Within mountain biking north shores first as man made trail obstacles and features
that have become famous the world over.
Originally they came from the North Shore of Vancouver
and were used for getting over rocky or boggy pieces of trail that weren't rideable.
But now they've become trail features in their own right.
Quite often at bike parks you find these little skills-areas with north shores and skinnys.
You can try them out and practice them before you hit the trails
On the skinny up-hill sections I'm gonna keep pedaling
I'm using my knees slightly side over the bike to keep balance, but also a little bit brake here and there.
Skinnys are a tough obstacle and they can pop up anywhere on the trail
sometimes to get across a gap, other times just to spice up the trail a little bit
as the name suggest they're really narrow and can be really intimidating
Think about riding it smoothly as possible, obviously trying to stay right in the middle if you can
and keep your head up to look for the end of it
You will sometimes have to pedal across them, again try to stay really smooth
I find sometimes seated pedaling will make it a little bit easier.
North shore berms and corners can be really intimidating
because of the turning circle of your bike you actually need to get your front wheel quite close to the edge of the corner
so your rear wheel doesn't fall off the inside
That's especially scary on corners like this where there's a big drop on the outside of the turn
Rocks aren't man made obstacles but you're sure to find these in the same areas you find pieces of north shore trail
And they do come from nice, manageable, smooth like this
to really massive rock mountains
And what's really important is your entry-speed to these sections
and the run out is really important
So don't come in too fast 'cause if you're on a really steep one
you might wanna have to get off the brakes a little bit so you don't start sliding around
and keep your weight over the back of the bike
Like other north shore obstacles, step ups can actually get pretty darn big
However the nice thing about them is you can see the landing from the take-off
unlike most other jumps
and quite often step ups are actually leading in to another obstacle
in this case it's a step up into drop off
so judging your speed is really important
obviously you need to get fast enough to get up on to here
however if you go too fast you might get really close to landing right on top of that drop-off
The teeter totter or if you're from the US the TEETER TOTTER (accent)
Is an obstacle that needs a little bit of patience and control
You need to ride on. Get just past the pivot point and actually stop.
Wait for it to seesaw, and away you go
You can't ride these fast
Steep berms and wallrides can be loads of fun
Think about using speed as your friend
attack the berms with the intention and aim to get nice and high and on to its structure
This feels scary. But once you have the hight in the berm you have the control of the situation.
Think about hitting a wall ride quite fast. It's much easier to lose a little bit speed on the wall than going in too slow and risk sliding off it
So there you go, that is north shore explained.
Can be pretty scary especially in the wet when they get really slippery.
If you wanna see more videos that can help you out on north shore
you can click up there for the "Top 5 trial skills every mountain biker should know"
Or click just over there for "How to endo"
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