The Land is East Coast freeriding. We immerse
ourselves in the environment and design a trail that fits best
with the contours of the earth and the natural resources we have
to work with. Our motivation is
constructing
trails that challenge us as riders. To build outside of our comfort
zone and elevate our skills to match.
Our foundation for building stunts are
basic construction principles. We
use hardwoods for structural and load bearing support, then deck
with rough split oak 4x4's. Trails are progressively built from
top to bottom. We discuss flow, trail character, and stunt
features
up front. We sketch out ideas, review the speed and physics behind
them, and check our material resources for the most efficient
build. Once we agree to an overall concept, we stake out and
string line the entire stunt, checking it for proper angles from
all directions. Every stunt is tested in stages and adjustments
in angles and placement are made if needed. It's a logical and
thorough process which yields excellent results.
With the advances in building techniques
we've learned over the years, we're now able to construct most
major stunts in just days. The more we build, the faster
and
easier
it gets. The crew works seamlessly, intuitively jumping in where
needed and helping without instruction. It's fast and efficient,
but not without a healthy amount of teasing and busting on each
other. There are always different opinions.
We respect the differences, make a decision, and move on. As
a team, none of our individual ideas become a reality. It's a
mixture of all our ideas that always prevails. When a stunt is
done, it literally becomes the perfect stunt for that location.
Trail and stunt design is a mixture of art and science. It's an organic, natural, and free flowing process. While books have been read and theories behind trail design studied, there's nothing more important to trail building than experience. What looks good on paper or worked somewhere else, doesn't always match the trails and environment you're building in. The true learning comes with doing. To make progress you have to be there on the ground, riding and building continuously, making lots of mistakes and constantly learning from them. The Land crew is always improving but nothing is built without total attention to aesthetically pleasing features, naturally built stunts, and hand crafted quality.
