Whilst going solo has it's thrills, the freedom to do everything at your own pace and the fun of doing things for your own sake, riding with others ups the game, reveals new lines you probably hadn't even considered and has the added benefit that if it all goes wrong, someone's there to phone the ambulance man.
But many people don't know of other people in the area who mountainboard and get bored as a result. However, Remolitions Artful Rogers has handily put together a mountainboarders Meet-up map where people can see who else is in there area to contact, or can put up their own details and hope that someone gets in touch with them! The more people, the better for everyone, and remember, you don't have to be specific with your tag, just something in the right town or region. This should at least stop the stalkers/burglers from knowing where you live.
View Mountainboarders Meet-up Map in a larger map
Showing posts with label google maps. Show all posts
Showing posts with label google maps. Show all posts
Wednesday, 25 November 2009
Tuesday, 17 November 2009
The Joy of Maps
Maps are great! Plan your route, see where you've been, look for those tightly packed contours that mean slopes!
Up till a couple of years ago, when it came to on-line mapping, I would have advised people who had the money (or the means) to acquire Memory Map, the magic pc software that had not only licensed 1:25,000 OS mapping, but also 3D visualisers to see the whole thing; hills, valleys, the whole undulating landscape. It was good. It is still good, if very, very expensive, but with a whole host of free information available at your finger tips on-line, it'd be daft not to look there first.
Road maps, OS maps, satellite imagery, birds eye views,terrain view, street view, route planning and a whole lot more to follow (in no particular order and with emphasis on off road 4x4 wheely boarding):
Multi Map - demo available here
Google Maps
Probably the best known mapping website available possibly due to the ease of adding user information to the maps and ease of integration into other websites.
Best used to highlight points of interest i.e. people, places
Very good satallite imagery
Terrain view: Handy to give rough idea of terrain but only really effective zoomed out or in really hilly areas
Very good road maps in order to get to where you were going in the first place
Bing Maps (was Live Search)
Alternative to Google Maps, but has some great alternative features (particularly after the update on the 12th November 2009):
Contains OS maps at both 1:50,000 and 1:25,000. (very easy to flick between the two)
Alternative Satalite Imagery and Bird eye Views (not all areas).
These two features alone makes desktop trail hunting a lot easier. From using the OS maps to find a suitable slope, it is a breeze to switch to the birds eye view to see whether that route goes straight through a field, wood, or trading estate.
Of course, there's still the possibility of getting to site and finding that the trail is totally un-ridable, or densely packed with cattle, or just plain rubbish.
Where's the Path
...is genius! OS Map on one side, Satellite view is on the other. Moving the cursor on one side is replicated at the same spot on the other. Paths drawn on one site are replicated on the other! Always worth a look just in case you suspect that either the map lies, or when you suspect that you are allowed access through a particular piece of ground.
OS Maps are unfortunately only in 1:50,000 but there if you select the 25k button, then select a spot, then that location is opened in Streetmap at 1:25:000. GPS logs can be imported / exported accordingly.
Google Earth
Downloadable application displaying satellite views of the world in all its glory. Has the ability to show the terrain in 3D, though its only accurate to points every 50 metres or so. This can result for example in valleys not displaying as the 50 metre points span the gap, or in peaks of hills not quite in the right location.
Other maps websites include:
Multimap
Streetmap
Flash Earth
Strangemaps
Hope this information be helpful, though I've got a feeling that I'll have to update it all in 3 months!
Up till a couple of years ago, when it came to on-line mapping, I would have advised people who had the money (or the means) to acquire Memory Map, the magic pc software that had not only licensed 1:25,000 OS mapping, but also 3D visualisers to see the whole thing; hills, valleys, the whole undulating landscape. It was good. It is still good, if very, very expensive, but with a whole host of free information available at your finger tips on-line, it'd be daft not to look there first.
Road maps, OS maps, satellite imagery, birds eye views,terrain view, street view, route planning and a whole lot more to follow (in no particular order and with emphasis on off road 4x4 wheely boarding):
Multi Map - demo available here
Google Maps
Probably the best known mapping website available possibly due to the ease of adding user information to the maps and ease of integration into other websites.
Best used to highlight points of interest i.e. people, places
Very good satallite imagery
Terrain view: Handy to give rough idea of terrain but only really effective zoomed out or in really hilly areas
Very good road maps in order to get to where you were going in the first place
Bing Maps (was Live Search)
Alternative to Google Maps, but has some great alternative features (particularly after the update on the 12th November 2009):
Contains OS maps at both 1:50,000 and 1:25,000. (very easy to flick between the two)
Alternative Satalite Imagery and Bird eye Views (not all areas).
These two features alone makes desktop trail hunting a lot easier. From using the OS maps to find a suitable slope, it is a breeze to switch to the birds eye view to see whether that route goes straight through a field, wood, or trading estate.
Of course, there's still the possibility of getting to site and finding that the trail is totally un-ridable, or densely packed with cattle, or just plain rubbish.
Where's the Path
...is genius! OS Map on one side, Satellite view is on the other. Moving the cursor on one side is replicated at the same spot on the other. Paths drawn on one site are replicated on the other! Always worth a look just in case you suspect that either the map lies, or when you suspect that you are allowed access through a particular piece of ground.
OS Maps are unfortunately only in 1:50,000 but there if you select the 25k button, then select a spot, then that location is opened in Streetmap at 1:25:000. GPS logs can be imported / exported accordingly.
Google Earth
Downloadable application displaying satellite views of the world in all its glory. Has the ability to show the terrain in 3D, though its only accurate to points every 50 metres or so. This can result for example in valleys not displaying as the 50 metre points span the gap, or in peaks of hills not quite in the right location.
Other maps websites include:
Multimap
Streetmap
Flash Earth
Strangemaps
Hope this information be helpful, though I've got a feeling that I'll have to update it all in 3 months!
Friday, 6 November 2009
Mountain Board Trails Map
Remember the Mountain Board Trails map I created and linked to a few months back? No? Good, because there is a far superior version available:
View Mountainboard Ride Guide in a larger map
With 385 locations currently listed in the UK and abroad, many with the routes drawn on, this should be your first place to check for trails if new to an area, or new to the sport. Particularly interesting to the lazy middle-aged-midlands based boarder are the spots shown above in north Derbyshire around the Edale, Castleton and Lady Bower Reservoir region, and pulling my finger out to check a few of them out is mandatory!
Credit where credits due, but I've no idea who was responsible for collating the data above, so I'll just say that the original link was obtained through the ever reliable Remolition website.
Edit: Thanks to Smilie below we can give full credit to artfulroger - what a resourceful / well travelled / well informed chap!
View Mountainboard Ride Guide in a larger map
With 385 locations currently listed in the UK and abroad, many with the routes drawn on, this should be your first place to check for trails if new to an area, or new to the sport. Particularly interesting to the lazy middle-aged-midlands based boarder are the spots shown above in north Derbyshire around the Edale, Castleton and Lady Bower Reservoir region, and pulling my finger out to check a few of them out is mandatory!
Credit where credits due, but I've no idea who was responsible for collating the data above, so I'll just say that the original link was obtained through the ever reliable Remolition website.
Edit: Thanks to Smilie below we can give full credit to artfulroger - what a resourceful / well travelled / well informed chap!
Monday, 9 February 2009
Board Sports Spot Guide
Edit: Please visit here for far superior mountain board spot guide...the post below is outdated (and a little bit rubbish)
Bringing together all the handy boarding spots into one handy guide, the ongoing 'Board Sports Spot Guide' is taking shape through Google maps.
Link
View Larger Map
Bringing together all the handy boarding spots into one handy guide, the ongoing 'Board Sports Spot Guide' is taking shape through Google maps.
Link
View Larger Map
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