Jumping / Landing

The least that a Mountain biker will need to know is how to land the bike, at some point you are going to come across a bump that your are riding to fast to just ride over and find yourself airborne.

Always be calm, ride with your arms and legs bents and relaxed in order to cope with any unexpected knocks and bangs

Get the pedal cranks level, this will help stop you veering of to one side on landing and help control the bike

Get your weight of the saddle and move it backward just a couple of inches should do, try to land on the back wheel by pulling the handlebars up and backwards (bad things happen when you forget this one, trust me)

Keep the front wheel straight, your have a tendency to twist the front wheel and this will cause no end of problems, after you land

Let the bike come up towards you when you land,this will stop the bike becoming unstable on landing, this is very important if you don't land back wheel first

Practice, this is one of those things that you really need to be able to do in a emergency, just don't practice where there are things that you can hit yourself on when you fall (like tree stumps, they hurt)

That's supposed to be how to take a jump and it will get you into the air BUT if you want people to look at you you need to get a little air and the way to do this is the bunny hop ..... just before the lip of the jump do a small bunny hop and this will increase your air no end .... never do this first time that you attempt a jump though as jumps often have many hidden secrets and it is easy get the first attempt at a jump wrong the first time you try it .........