SEND IT! is for those times when you want to ride, but can't — maybe you're injured, maybe it's too muddy or maybe there's a global pandemic — because no matter what, even when you can't ride, you should be able to SEND IT!

One day last year I poorly executed a 15-foot drop on my mountain bike (you can watch the video here — warning, it's pretty bad!) and had the worst crash of my life. I separated my left shoulder, got stitches and concussed myself. Over the next couple of weeks of sitting on the couch, I spent a lot of time thinking about what went wrong so that I would never, EVER make the same mistake again. I also played a lot of board games. And then one day my poor, concussed brain connected those two things and the idea for SEND IT! was born. -Macky Franklin (co-founder and professional mountain bike racer)

SEND IT! is a fast-paced mountain bike game where you ride, train, prepare and "send" progressively harder features. Players race from the trailhead through three levels (green, blue, black) to be the first to be inducted into the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame and collect the coveted winner's trophy, the Golden Burrito.

Riders roll to train and move while drawing prepare cards to improve their chances of successfully sending the next feature, all while trying not to crash. Should you play it safe or just "SEND IT!"?

On each turn, riders choose two actions, which can be the same or different, from the following options:

Just like real mountain biking, crashing can happen in a variety of ways - you can crash while training, while riding or while sending it - and until you recover from your crash you can't do anything but prepare, giving the other riders the chance to get ahead.

The first rider to send the final feature (the "Hall of Fame") and reach the Golden Burrito wins the game.

After you've played a few times, play the advanced "Trail Building" version which allows riders to place Feature Tiles as the game progresses instead of randomly placing them at the beginning of the game.

The full game rules are available here.

Our goal is to get SEND IT! into your hands by the 2020 holidays. Since we've already designed the components and decided on a manufacturer, after making a few small changes based on reward levels and stretch goals, we should be able to start the manufacturing process shortly after pre-orders close, which will give us plenty of buffer to deliver on-time even if we hit some snags.

The idea for SEND IT! started with a crash. A bad crash. A crash so bad, in fact, that it led to a lot of analysis about what went wrong and a lot of board game playing. And eventually those two things came together and the idea of a mountain biking board game was born. 

We set out to create a mountain biking game that acknowledges the inherent risk of our sport but also recognizes that there are ways to decrease that risk; that lets you send harder and harder features but recognizes that each feature requires a unique skill set; that forces you to find the delicate balance between over-preparing for a feature and just sending it.  

We also wanted to create a game that was fun for everyone, not just mountain bikers. So we spent lots of time playing the game with our non-mountain biking friends. Their feedback was that initial versions were too bike-specific, so we modified and tested over and over until we came up with a game that everyone enjoyed!

We continued to play with anyone who was interested and got lots of great suggestions that led to board and game play changes and eventually got to the point where we felt that it could be a real game. So we hired @sketchytrails to do the artwork, started figuring out the logistics of manufacturing a board game and now it's time to SEND IT!

If you're interested in more about the backstory:

Syd and Macky (the designers) - We're professional mountain bike racers who live in a van and travel the US (and the world) in search of the coolest mountain bike races we can find. While we don't have much space in the van, we always travel with at least one game (currently it's Throw Throw Burrito) and play it whenever we can. We also share our adventures on our YouTube channel and Instagram account.

Kristina (the artist) - I've always been involved in creating art, from doodling as a kid, to majoring in Animation/Illustration in college. I was raised in California then moved to Washington state in 2016 to live closer to the mountains and feed my love for outdoor recreation. This led to my specializing in sport themed artwork with a strong emphasis on creating mountain bike illustrations. My goal is to allow the viewer to experience my adventures through my work. Check out my Instagram account to see more of my artwork.