Shield Surf

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Snowboarding is much easier with snow. —Jackie Chan

The use of a shield, or something in a similar shape and/or size, as a board or sled to transverse through a particular environment.

Examples of Shield Surf include:

Anime and Manga

• In Code Geass, Lelouch uses a riot shield as a sled in a landslide. In a mecha, of course. He also uses it early in R2, surfing on slash harken wires and decapitating a Britannian Knightmare in the process.
  • This scene was so iconic that when Bandai made an action figure of Zero's Burai, it came with the riot shield.
• In Mobile Fighter G Gundam, Chibodee's Maxter Gundam has a shield (that he never uses) that acts as his hovercraft.

Comic Books

• Vitalstatistix in Asterix rides on his shield, carried by two shield bearers. Once an Episode he gets thrown off in some fashion.
• Captain America frequently does this.

Film

• Also in Willow
• Legolas does this down some stone stairs during the battle for Helm's Deep in the second The Lord of the Rings movie. Orlando commented Tolkien was probably rolling in his grave at that scene.
  • Parodied in DM of the Rings, where the GM responds "What game do you think you're playing, anyway?" and the movie screencap has graphics from the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater series photoshopped onto it.
• Xander in XXX uses a serving tray like a skateboard to grind a handrail down some stairs.
• Our hero and heroine escape from the bus in Speed by riding a small section of the metal floor of the bus.

Literature

• In Alan Steele's novel Orbital Decay, a construction worker putting together a space station manages to ride a huge curved piece of a re-entry shield (well, that and a parachute) back to Earth after the space station he had been constructing broke up in orbit.
• Also happens in Artemis Fowl: Demons are seen using a big hide shield as a makeshift sled down a rocky slope.
• Done in Terry Pratchett's Jingo, as a Chekhov's Pun about "Come back with your shield, or on it", when Carrot is getting back to the boat that will take all the guards to Ankh-Morpork.

Video Games

• Metal Wolf Chaos: Michael Wilson SPACE-Surfs with debris from an orbiting space station that he himself blew up while in his Giant Mecha.
• Goofy's "Goofy Turbo" ability in Kingdom Hearts II.
• The Hulk takes this beyond the impossible in Hulk: Ultimate Destruction; pounding buses or large trucks flat into shields, which he can then rush onto to create a shield sled. It is just as ridiculously awesome as it sounds.

Web Comics

• The GaMERCaT have tried it.

Western Animation

• Jonny Quest episode "Monster in the Monastery". Jonny and Hadji uses a large shield-like gong to slide down a hill and escape the villains. Watch it here.
• Hanna-Barbera's The Adventures of Gulliver. Gulliver uses a surfboard-shaped stone to toboggan to safety. Watch it here, starting at 7:40.
• In Bionicle: Mask of Light, Takua and Jaller use Kopaka's Ice Shield to escape from Rahkshi in Ko-Wahi.
  • In BIONICLE: The Legend Reborn, Mata Nui uses his Scarabax Shield to surf down a canyon.
• Sinbad Legend Of The Seven Seas
• It happened in the very first episode of Jackie Chan Adventures.
  • During "The Lotus Temple", Jade and Jackie have to rescue Xu Lin, the girl cursed to be the temple's guardian. A barrier prevents her from leaving, but Jackie notices a suit of armor that can leave the temple (he knows this because the villain of the episode animated it to attack him). It's too heavy for her to walk in, so they put her on a shield and push her out.
• Mushu does it during the avalanche in Mulan.
• Link shield surfs a river of magical flame in one episode of the animated The Legend of Zelda.

Real Life

• British bobbies reprimanded for sledding downhill on their riot shields
• In December 2019, young actress Lexi Rabe (who played Tony Stark's five-year-old daughter Morgan in Avengers: Endgame), posted a video on Instagram of herself using what is very clearly one of the Captain America shield props from the Marvel Cinematic Universe as a sled on a snowy slope.