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These days, sports are more about innovation and challenges than ever before. Not content to simply go surfing, people now drop in out of helicopters, get towed out to the middle of the ocean to ride weird swells, and take on waves taller than skyscrapers with little to no protection. And that\’s just the sport of surfing!

With so many ski resorts wondering how to attract guests in the off-season, it\’s no wonder that someone took a look at one of those ski runs once the snow melted and thought to themselves, \”What a perfect place to go for a bike ride.\” Sure, the origins of mountain biking are a little bit more complicated than that, but that\’s basically the long and the short of it.

Instead of simply going for a hike, or going for a bike ride across town, mountain biking managed to combine the two elements of getting around on a bicycle with maneuvering one\’s way through the wilderness. Since its initial inception, different riders took the sport in different directions. Some were interested in keeping the bikes in urban environments but using them differently, while others were more focused on creating a challenging speed-based environment that looked more like downhill slalom ski racing.

But more than that, there are different types of mountain biking, some of which spend time on more manicured surfaces, some who go all out and head to the middle of nowhere, and others where the riding is more built on creating one\’s own type of style and implementing it, but in the dirt instead of out on the street.

Often, people think that there\’s just one style of mountain biking, that involves riding a heavy bicycle with large rubber wheels around trees on the way down to the bottom of some hill. Nothing could be further from the truth, with a number of different innovators creating different variations and styles, which all have their draw and charms. Knowing those different styles is the first step in figuring out which type of mountain biking sounds best for a new novice rider.

The most popular type of mountain biking to watch, and a style that\’s known for packing crowds at The X-Games, is dirt jumping. In this type of mountain biking, riders propel themselves off of large dirt jumps with the intention of doing any number of arial tricks, including flips and handlebar stands, before safely landing on the ground.

For those living in urban areas, with little or no access to the great outdoors, mountain biking is still a pertinent sport. One of the most popular variations on the more extreme styles of riding is street or urban riding, where people take on obstacle courses of man-made objects on mountain bikes. The bicycles used are smaller in both frames and wheels, and often would not transition well to endurance riding out on open trails.

The best jumping off point for most riders is simple cross-country, which can encompass any number of different environments, terrains, and conditions. A cross-country mountain bike ride can be a simple affair, with lots of break time to enjoy the weather, or it can be more strenuous and involve a great deal of attempting to ride uphill, to navigate slippery or muddy areas, or having to jump around obstacles.

There are also newer, more intense takes on previously existing forms of mountain biking seen as more professional and challenging. One, known as short cross or speed cross, pits riders against a very short, very challenging trail. Usually, there are a great deal more obstacles, and the trail is a lot thinner. This is not a good starting point, and is recommended for experts only.

No matter the style, there\’s no mistaking how helpful this sport can be to building a connection for the young and the old alike with taking their sporting endeavors outside. Like many sports of innovation, mountain biking and all of its new forms is truly here to stay.

Damian Papworth loves the thrill of mountain biking, but always makes sure he fills his bike water bottles for his trips. A cycling water bottle is so important to maintaining hydration in this taxing sport.

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