Extreme Gear
TABLE OF CONTENTS

Quickly becoming a preferred extreme sport among youths, riding extreme gear (also known simply as airboarding) is a fast-paced and potentially dangerous activity. It is also an extremely efficient mode of transportation, as the gear is fueled entirely by air. However, given that the refueling process is usually free, this also means that the cost of extreme gear is fairly high. The name brand of extreme gear is Robotnik Corp, but other generic companies produce gear as well.

Styles

Extreme gear comes in three basic styles: boards, skates, and bikes. Many other styles of gear exist, ranging from flying carpets to kamikaze clouds, but most fall under the main three categories.

Airboards are the most commonly used style of gear. They resemble surfboards save for the small airtank attached at the back, and while they require the user to stand upright, the board will propel itself. Airboards are highly stylized and usually custom designed to suit the user's taste and personality. Most gearists who race with extreme gear use airboards due to their natural speed and aerodynamics.

Airskates rank second in popularity among gearists. Though they are much smaller than all the other gears, and therefore both less expensive and easier to store, airskates present a much greater workout to the user; propulsion is still air-based, but in this case it's more of an assisting boost to the user's own natural speed. Airskates are mostly used for recreation or exercise.

Airbikes are by far the least popular style of extreme gear, mostly due to the fact that they typically have fairly low maximum speeds. Usually resembling scooters or mopeds, airbikes are much heavier than the other gear styles, but allow the user to sit while riding. For this reason, airbikes are usually used for personal transportation more than anything else.

Types

Originally, extreme gear was unspecialized, limiting its users to the same generic specifications. However, Uncle Chuck pioneered three specialized gear types in the midst of his tinkering with Bunnie Rabbot's board: speed, flight, and power.

Speed Type gear is engineered with high-power propulsion in mind, doubling the standard air pressure and resulting in blazing speeds. Since its faster pace gives it more inertia, speed gear is also the only type of gear able to grind railings.

Flight Type gear focuses on hovering the same way that speed type focuses on propulsion. As a result, flight gear has twice the hovering power of a standard board and is able to reach the most lofty heights. Because of this, flight gear is the only type able to make use of accelerator rings.

Power Type gear makes use of half of speed's boosted propulsion and half of flight's boosted hovering, resulting in a hybrid type that specializes in momentum. This allows users of power gear to barrel through obstacles that would force speed and flight type users to find alternate routes.

Fuel

As stated before, extreme gear runs entirely on pressurized air, making it an extremely cost-efficient mode of transportation (if you can afford one). Air is easily wasted, and not always easily regained. Largely air consumption and replenishment depends on the skill of the gearist. If the air tank completely empties, the gear shuts down, and the gearist must walk until they can refill the tank.

Air Tanks are what power extreme gear. The air in the tank is pressurized and used to push the gear forward when released. Obviously, the effectiveness of this system relies heavily on the weight of the gear and the gearist involved. Most air tanks are designed to automatically refuel whenever an opportunity presents itself (such as while performing tricks), but they can also be manually operated.

Boosting is an average enough move for both the casual and extreme gearist. A boost is simply a short burst of speed. It uses a decent amount of air, but exactly how much of the total supply is used depends specifically on the gear itself.

Sliding can either conserve or waste air depending on the technique of the gearist. In most cases, sliding will save air, but if done incorrectly a lot of air (and time) can easily be wasted. Sliding is usually only used by racers during high-speed cornering.

Tornadoes are pretty much exclusive to the racers, and must be used sparingly due to their massive air consumption. When a competitor approaches from behind, the gearist has the option of making a quick rotation while releasing a burst of air, which (if done correctly) will result in a minature tornado (only a couple feet tall) thrown back on the competitor. This move will disable the opponent momentarily — assuming it does in fact hit them. Tornadoes are a risky move because they not only consume a lot of precious air, but they also slow the user down, and aren't even guaranteed to hit their target. Dropping a tornado is often a make-or-break decision.

Turbulence is a bit of a double-edged sword. When a gearist starts hitting top speeds, they leave a wake of air in their path (known as turbulence) that lingers for several seconds. A competitor can reap many benefits from riding this wake, ranging from gaining speed and momentum to performing tricks to refill their tanks. Riding turbulence is a life-saver for a trailing gearist, as it not only gives them a fast ride to the front, but it also puts less stress on their gear's air tank and saves them air. However, riding turbulence also has drawbacks — specifically that once turbulence is mounted, it's difficult to dismount. This could potentially take the gearist away from the path they'd prefer, or in some case, slam them into obstacles.

Tricks are a great way to put air back into the air tank without making a pit stop. When a gearist makes a jump off of a ramp or turbulence, the hovering sensors tell the air tank that the gear has gone airborne, and thus little or no air is needed. When this happens, the engine reverses itself to replenish its air supply. The more tricks the gearist does, the more air is replenished, as the hover sensors are unable to detect proximity to the ground. The gearist must nail the landing, however, for the new air to take; if the hover sensors never get a chance to detect the ground, the air tank does not have enough time to pressurize the air before setting back to work, and an abrupt change will expel the unpressurized air.

Air Pits have slowly begun to be integrated into the existing infrastructure to replenish air for extreme gear, for both athletes and casual users alike. An air pit is a small refueling station, not much bigger than a bus stop, located at strategic positions in gearways and in gas stations. The gearist steers their gear into a small passage, where the gear is anchored briefly as the air tank is refilled. In gearways, the gear is rocketed forward as soon as refueling is complete to get them back up to speed, whereas in gas stations the gear is simply released, allowing the user to move along as they please.

Gearways

As extreme gear has steadily grown more common, more and more gearways have begun popping up around the world. Gearways are roads and paths made specifically for extreme gear riders. These include expressways for travel set up alongside regular roads, recreational paths (like bike paths), practice tracks for experimentation and skill development, and racing tracks specifically designed for sport. Practice tracks are typically found at or near gear shops, and though tracks exist purely for racing, the most extreme gearists will frequently bring their races onto city streets for added difficulty and danger.

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