The first of the Melbourne crew started rocking up Wed, 5th January with Jarrod and Stefan ringing me from the coast keen to head up to Brisbane for a bit of a ride the following day. Alex Broumbas and myself were hanging for a ride, as we had only a bit of a ride at a skate park a few days before. We hit a few of the local spots, Eaton’s Hill for some downhill action, and a small skate park with a fun box you could air over. There was also this small council bmx track that I had tried to ride before, which had a prefect table top but [as usual] not enough speed from the take off to make the most of the jump.

At the bmx track Alex was getting the highest jumps and managed to pull some hectic grabs about 3 foot above the table with Jarrad and myself [on the Crossbow] not far behind., but there was just not enough speed. We planned to come out on Fri and bring with us some extra timber to increase the height of the take-off.

The next morning Ryan, Waffles and Hugh arrived, after a rocket ship [approx 2000km] drive up from Melbourne. All were keen for a ride so I steered them towards a skate park and a church with a fun road run, while Alex, Matt and myself headed down to Hinze Dam to check out the track and get an idea for a course through the trees for Saturday’s Competition.

That afternoon I picked up Tom And David from the airport, and every one ended up in our small 4m diameter pool before catching a train into the city to get a bite to eat and have a look around. [maybe scram there way into a lappy joint].

On Friday we all headed over to Matt’s factory to put together an extension for the bmx track we had ridden a couple of days before. When we arrived at the track harmed with our extension we noticed that the tabletop had now become a gap jump, and was much steeper. Obviously our industrious little bmx brethren had been busy. Nothing a shovel and a few determined mountainboarders couldn’t fix!

After modifying the jump we propped up our extension on the handrail of the takeoff ramp, and besides the slightly sketchy strapping in routine, which you did while standing at 45 degrees with your back trucks overhanging the piece of ply... in was fantastic! We rode this place for about 5 hours. Everyone had a good “ole face plant stack in there first few rides, as the sides and the bottom of the landing ramp was very soft, but once you figured out that the way to go was to land smack bang in the middle of the ramp, we soon had it sussed with everyone having a go at the tabletop. I had also set up my little kicker nearby as something a bit mellower for the lads to ride and even that thing gave you enough height to practice all your grabs.

The next thing I know is Jarrad had built up the extension even higher by knocking up a rough frame on top of the handrail, bringing our extension up to the same angle as the existing take-off. Things had just got serious.

Alex was going high [6 feet over the table top.] boning some long held tail grabs,double handers and a couple of severley arced methods. Jarrad was also into some contorted methods, 360’s and shifty’s and Ryan going bionic with some branch grabbing fully reverted shifty’s. David [who normally cuts loose in skate parks with Tom] was doing really well and easily clearing the table. It was the biggest jump that a lot of the guys had ever attempted and not only were they going for it they were landing them sweet. Waffles, Matt, Ryan and myself were also giving the kicker a hard time. I was finally getting shifty mute grabs sussed on the 3 wheeler while Matt and Waffles were doing nice clean long jumps and landing confidently. Tom unfortunately broke his front binding early in the piece going over the table. So had adopted Matt’s 3 wheeler to hit the hill behind the bmx track for some speedy down hill.

The thing I noticed the most was the huge advancement in riding skills from everybody since I had had the pleasure of riding with most of this crew early last year at Park fest 04.

We had all been waiting to see Alex pull out one of his famous front flips that we had heard so much about and we weren’t disappointed. Over the next couple of hours you could see why this guy came 2nd in the WS 2003. But.............his first attempt went a little wrong as the speed was hard to judge, and he over-rotated landing on his front wheels and then bounced back onto his back. We all winced when we saw the stack, Alex wasn’t wearing a shirt, and sure enough his back was a mess from top to bottom. A wicked gravel rash.

But it didn’t stop him riding, he just threw his shirt on and it was business as usual. His second attempt was nearly perfect and the third and fourth were really sweet, his head rolling so close to the top of the table top with the board tucked in closely and then all 4 wheels rolling round and touching down neatly.

By the end of the day, airs 6-7 feet high over the table top with all manner of 360’s,shifty’s, mutes, tail grabs, methods, and double handers were being busted by everyone. Alex even managed a one footer when he was unable to get his back foot back in the rear binding and he ended up landing with his back foot in front of the rear binding and just resting it on the deck making it look like he had meant to do it.There was no stopping him!

The day ended with a big bunch of bmxers showing up and getting a little upset about our earlier modifications to the jumps. We found out that BMX riders prefer steeper jumps with landing ramps slightly higher than the take off. Alex decided to go for a run at one stage because there were 3 of them madly digging out the centre of the table. He went down the take-off with a yell of warning and they all bolted off the top of the jump leaving a long handled shovel in the way. Alex then did a very stylish power slide up and down the kicker, throwing dirt and dust over the lot of them. Needless to say.... they weren’t impressed. But we were!

By this time the bmx numbers had grown [and so had the size of them with a couple of bigger guys rocking up in there cars as back-up.] with all of them staying in a bunch down the bottom, while we had done a take over bid on the takeoff ramp. They kept saying we had wrecked their jump Boo Hoo. We insisted they try it before whining too much and running to tell there mummys, and 2 of them did. [ not to tell their mummys but to actually see what the jump was like]I take off my hat of to them since they had to push past a ton of atb gear and slightly aggressive boarders to even get on the take-off ramp which was half covered by our extension.. They had a couple of goes, just doing some nice big airs, but still weren’t happy. Finally Alex played mediator and admitted that we didn’t quite understand what bmxer’s needed for their jumps. This cooled things down somewhat with our apparent interest in their sport and we let them throw some dirt here and there on the table so they were a little happier about it. Once these guys started getting into it they were insane, with one of them doing the tidiest back flips and double frame rotations about 8 feet high off the top! Ironic really, because then we all sat down and watched them ride for half an hour. Respect had been earned by both gangs, so then a duel session of both mountainboarders and bmxer’s commenced with both groups pushing each other to get the most out of this jump.

The worst injury of the day was Alex’s minced back but as I said he continued to ride all day and hit the jump more times than anyone.

We headed back to my place for a swim and to kick back before the comp the next day. [ my filter has only just recovered.]

John M. rang me that afternoon to say he had safely arrived, and would drop over to catch up with everyone and check out the video that had been shot that afternoon. We were also privileged to see Waffles long awaited action movie [The Directors Cut], which included the latest footage from the BVS [Big Vic Session]. AWESOME.

Saturday morning of the Comp dawned and it promised to be a glorious day. Perhaps a little cooler than the last few days much to every ones relief. By the time the “Goat Mobile” and Ryan’s car load of riders [who had been following us] arrived at the dam, Matt and Andrew S were hard at it setting out the course with cones [so generously donated by the council.... sort of] and taping off no go zones, slowly working their way down to the 2 trees that were to be our finish line.

By the time we had set up the “officials tent”, [the officials being Suzanne, Megan, Liz and friend], the girls had figured out the walky talkys (thanks to Andrew S for supplying them). Matt and Andrew S. had finished laying down the course. Soon after Jon M. and family arrived followed closely by Andrew J. [a local rider who could not compete because of a dodgy knee]. Andrew Jagget came armed with 2 huge watermelons which he collected from along the drive on his way to the Dam, obviously for later consumption!

Practice runs followed with many thanks to Andrew J. for driving the “Goat Mobile” up and down the hill so as no one had to walk back up again. All agreed it was going to be one of the fastest courses they had ridden in a comp being about 650m long with an excellent steep section at the start that dropped the rider into a narrow [3 foot] shute before hitting the tricky mid section. Tricky because of the fast heel-side traverse into a rather loose right hander before straightening up and heading down the 2 terraces that were about 100m from the finish line.

We had 12 riders sign up to enter. Unfortunately because of the holidays a lot of the Queens land riders couldn’t be present for varies reasons, as of course we all missed our NSW brethren on the Central Coast. Don’t worry there’s always next time, but you were all sorely missed!]

We had : John M,Ryan,Waffles,Hugh,Jarrad,Stefan,Alex,Matt,Andrew S,Tom,David and myself.

The great thing about it was that it was like taking part in an invitational comp, with all riders having ridden together and knowing of each other through the Org. site or from interstate rides at San Remo. A good mix for a great atmosphere. Racing was going to be a little different than normal, with riders competing against the clock in individual runs [3 runs in total]. An interesting format as each rider could concentrate without distraction on the line they had chosen without the worry of someone cutting them off halfway through it. You could also see each riders times improve vastly over the run before as everyone started to get the course wired.

Riders were broken up into groups of 6 and driven up the hill to the starting gate and then run through one at a time. On my first run down I managed a 35.4 secs on the Crossbow but then Matt who was in the second bunch of 6 got 32.81 secs on his Crossbow closely followed by Jarrad grabbing 33.81 sec and Alex at 36.6 sec on his Trampa and Ryan doing a 39.84 secs on his Comp 16.

On the next runs down [ as did everybody] times were down by up to 5 secs. I pulled 32.44secs with Matt getting 33.87secs. Jarrad increased his gap ahead of Alex with 32.81secs and 35.04 respectivley.

John M. was rocketing and had dropped almost 10 secs of his first timed run. I have to admit I have never seen him go so fast....he was flying! Tom P. was motoring as was Waffles who stacked just short of the finish line on his first run , but made up for it on his second run. On his second run Andrew S. opted for the more relaxed way of crossing the finish line ....on his stomach., after losing it on the same last bend as a lot of the other riders. Being the last turn of the course , it was also the fastest and came straight after a 7 foot terrace, that added even more speed to the turn you were trying to make before taking out the tree’s [ or rather the tree’s took out you] at the finish line.

In between runs we devoured the water melon Andrew J. had so kindly provided. Riders and officials were treated to a hilarious watermelon fight between Waffles, Hugh, and Stefan. We ate one of them and the other would play a small roll in the next days activities.

Our last runs , [in every ones case] were the fastest. I stacked in the classic spot up from the finish line,but Matt blitzed it with a 32.07sec run to jag him 1st place , Jarrad got down to 32.54 ,securing 3rd place leaving a decent gap between himself and Alex’s final run of 34.56. Ryan dropped 4 secs off his first runs with a 36.25secs to come in 5 th.. But a truly amazing effort by Jarrad over his 3 runs. He managed too get 2 secs ahead of the next 4 wheeler rider and was only just behind the 3 wheelers throughout his 3 runs.

Downhill

1st Place Matt George ..... 2nd Place Alistair Dalgliesh . 3rd Place - Jarrad Cronin

Big Air

Best Air - Alex Broumbas

Name                                         Brand of Weapon                  Best Time
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1   Matt George                        Dirt Theory/Crossbow                    32.07 sec
2   Alistair Dalgliesh                 Dirt Theory/Crossbow                    32.44 
3   Jarrad Cronin                     Trampa/ Matrix/DT-rims                   32.53
4   Alex Broumbas                     Dirt Theory/Sic Stik 15                  34.56     
5   Ryan Slater                          Mbs / Comp 16 pro                     36.25
6   John Morton                         Dirt Theory/Crossbow                   36.79
7   Tom Pianta                         Dirt Theory/Sic Stik 35                 38.31
8   Hugh                                   Mbs/Razor                           38.75
9   Andrew Stewart                         Dirt Theory/Blackhawk               40.53	
10  David	                               Mbs/ Comp pro 16                40.72	  
11  Stefan                                     Mbs/Comp 16                     49.66
12  Andrew Egan                          Dirt Theory/Blackhawk           1 min 14.56 sec
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After the racing we set up my good “ole kicker at the top of the second terrace, thus allowing for a nice slope to land on. For such a cruddy little kicker it was treated to some of the best riders in Australia hitting it hard and going high. Both Ryan and Jarrad were landing 540’s, and all manner of grabs. Stefan,Waffles, Hugh, David and Tom were all getting excellant air , While Matt and John M. were catching everything on film.

As usual Alex was busting high and clean with fully- boned tail grabs, 360’s and of course the almighty front flip. None of us could believe how low Alex actually rotated at, a mere few feet above the ground and yet still managed to get the board back underneath him!

Near the end of the session Hugh went all out for the “Best Stack” medallion. He tricked every one else who was jockying for this prestiges title. The classic superman move but with out trying to get back on your board and bravely riding it in to the ground. A truely tactical move, none of us other contenders could have foresaw. Joking aside , it knocked the wind out of him and bruised the hell out of his left hip. Top effort Mate!

We all packed up and while the Melbourne crews headed off to the beach for a swim the tired but happy occupants of the “goat mobile” headed back to Brisbane to get things ready for the BBQ and presentations that were to be held at my place in the next couple of hours.

About 98% of the crew were crashing at our small 2 bedroom plus puny study house that night, [ God bless you Matt and Jon M. and to grandparents] so it was going to be crowded. After eating a great spread prepared by my long suffering wife Sue, we retired to watch all the Vdo from the comp.

We all commented on the fact that Jarrad managed to get into every vdo shot that day. No matter who was filming or from what direction, there was Jarrad. He was either riding,staying in shot on the take-off, tromping around with a shovel, or standing in the background. There are more shots of Jarrad on everyones camera’s than anybody else! Lol.

The presentation was held with results as follows:

1st Downhill                             -   Matt George
  2nd Downhill                             -   Alistair Dalgliesh
     3rd Downhill                             -    Jarrad Cronin

Best Air - Alex Broumbas

Best Stack                               -    Hugh Tevelein

* Best All-round Rider                   -    Alex Broumbas
* Runners –up                            -    Waffles (Andrew Egan)
* [ voted by the riders]

It must be also said that Waffles was in fine form all weekend. He instigated many hilarious conversations that always had us cracking up. Just ask him how photogenic a certain part of his anatomy is at 3.00am in the morning, [ Butt lets face it perhaps you should ask one or two of the other lads.! Revenge will be sweet!!!!].

During the evening, Ryan volunteered, as a guinea pig for Jarrod to start his new career as a hairdresser, don’t give up your real job, Jarrod. With Waffles also generously providing his skills as well the end result was a Mohawk (I think) anyway those bald spots should grow out in no time, Ryan. Don’t forget the Factor 30!

The next day we awoke all a little sore and sorry for ourselves. Peeling sheets away from grazes etc, so we felt to finish things off we head to a little skate park Alex and I had been playing around the week before. It offered all the usual hits and rails etc, but one could start up in the trees and come flying down a dirt track and hit either the front quarter pipe or the ramped side of it with a fair bit of speed. Alex was pulling 360’s, and most grabs. We were both tried ally-oops off the hip, David, who thrives in skate parks [Tom wasn’t able to make that morning] was doing 50/50s along the coping, stall falls and the like.

Jarrad borrowed John M’s old “Lightning Bolt” longboard and proceeded to carve up the bowl. even Alex borrowed a skooter off a kid and nearly killed himself trying to jump the fun box on it.

It was just great to see everyone finding new lines, different hits etc in a skate park that at first glance did not appear to be able to offer much for a mountainboarder at all.

During the session Jarrad was opening up the other watermelon and passing it out. He was being careful to keep the skin in one piece so he could cut out a Halloween type mask when all the inside had been scooped out. Evil slinky eyes, a jagged row of shark like teeth and a triangle for a nose.............Damien [as he became to be known later] was born.

Jarrad rinsed it out under a tap then proudly rode around with it on his head. Since he was looking out the mouth he had cut out, it made him look super tall, a classic site. Not to be outdone Alex grabbed it then proceeded to try and pull an air while wearing a 5 kilo watermelon shell completely encompassing his head., a dangerous move when your back already looks like raw steak...don’t try this one at home kiddies.

Damien the watermelon skin at last found a home on the back of Ryan’s Dad’s Landover spare wheel. He was carefully modified by his creator [Jarrad] to fit properly and then a butter knife was shoved lovingly in the side of hid head. A Dirt Theory sticker was stuck to the side of him as well, but due to Damien’s “I don’t ride for anybody so don’t badge me” attitude, it was removed.

I am sorry to hear that Damien only stayed on the back of Ryan’s car till they got to nimbin. But I suppose he was lucky to have got that far, and must have enjoyed the ride.. It still makes me sad to see him slowly disappearing to the south...I am sure if he had arms [and hands and it would help if he was even alive] he would have been waving with a tear in his eye.

So ended a sic weekend of boarding with a great bunch of fella’s. I had loads of fun, I haven’t been this sore for a long time.... makes you glad to be a mountainboarder !

Now...........Thanks to all the people that made it happen.

Which include: First up Alex Broumbas ( 2nd place getter in the WS 2003 , who came all the way from Bavaria and is now heading back to host a World Series Competition in Portugal (scheduled for September), and all the Victorian rider’s – Ryan, , Hugh, , Waffles with a special thanks to Ryan for driving up in the Old Mans Landy with some of the crew (doing all the driving) as well as also managing to take home a few extra rider’s needing a lift on the way home (hands to yourselves). Thanks to Damien for tasting so good and entertaining so many people. John M., Annie and Suzanne, fantastic seeing you guys up here , its been great from my point of view to be able to give back some of your kind hospitality you have shown over the years of previous gigs around your neck of the woods. Thank you for driving up with your family and participating (you were truly a rocket man, ). The rider’s who flew up – Tom Pianta and his friend David as well as Megan (Tom’s girlfriend) who was a great assistance to Sue in taking down all the times at the final line, and .Jarrad and Stefan for making there own way up from Melbourne.

A big thank-you to our Qld rider’s, thanks Matt for all your assistance in donating the medals [ they were really trick] and organizing the course, Andrew S. for also helping set up the course, all the sound effects, and loaning us the walkie talkies. All the help from Andrews girlfriend – Liz who along with her friend [ sorry I can’t remember your name] co-coordinated all the starts and made it possible to keep the rider’s flowing down except when someone borrowed the walkie talkie (at the finish line) and didn’t stop talking when Liz tried to tell him Ryan was heading down for his run. ( Ryan took it in his stride and hightailed it up for another guts effort) and of course my fantastic wife Sue. Sue organised the kids to be away for the 2 nights that we needed all the beds. Basically let 10 strangers roam around the house for a couple of days, organised all the food and drink for Sat night, and also prepared meals kept things tidy and generally looked after everything while I was tied up with the riders . She made sure our 2 sons , Alex and Tom [who both stayed a week after the comp] and myself all stayed fed and clothed over the whole 3 week period that we had riders staying with us. Thanks heaps Susie.

Well thats just about it. Alex headed back down to Newcastle on the 16th to spend another week down there and hopefully caught up with the crew again while they dropped into San Remo on there way back to Melbourne .He then flies out on the 28th Jan back to Austria for some spring snowboarding., then about April he heads off to Portugal [ where he works in summer at a surf camp] where he is organising and hosting the Portugese World series in September. All riders are welcome!

Post script..........After the weekend with things getting back to normal, Alex and I decided to build a big kicker and a landing ramp out of all the wood we had stashed at Matt’s. The whole thing [incl. landing ramp] would have to fit in my 7 foot x 4 foot trailer. That was trickiest bit being able to unbolt every thing yet still have it easy for a couple of guys to quickly erect. Alex was heading back down South in a few days and we needed to do a photo shoot on a good set-up. He built the whole thing with help from Matt. Unfotunatley I was back at work doing my other job in the building industry and had 5 apprentices to tuneup so did not have the time to help them...........but they didn’t seem to need it!

The kicker is 1.2m high and 1.2 wide and 2.4 m long. The landing ramp which breaks up into 2 pieces is: 1.2m high 2.4m wide and 2.4m long .A truly wicked set-up. This thing throws you up anything over about 8 feet. Thanks heaps for the help guys. I did get to choose the tasteful orange paint that was to cover it. As you can see we managed to catch some excellent shots of Alex jumping and flipping over Matt’s 4wd.

The Big Orange Kicker is ALIVE AND WELL and ready for demos.!!!

Alistair Dalgliesh
Aka: DirtGoat

Photos

Email any photos of the event to be included here to DirtGoat:
goatxcountry@bigpond.com

Latest Dirt

World Series

John Morton - AusATB Admin

Dirt Theory - Australia's own brand. 1st June

Great News to see more boards available here in Australia with Dirt Theory releasing its first Quad the Freestyle 108. KitePower is still the MBS dealer in Australia and Munroe have taken on distributing SoulFour boards from NZ. Rumor has it that the new Dirt Theory 3 wheeler will be available from Goat X in the next few weeks. And the grape vine has told the org that other ATB companies may be carrying 3 wheelers in there ranges later this year with Dirt Theory getting an exclusive design.

The Australian All Terrain Boarding Association (AATBA) is currently drafting a Risk Management plan to continue the insurance application that is the last barrier to cross.

Let us know any gossip you have, if its worthy, we'll publish it here.

THE GREAT AUSSIE DEMO BOARD TOUR BY GOAT X 
by Alistair Dalgleish

‘Are we there yet?’  NO!

‘Are we there yet?’  NO!!

‘Are we there yet?’  I asked for the tenth time in as many minutes.

‘’Yes’’, said Stephen thankfully pulling into his driveway, HOME SWEET HOME.

You could understand his relief in getting back to Brisbane, having driven virtually half way round Australia (except for the little bit I did at the start, but, I got bored and nodded off, so Stephen thoughtfully took over the driving so I could get my beauty sleep...he said, nice guy).

We had covered 4856km in 8.5 days.

We had passed km after km of some of the sickest places to board that you could imagine.  Huge short grass paddocks, dirt and hard but still green from the last rain carved into the side of small mountains and hills with natural gullies forming near perfect half-pipes that  would very often be nearly vertical.  Dirt roads devoid of traffic that would transverse a mountainside for km’s before disappearing from view behind the next range.  Bitumen roads offering very wide shoulders (up to 8m) which allowed us to do huge sides and drifts to wash off speed when those deadly corners came into view.

We visited a Snow Resort without snow.  Hassled out 15-20 retailers about stocking mountainboards (nearly all successfully) and jagged a sponsor for the next organized Mountainboard event in NSW / Victoria / Queensland and met some of the most dedicated riders in any board sport and their friends which this sport has a habit of bringing together.

Stephen and I were on a missiom: TO SHAKE A TAIL FEATHER AND SPREAD THE WORD OF MOUNTAINBOARDING to the ignorant masses and to let existing riders see and try out some of the different designs available. 

We were also wanting to meeting the riders who had joined www.australianmountainboarding.org and that we had conversed with regularly on the club message board, finally being able to put a face to a name.

We loaded the goat mobile up with so much stuff I was wondering where Stephen was going to sit.  (Nasty!!!  I didn’t even have roof racks).  So we took along 2 ramps, seven demo boards (4xOutback, 1xMongoose, 1xSevere Sports ATB, 1xTurfboard) along with five new boards (which we hoped to sell along the way) and five sets of safety gear.  And Tsk Tsk, I even threw in a couple of skatie’s in case we had time to hit a park (we never did).  MOUNTAINBOARDING RULES!!

Drove all day Thursday and stopped overnight, arriving Friday evening at John Morton’s place in Melbourne.  John is our Goat X rep in Vic and had done all the organising for this event through the councils. It was a chance for us to finally meet in person.

Saturday’s demo was at Ruffey Lake Park, the only area that the council would give permission to ride was a relatively gentle slope about 200 m long with slightly long grass.  This did not faze John, who was there early with his mower to carve some rides in the grass to make things a little faster (good work, John).  Both ramps were quickly set up and before we knew it we were surrounded by riders. Qads ruled, in particular MBS due to their early marketing in Australia. It was possible to pull some decent air by going straight down the hill, although the landing was a little hard.  All manner of grabs were pulled with Trev jagging some sweet 360’s and even a couple of 540’s.  Other riders of note included Ryan and Nick both of whom were pulling off 2.5m high airs off a ramp that was not even 0.5m high...good effort.  Mutes, Stalefish’s, Methods, Tail Grabs and all manner of spins including a few tidy 520’s were seen and appreciated.  

After a few sausages on bread,( thanks to John’s wife Annie), a lively debate was undertaken about the advantages and disadvantages of four wheels versus three wheels it was decided Board designs were reflective of different terrain and riding styles, i.e. free-style and free-ride.  It was up to the individual rider which ever discipline they will follow (or both) and in doing so choose the right board which best suits his/her needs.

Leaving John to look after the gear ,we all headed to the other much steeper and higher part of the park to give the ramps a rest and get into the free/riding.  The quad boards which obviously had ruled the kickers were quickly outgunned by the Outback's both faster and more maneuverable at high speed with only the chassis quads coming close (stiffer the board the faster you go ) Short green grass like a golf course, laying over around a 400mtr run. By going through the car park a multitude of hits and drop-offs were to be had for the pilots amongst us. With around 18 riders flying down the slope, it looked absolutely awesome. A bloody excellent day had by all!

Sunday threatened rain, but that didn’t stop John bolting out early and running the mower down the run. There again around 18 riders, with a few crew from the day before, all keen to fire up. Avondale Heights Park had an excellent down hill run,  about  200m long there again with hard short grass, and patches of dirt  dotted around to rip some slides in. But as before the area the council had coughed up was fairly mellow, but definitely faster than the day before, after setting up the ramps again, the lads were hard at it.  In the afternoon we rapped up the council area and headed out to the large steeper hill on the other side, giving us a much longer jump down a slope that offered a steeper and faster landing. Airs of  up to 17ft were easily being landed on 3 wheels and 4. Shifty’s, inverted methods, 180’s on Outbacks!, mute grabs, with the odd 360 thrown in by the gutsy. I  was trying 360’s on the 3 wheelers landing them but not rolling out (I’ll have it soon). Thanks to Stu and your mate for doing so much coverage with the video (including live interviews , top job mate!). Steve, Andrew ‘Waffles’ Egan, Olly Morton( Johns son who is only 11 yrs old) and myself began riding the  whole slope, with Andrew and Olly  ripping on the quads, and Steve and I dueling it out , pushing each other to see who’s going to lose it, pulling 3 and 4 wheel drifts in the patches of loose stuff. .At the end of the run we were all wiping bug stains of our helmets!  Utter! Utter! Filth! 

We left Melbourne and headed up to Mt Baw Baw about a 3 hour drive, the last 6 km’s of the road up to the resort is one of the steepest stretches of road in Victoria.  Dave Plant the head lifty who had invited us up was as keen as mustard to hit the run to take us boarding back down the road we just struggled up.  But on just driving up I was scared s#*$less, riding down on a board, I don’t know?  But seeing the soft gravel edges of the road (with a 60ft drop into the rainforest) was just too much for us.  Lead the way we said, Dave was on an old 115cm chassis quad with severely worn tires and springs which could turn on a coin, we padded up and away we went.  Dave leading the way, followed by Stephen and me.  Dave was doing these incredibly tight carves down the road from side to side keeping his speed way down and in total control,  you could hear the traction made from the tyres on the road.  I quickly overtook Dave on my Outback going into tight carves to check my speed when I saw the next set of curves coming up.  But with no rear wheel steering, the three-wheeler doesn’t get speed wobbles and the larger wheels as well as being faster were able to take a straighter line than Dave leaving him behind.  By the 4km mark my legs were beginning to feel tired. It was draining to be constantly concentrating on the run, on checking my speed, carving on the steeper sections and taking the heel side turns out to the gravel and really pushing and sliding the back wheel over the edge leaving dust in the air and three skid marks as  my signature.  Some sections I would let go and be doing close to 75 km’s and then back off and touch the foot brake on entering the next set of steep corners.  I reached the bottom where Paul (Dave’s mate who later brought a three-wheeler) was waiting for the three of us to give a lift back to the top.  (This was one run I’ll be damned I would walk up) my legs were jelly just getting into the car.  Stephen came hurtling around the corner a minute later with smoke pouring off his brake and tyre, it looked like his back foot was on fire.  I was prepared to waste a good can of Coke on putting it out, but on stopping he assured me it was indeed only the remains of his brake.  ‘Got bored with carving’, he said, ‘so I gunned it straight down smokin’ it up for the last 2 k’s’.  Dave finally carved his way down to us and we all headed back up to the resort.  We all agreed that was absolutely sick and discussed what’s next on the agenda.

Stephen and I met Paul on the Saturday demo in Melbourne, and he invited us back to check out a hill (with lift) that he was keen to set up for mountainboarding with perhaps a boardercross run and a few jumps to introduce the sport next summer.  Mt Baw Baw has the vision and saw the writing on the wall in the mid 80’s by being the first Aussie snow resort to allow snowboarders on it slopes, so why not ATB’S. 

Tank Hill was a steep little slope (about 250m) with a wide frontage.  This is where Dave hoped to set up his boarder-cross run for mountainboarders in summer.  There was also an ‘island’ of bush in the middle of the slope to carve around.  

It was excellent not having to walk up on the first run, straight off the pommel, rolling off at the top and still tightening my bindings before dropping into the run.  Rocketing down to the bottom, squeezing in 5 or 6 wicked turns before rolling back to the lift for another tow up.  For us Aussie lads over here, this was unheard of luxury.

With all the demo boards and spare safety gear being used by the staff it looked great seeing riders free-carving there way down, with some guys staying out wide where there a few natural hits in the longer grass to bust some tidy grabs off.  I hoped we were watching the near future of our sport all over Australia.  It sure was gonna be fun!

The next day Dave, Paul and the rest of the guys were already tipping dirt on to the slope and under the lift to start leveling things and to create berms and hips for the boarder-cross run.  We had both forgotten the camera the day before and were keen on filming a couple of runs down.  I made a deal with Steve that if he climbed the first tower of the pommel (approx. 15m high) to film from, I’d walk up and ride down the hill a couple of times for some video proof of this historical moment.  By this stage of the trip we were pretty tired having ridden four days flat out.  But we didn’t care, Dave was hoping to organise an Expression Session on a weekend just prior to the start of the snow season to gauge reaction and improve on the slope.

The filming went well, with Steve getting hardly any vomit on the camera and I only needed a little oxygen to get me over the walking not that Steve was scared of heights or that I was unfit, perish the thought. Another couple of runs under the Summit chairlift flying down the short grass then carving towards the longer grass to wash off speed before hitting the gravel road that lead back to the cabins.

We reluctantly left Mt Baw Baw, (many thanks to Dave and crew).  A scenic and often times deadly drive over the Alpine Way, a chronic road that wound its way high over the Snowy Mountain River.  Thank god for four-wheel drive.  

Next stop Jindabyne, we checked out ‘Bart’s Snowboards’  and were told that because of the  National Parks people there was little hope for mountainboarders at Thredbo in the near future.  Bart told us that there were a few guys around with quad boards who where very keen riders and he does have an excellent 2km driveway which I could bank up the sides on.  Sounded good to us, we promised to keep in touch.

The drive to Canberra had both of us pointing and shouting out the window, ‘check that out over there’ or ‘half-pipe at 12 o’clock’ which meant a perfect gully ½ km along and ready to rip. Talked to some shops  the next morning and then with a few less boards in the back we headed for Sydney.  Another seed was sown...Hallelujah!

We had an appointment with Barton Lynch surfer extra-ordinaire (3 times world champion) who had just returned from a snowboarding stint in Japan, where he was filming and boarding for his cable surf show, ‘RAH’. Barton watched us at a park near his place riding down the road and hitting a drop off that launched you into a floaty air that was perfect for mute or method shifties before landing on the wet grass.  A couple of video’s at Bart’s place later and he was wrapped, seeing all the crossover possibilities that this sport can offer.

Barton did an interview with us, early the next morning on his verandah. We showed him the different designs available and stressed the importance of safety gear for riders, and  left with the promise of sending him some homegrown video (which he’ll cut and edit to the interview) for his program- ‘Ra’.  COOL.

Off to a couple of shops in the city (who emptied us of boards) we fought the Mardi Gras traffic with windows up and doors locked.   (Not that there’s anything wrong with it)?  The traffic was hell but eventually we were heading North and home.

Having emptied the van of all the nice new stuff and funds getting low it was decided to head straight back to Brisbane.  The weather had crapped out along the coast and we didn’t expect to get much boarding done.  We arrived back that afternoon, absolutely stuffed.

Goatx would like to thank all the riders who took part, Thanks to Ryan and his Dad for driving from Ballarat, and special thanks to John Morton and Family for putting us up and setting up and to Andew and Nic for helping him out. And a big thanks to Stephen aka Foj for all his help and support (and about 4,500kms of driving). As all of us he does for the love of the sport. The riding standard in Australia is extremely high, considering the sport has only turned mainline the last six months. With the AustralianMountainBording. org we hope to be able to interest sponsors and gain more support to aid in the organising of events. And to provide venues, that will offer world class amenities and facilities for global competitions in the future!!!!

WE ARE OBLIVIOUS TO PRECONCEIVED BOUNDARIES !