Dirt farming

Just had a go on a mate's dirtsurfer or dirt farmer as I prefer to call it along with Andy 'soul arch' davies and Gavin 'grass stains' James.

An early attempt filmed on my phone:

It basically involves letting your inhibitions go and flying down a hill on two wheels with not much in the way of brakes.

I've resisted the temptation for a few years now as Andy has repeatedly tried to coax me onto it, but whenever I've seen it lying there on the ground...self preservation mode kicks in!

I have a tendency to injure myself when trying new sports. I think it has something to do with being a Leo. We don't know when to stop and enjoy showing off until we hurt ourselves...

Andy 'soul arch' Davies showing how it's meant to be done:

The dirt surfer looks a bit like the sort of a bike, a gypsy might put together with a welding kit his brother has nicked from a building site.

It basically consists of two wheels. The front one pivots from side to side whilst the back is set up to just go straight.

The two wheels are separated by a skateboard deck where you stand. Your feet go into foot bindings and you have a brake on the rear wheel, which you operate by pushing your back calf muscle into it. That's about it!

It all happens pretty quickly once you master the 'standing start' and you soon find that life without the brake is a lot easier.

You place your back foot in to begin with and then push off with your front foot and try to get your foot into the front binding as fast as possible.

Once you're in that stance, the surfing kicks in and it felt very natural to be crouched and flying down a a green and muddy wave face.

The faster you ride, the easier it becomes to turn and once you get good enough you can start soul arching into some sexy turns like Andy or going off road a bit more.

Surprisingly I came away uninjured! After a couple of false starts I found my balance and away I went.

The dismount is pretty straight forwards as you wait until the end of the ride and hop out so my nightmares about flipping over and over with my feet stuck in bindings like I do when snowboarding, were completely unjustified.

I'm still not sure how safe I'd be on tarmac but for now, grass is great!

Once you progress you can buy kite wings to fly along wind swept beaches and apparently there's some guy in the Black Mountains in Germany whose customised his with aero-dynamic panels for insane road speeds.

Sounds painful to me...

Visit www.wingsurfer.co.uk to find out more.