We’re a community of students, parents, and volunteers who love riding and racing mountain bikes.  Our team members are teenage boys and girls who attend public schools, private schools, and homeschools.

What We Do

We are building a community around having fun riding and racing mountain bikes with friends. Some of our team members want to win, some just want to get in better shape, other just want to improve their skills and make new friends.  Some are extremely skilled and accomplished riders; others are just learning to mountain bike. We will seek to help you accomplish your own mountain biking goals.

Our Team

Woodside Beasts Composite started as a mountain bike racing team for high school students. It got its name from Woodside High School in Redwood City where the founding members attended.  A composite team is not specific to a single school; students from any school in the area can join the team. The goal of the league is that each high school have its own team, and many high schools in California do, but for now we’re a composite. We have kids from Carlmont, Sequoia, DTech, Menlo Atherton, Gunn, Palo Alto High, Everest, Priory, Nueva, Aaragon, Kehillah, Los Altos. Starting 2022 the league added middle school (grades 6 up) racing and we now accept middle school kids.

Our Area

There are no hard and fast region boundaries. We have students from San Mateo down to Los Altos. If you live further south, check out the Black Mountain Composite team (who also have a claim to Los Altos!). If you live further north, checkout the San Francisco Composite team. If you still can’t find anything, contact us.

Who Can Join

We welcome any grade 6 and up boy or girl in the area.  There are no try-outs to make the team and no previous experience required.  Racing is optional, although we’ll encourage you to try it, at least once, because it’s fun and it’s a great opportunity to learn something about yourself!

Practices

We meet 3 times a week. Typically, twice in the week and once at the weekend. There are no attendance requirements; our philosophy is that you get out of it what you put into it.

Volunteer Supported

We are completely volunteer run, so we are always looking for parent volunteers. This is a great time to spend time quality time with you kid and if you are new to mountain biking you can learn alongside your kid. If you are a seasoned mountain biker, then we want you! If you don’t have kids but love bringing on new kids, then we want you! It will be a rewarding experience contributing to making these kids grow in confidence and skill.

About Mountain Biking

Mountain biking can generally be broken down into multiple categories: cross country, trail riding, all mountain, downhill, freeride, dirt jumping, and trials. The vast majority of mountain biking falls into the recreational cross country and trail riding categories.

 

This individual sport requires endurance, core strength, balance, bike handling skills, and self-reliance. Advanced riders pursue steep technical descents and, in the case of freeriding, downhilling, and dirt jumping, aerial maneuvers off both natural features and specially constructed jumps and ramps.

Mountain biking can be performed almost anywhere from a back yard to a gravel road, but the majority of mountain bikers ride off-road trails, whether country back roads, fire roads, or singletrack (narrow trails that wind through forests, mountains, deserts, or fields). There are aspects of mountain biking that are more similar to trail running than regular bicycling. Because riders are often far from civilization, there is a strong ethic of self-reliance in the sport. Riders learn to repair their broken bikes or flat tires to avoid being stranded miles from help. Many riders will carry a backpack, including a water bladder, containing all the essential tools and equipment for trailside repairs, and many riders also carry emergency supplies in the case of injury miles from outside help. Club rides and other forms of group rides are common, especially on longer treks. A combination sport named mountain bike orienteering adds the skill of map navigation to mountain biking.