The Kings Highway Surfboard

“This is the Kings Highway surfboard,” says Chris, 21 with a laugh.

We’re stuck waiting for the Q Train late one evening. A police investigation on Ave M halted train service for over half an hour. Snapping photos of Chris, his friends and their skateboards equipped with all-terrain tires was a good distraction.

The mountainboard is pretty cool, actually. It’s got a skateboard deck with snowboard bindings.

Mountainboarding is a cross between snowboarding and skateboarding, with some BMX elements thrown in the mix. It was originally started to keep riding mountain slopes after the winter season ended, and has since developed into it’s own extreme sport. Riders can mountainboard anywhere from skateparks to hillsides and streets.

It’s not a new sport, according to Chris, it just isn’t well-known yet.

Chris lives on Kings Highway and East 16th Street and rides mostly in Prospect Park and other places with hills. He also spends a lot of time at various Occupy events, riding with friends there.

“I like riding around here, too. Everyone stares at me. This is the perfect New York City board, it handles anything. I’d love to see the sport go bigger here.”

That night, Chris and his friends were headed to check out a new spot for riding, somewhere in Bronx. Chris rode the board briefly on the station platform.

“Yeah, we need to go off-road,” he said before the train finally pulled in.