Dirt’s up

A new sport hits the ground rolling

by SHANE SINNOTT

You can tell a sport is in its infancy when there isn’t a consensus on what to call it. You take a skateboard-like aluminum platform, attach a 16” inflatable tire at each end, add a disc brake you can control with your foot, and what you have is either a “dirtsurfer” or an “inline board”—more properly, both.

Then, brass balls in hand, you take this thing up Mount Royal and surf it down—it’s snowboarding without the Gore-Tex. The sport originated in Australia, and in the last few years has appeared in Canada under the name dirtsurfer. For the record, it’s all inline boarding; Dirtsurfer is the brand name of a particular type of board. (All this, by the way, is not to be confused with “mountainboarding” or “mountain skateboarding,” which is where you take a regular four-wheeled skateboard and put little monster truck wheels on it.)

Montrealers who find themselves intrigued are lucky: not only do we have a big honkin’ mountain, we’ve got what’s effectively the eastern homebase of dirtsurfing in Canada just to the south of us, in Chambly. There, the store Velum Gravity promotes all things Dirtsurfer (and lots of other board sports). I spoke with Michel Panagis, who runs the store and describes himself as the most active representative of the sport in the area. He opened the shop, which sold wind-propelled boards, four years ago.

“With time, I came across Kitewing,” he says, which is a multiple purpose wing, like a windsurfing wing, that you can use to propel yourself on various boards. “After that, I immediately found out about Dirtsurfer.”

Warm, dry and fast

The sport has instant appeal for those who like snowboarding. Lex Albrecht, who’s been dirtsurfing for a couple of years and lives in Trois-Rivières, says, “Having a Dirtsurfer is a way for me to snowboard in the summer without freezing my ass off!” And while it might look hard—when I saw a board, my first thought is it must be like trying to stand up on the crossbar of a moving bike—she says it’s easy to learn.

“What’s cool is that you’re more likely to lose your balance at slow speeds because generally speaking, the faster you go, the more stable the board is. So, when you’re most at risk of falling, you’re probably going really slow, so it’s super easy to hop off your board without hurting yourself.” You can press the board’s brake lever with your calf, so there’s no danger of things getting out of control.

While, as Albrecht says, it’s easy to learn with a friend in a parking lot, if you want a good introduction to the sport, check out Michel Panagis’s store (www.velumgravity.com), where he plans to soon start offering courses with the help of JM Sicotte, the world freestyle champion. As well as the course, free demonstrations are offered periodically, and rentals can be arranged (new Dirtsurfers start at around $400). “The best thing to do is to come and try the board,” Panagis says. “The last thing we want is an unused Dirtsurfer sitting in a garage.”

Adds Albrecht, “Right now it’s a bit of an underground sport, but slowly it’s becoming more known to the general public.” Helping is the fact that the Montreal Top Challenge Gravity race—a race down Mount Royal on various wheeled contraptions—has added a Dirtsurfing division.

Panagis, for his part, sees a lot of growth potential. “More young people are looking for cool things to do besides skateboarding, and this is a good alternative. We are working hard to get ski hills like Bromont to allow Dirtsurfer. Once we get that, more people will want to try it out.” It would also eliminate what Albrecht points out is her least favourite part of the sport: when you’re finished a run, “you’ve got to walk your board back up the hill.”

But even that, she says, isn’t that bad. “I mean, golfers walk around a field all day and seem to like it, right?”