User:Jhoyer

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History:

Brett Berry, Brandon Berry, and Anders Johnson founded chipboarding. They had a tiny pile of woodchips out in the country at the Berry’s house. They got the idea of riding on woodchips with a skate deck, so they grabbed a skate deck, a video camera, and created this new phenomenon. They set up one single rail and filmed it. Later, Jared Johnson and I, Jonny Hoyer, saw the video they made. We were awed by their great idea. Not long after, Jared and I went to a woodchip pile slightly bigger than the original and gave it a shot. We started on the top of the mound, rode down, hit the rails, and discovered how fun chip boarding is. Later, we uncovered new woodchip piles and hills, tried new equipment, and tested different strategies to master the skill of chipboarding. We took what they started and expanded it into what it is today. In this informative piece, I plan to familiarize you with the basics of chipboarding and how to get started with this new fun and exciting activity!

Board Type:

There are two different types of boards you can use to chipboard. The first option is a snow skate. These boards are designed for riding the snow without bindings. They slide well over woodchips, grip shoes well, and have good stability. I recommend this board for longer runs down woodchip hills. Below are some pictures of snow skates. You can buy one online through sites like Froogle or they can be bought at most local skate and snowboard shops. The other board option is a skate deck. A skate deck is the board that is attached to four small wheels to make a skateboard. They slide much faster and are more slippery than snow skates, and are therefore much more difficult to control on big woodchip hills. I recommend using this option only for small woodchip mounds that go straight on to a target rail or box. Skate decks are much less stable than snow skates, but generally have better maneuverability because of their smaller size and better grip to the feet. They have grip tape where the feet go, which has a kind of sand papery texture that gives excellent grip to shoes. To get a skate deck, you can do one of two things. One is to get a skateboard you already own and unscrew the wheels and trucks off the deck so that you have a nice flat board. The other option is to buy a skate deck from a local skate shop. Most shops sell decks without wheels or trucks already attached.

Rails and Boxes:

Rails and boxes are the objects that you slide over on the chipboard to do tricks. Anything can be used as a rail or box as long as it can be rode over on your chipboard. The objects I use and recommend are short, medium, and long 2x4 pieces of wood. These slide well, especially when waxed, and are the most stable when placed in the woodchips. There are two basic ways to plant a rail or box firmly into the woodchips. One is to dig it into the chips so that it is level with the slope of the hill. This style will allow the boarder to ride right over the rail or box without the fear of slipping off the edge. The other way, and the more advanced style, is to have the rail or box elevated above the wood chips with each end dug into the chips. This provides a much bigger challenge than the other provides and is usually much more fun if the boarder has well enough control. To wax a board, you can buy wax from a skate shop, or you can do the cheap style and use mom’s candles. Slowly rub the wax back and forth on the board or 2x4, or whatever else needs to slide better. Next, I will tell you about the two different setups of rails and boxes. The first is just one single flat rail. The landing either can come out riding back onto firm ground, or can be elevated off the ground to do spin or flip tricks. Both work well and are good to test and play around with. To elevate the end of a rail, I usually stack a couple rocks underneath it, and then pile woodchips on top of that to make a small mound. This will make it so that when you ride off the end of the rail, there will be a small drop. The other setup are kinks. A kink is a series of boards lined up to make one long rail. The term used to describe a single kink would usually be “flat-down” or “down-flat”. Double kinks are referred to as “flat-down-flat” or “down-flat-down”. Ultimately, you can have as many kinks in a rail or box as you want as long as you have enough woodchip-slope to do it. Just realize that the more kinks there are in a rail, it will be exceedingly more difficult to keep balance and control. Metal can also be used for rails or boxes. I haven’t used these in chipboarding myself, but they are used in snowboarding and I therefore assume it would work reasonably well. However, it may be too slippery depending on the metal.

Chip Hill Locations:

Chip hills are most commonly found on the outskirts of parks, playgrounds, and other wood-chipped areas. Keep in mind that chipboarding is not specified as a sport and therefore does not have “woodchip mound resorts” and “woodchip parks” that are made for the specific activity of chipboarding. Do your best to look in your area where you suspect you might find a pile of woodchips. Ask your friends, family, neighbors, etc. because you’re sure to find someone who’s seen a pile of woodchips lying around. Because I live in Davis, CA, I can name a few places I have found woodchip piles for all you Davis chipboarders out there. One good mound is in Village Homes near the parking lot. Look around across the bike path from the park there and you will find a massive pile of woodchips. Some kids made bike jumps out of this mound, but you can work around that, build rails, boxes, and whatever else. Another spot is near the Arboretum. If you look at the area somewhere in between Borders, the entrance to the Arboretum, and the railroad tracks, you will find another heap of woodchips. This pile is even bigger than the one at Village Homes. The local spot that I chipboard at most often is near Arroyo next to the tunnel on the bike path. It is not a mound, but a hill of woodchips rather. It is convenient for long runs, but hard to maintain control without a snow skate. I don’t recommend this spot if you only have a skate deck. It won’t work well for long runs and you will most likely slip and hurt yourself before you even start moving downhill.

Tricks:

Tricks are very difficult in chipboarding, but it is fun to try. Get familiar with snowboarding and/or skateboarding to know what kind of tricks you could attempt. The basic tricks you can do are flip and spin. Flip tricks such as kick flips and heel flips are nearly impossible on a chipboard, but if you think you’re good enough, give it a shot. Other tricks you can do that are more possible are shove its and so on. Spin tricks you can try are rotating while sliding on a rail or box, or you could even try a 180 or 360 spin off the end of an elevated rail, but it would be rather difficult. Tricks can get creative in chipboarding and they are not limited to anything, so get inventive and make up your own tricks in addition to trying the ideas I have listed here.

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