the wobbles & noise magically stop and suddenly you're just gliding as the round tyres only touch a small percentage of the zig-zaggy edges of the ground. These mountainboard tyres work on the same principle but vice versa.

Of course they are totally rubbish going slow. However, put them on a severe slope, gravity takes hold and so long as the rider holds steady, in a few seconds the wheels are at optimum rpm. At that point there is less rubber in contact with the ground therefore less friction therefore a smooth fast mind-blowing ride.

When trying them out (as seen in Daz's photos) the riders found them hilarious and annoying.
They could get good speed up and described it as like riding a hoverboard, but could barely turn without catching an edge. And hitting jumps was fine but and upon landing the tyres would not all pick up where they left off leading to many a bail...
You can see why they never went into production, but hats off to the crazy genius lunatic inventors, and to the riders for giving them a go!

Last chance to own!

Remolition has had a 'Market Stall', aka Cafepress shop, for a few years with t-shirts, mugs n loads more stuff available.
(Thanks to anyone who has ever bought anything by the way (all 6 of us;)
The product is made in the US and therefore everything has been a tad costly and the quality varies, though my yellow riding T has held-up really well and Smilie's Rem mug still looks good as new despite the 8,500 odd cups of tea...

However, Rem is evolving, and to coincide with the launch of the new shiny website this summer we'll be producing some new T's for mountainboarders: Just a couple to start with, but they will be homegrown, cheaper, and hopefully you will get involved by voting on new designs...

Anyway, with this in mind we are CLOSING DOWN the cafepress shop in a week so this is your LAST CHANCE to buy this multitude of remolicious shiz!

All T-shirts & mugs have been discounted!
There's also tops, art prints, hats, badges, and god knows what else in there :)

Treat yourself soon before it's all gone forever.

The Far Side (of Woburn Sands)

This mini-field report is brought to you in the form of a personal letter because you probably don't get much actual post that isn't just bills or junk :)

Dear (insert your name here),
 How's things? What you been up to? Hope you've been enjoying the sunshine!

I just wanted to tell you about the sunday just gone. Smilie & I hit the far side of Woburn Sands. The weather was glorious- it makes such a difference, and the stuff we found was pretty darn ace, you'd have loved it!

We've ridden there a few times before; Woburn has a major mountainbike area which is fun & really challenging, with a sandy-pine-wood next door which has a good couple of hours worth in it too. However, we decided to go to an unridden part on the opposite side, to explore and find the runs using our instincts, without so much as a recce! I knooow!

It's an element of freeriding that is risky in terms of what you may (or may not) find, especially riding tracks blind, and something we'll have to do quite a lot on the upcoming rem roadtrip. Have you heard about that by the way? You should look it up on Rem Central.

Anyway, there are loads of things you pick up over the years to help orientate yourself in a new place aren't there? You know, to keep bearings of where you are, in relation to where you were, in relation to where you parked the car!  A sense of direction, reading the terrain and the lie of the land, using the sun (when it's out!), and also having the hunger to hunt around the next corner.
 It's got to be second nature, like your Auntie Pat's ability to know all the words to every song from the '80's. Have you heard from her recently? How is the family?

So, some of the varieties of wheelieboard terrain we found were: cruisey mellow, cruisey fast, nice steeps, tech tree runs, crazy shit (pardon my french), super fun shit, roots, bogs, bricks, benches, narrow chutes, wide long beech runs, natural kickers, and a rooty bomb drop. To name but a few!

Yes it was a great spot, and coupled with what's round the corner, well worth a day visit. It's similar-ish to nearby Chick Sands/Ampthill Forest, which as you know is pretty awesome.

It was kind of my perfect day's riding really, worthy of another list: a beautiful environment (mix of beech, pine, fir, birch etc), memorable new runs, stepping up to surprises, sunshine, sounds! (just birds, squirrels, & us bantering), a handful of friendly walkers, having enthusiasm & confidence, and generally nailing & stomping everything helped too!

Smilie Cyrus Nosno pushin'
up a wicked run

Shit yeah tap melon

Here are some of the snaps we took:

 hella steep by random house

mega chute

rooty short with sweet leafy bank

banked chicanery

tech attack

Coming in to land,
sponsored by Surfing Dirt/Habitual Suicide!

scoping the drop spot

sweet lines into the bowl

and finally a sequencey montage thing!

Anyway, hope you are well and that your own springtime boarding sessions are as much fun.
And remember: everyone loves getting something good in the post!
Love to all, all the best, cheerio, toodle-pip, chow for now, see ya soon, laters yo, peace out.
Dx

Brindy on The Beeb!

Mountainboarding on telly, again?!!!
What's going on people, this is supposed to be a secret!

Haha, seriously though, check out CBBCs 'Friday Download' segment. Featuring your favourite 4 wheeled-board-type things, a presenter learning how to ride one of them, chatting with MBS rider Mr Matt Brind, and some sick shots of him freestyling away at Hales Superbole too...

Well done all involved, hopefully the kids'll come away totally inspired as it paints a really positive picture of starting-out mountainboarding.

 Click on Brindy's Sunny D to watch it now before it's gone :)

Kings Again

The 482nd Kings Wood (just outside High Wycombe) freeridey type meet was another corker today...
11-6, spring sunshine, over 10 wheelieboardologists, riding galore, enthusiastic Kings virgins and tired old slappers lol. Leaves, lines, steps, drops, donks, down. Hills, sapling bashing, tech, trudging, nattering. RC cars, Chavs on crossers, dogs. Dirt, chalk, flint, gravel, tarmac, mulch, mud. Challenges, Nopra/Nompa testing, board swapping, bombing, sliding, jibbing, going delirious, falling over haha
Here are some of the best snapshots i took.
If you were there you'd probably like to see more flix so i'll stick the rest up on Rem facebook for your interest (there's a few other good 'uns)
(Confession: one of these shots has been photoshopped :-)

Dice: BosH

Thought this was worth sharing (maybe i should do tweeting too?.. or not haha). Anyway,

 Dice is a cool indie motorbike/art/scene magazine (i feel an affinity: rem is actually a Dice wannabe in my eyes lol). Some of the crew are skaters, surfers and the like too. In '07 they did a free mini skate-zine and have just blogged the awesome vintage-shot covers: click on this one to see the others & read more.

Oh and as well as looking at the coool magazine covers, you gotta read the descriptions of the actual-paper-and-everything single issues on the Dice main site/shop too... Muchos radness :)

MBS: 5 stars from Sky1!

Here's one of those novelties that pops up every now & then: mountainboards on telly...

First off, i've tried to stop worring about the term 'toy'. Seeing as my board is something i play on/with, i suppose it is a toy, just like a skate/snow/surf board, frisbee, bike, ball or any other vital accessory to a particular 'sport'. On the flip side though, it is pretty hard to tolerate when being used in the wider public domain as it seems to lump your advanced wheeled-sports hardwear into the same category as Buzz Lightyear and Moshi Monsters. Not good. Anyway, i digress...

Gadget Geeks is a Sky1 show and this week did a feature on 'Extreme Sports Toys' featuring some of those crazy kangaroo stilts, a ridiculous but probably quite fun motorised skateboard, and next, naturally, an MBS comp 95 2010/11 model.

 They got some pro skater to try out all the tech.
The mountainboard bit was filmed at Ride The Hill's ever popular XBP Centre and features some shots of inspiring riding (was that mini-Brind in there?)

 The voiceover was as you'd expect for the uninitiated, briefly outlining the basics, but didn't really say why they then gave it their max starrage rating of 5 stars. Out of 5 stars! wooo!





So you probably want to watch it for yourself; it's repeated on sky2 10th March, but luckily an edited version is on the Sky website now, so click below & go say hi to Rory & Emma and decide for yourself which Extreme Sports Toy looks the best haha

Double photo blog

Wendover Woods Freeride 26/2/12 + Ride The Hill XBP today!


Last weekend Smilie, Myles, James & I spent a cracking few hours at Wendover; hit Ripper's Gash + The Gulley etc, sessioned the drop/table/logdonk, avoided the walkers, tore down some paths, donked off nubbins, saw some trees with excellent chalk graffito, laughed, and generally had some wheelieboard fun.
 Some of it looked like this :)

 

 

 







And now today: Ride the Hill's opening weekender!


Great day at XBP, Redhill. Bit rainy, centre looking niiiice, good turnout of good riders and plenty of newbies (good on you all!). Warm ups & fun on the mini bx, ramp sessions, chatting, sun came out, freestylers playing in the foam pit, getting lifts back up, eating, loving the slopestyle (& the views), more chatting, more slopestyle- banks, hips, wall ride, q & picnic table jib, friends, and new friends.
 Some of it looked like this :)

Sorry there's not more photos from both these weekends wheelieboard sessions; i was too busy riding :)
Thanks to Andy + RTH guys for today. Check out their photos from today on facebook to get more of a taste of what the centre has to offer this 'season'. Be there for the Big Weekend (21/22 April) if you can!
Cheeeeeeeeeeeers




edit: XBP 2012 Opener now with added foam pit rail sesh video courtesy of Fanged Rabbits!