Mountain boarding, also known as dirt boarding, all-terrain boarding (ATB), or DirtSurfing is a new board sport, derived from snowboarding. It was originally intended to take the place of snowboarding during warm months while there was no snow available.

From the early days there has been a competitive element encompassing racing and freestyle. Competitions have been organised in USA since 1994 and in the UK since 1997.

A mountain board is similar to an oversized skateboard. The size of the deck is shorter than the average snowboard, approximately 110 cm in length with four wheels. The deck varies with each manufacturer, giving a potential buyer a wide range of options. There are also the two-wheeled "Dirtsurfer" inline boards, which can be described best as, "riding a bike with no hands... the faster you go, the more stable you are." Dirtsurfers use either 16" or 20" spoked wheels.

Dirtsurfing is the term used to describe riding a Dirtsurfer, which is the trade marked brand name of an in-line dirt board.  A Dirtsurfer is similar to a mountain board in that it is ridden in the same styles and riding conditions, but different in that it only has 2 wheels instead of 4.  Dirtsurfing was developed in Australia and was designed to feel more like surfing than snowboarding.
The discipline to riding a dirtsurfer is more than that of a mountain board, because of teh in-line wheels, but the front wheel is mounted to a swingarm and the dirtsurfer actually becomes more stable the faster you go.

The two main styles of riding are downhill (freeride & racing) and Freestyle.

Freeride is done on a variety of terrain, from ski resorts, when the snow has melted away, to downhill mountain bike courses, to woodlands and forests. More and more dedicated centres are being opened around the world specifically for the sport of mountain boarding. Racing tends to be either of slalom, two riders weaving between poles, boarder cross, a category of racing that is similar to BMX courses, with berms and jumps or timed one man downhill (as used in the World Downhill Championships).

Freestyle riding consists of ramp jumping; performing tricks which can be rotations (180, 360 and more degree turns), inverted tricks (back flips, front flips), board grabs (tail grab and front grab) and one foot variations (or even no foot variations like "supermans and superman fingerflips".

A variation on mountain boarding is kite landboarding. This involves using a power kite or traction kite to pull the rider on a mountain board and gives them the ability to use the kite to generate enough power to get some lift, normally several feet up in the air and perform tricks.

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DirtSurfer