Sandboarding is a board sport similar to snowboarding. It is a recreational activity that takes place on sand dunes rather than snow-covered mountains. This boardsport has adherents throughout the world, most prevalently in desert areas or coastal areas with beach dunes.
It involves riding across or down a dune while standing with both feet strapped to a board, though some sandboarders use a board without bindings.
It is less popular than snowboarding, partly because it is very difficult to build a mechanised ski lift on a sand dune, and so participants generally must walk back up to the top. Alternatively, they may ride a dune buggy or all-terrain vehicle back to the top of the dune. Dunes are normally available year-round as opposed to ski resorts, which are usually seasonal. As well, the availability of sand dunes confines participants to warmer areas.
Josh Tenge, professional sandboarding champion, holds the Guinness Book of World Records entry for the longest-distance back flip at 44' 10". Tenge is also a four-time world sandboarding champion and holds three world records.
Namibia is the centre of sand-skiing, which is similar to sandboarding; however, it is performed with skis instead of a board.
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The sandboard base is much harder than a snowboard, and is built mostly out of formica or laminex with special base materials now being made for this sport. To glide in the sand, the board bottom is often waxed, usually with a paraffin-based sandboard wax, before a run. Afterwards, the bottom of the board may have a lightly sanded look to it, while 'Race Base' tends to polish smoother and glossier with use. Most terrain sandboards are composed of hardwood ply, while 'full-size' sandboards are a wood, fiber glass, and plastic composite. However, a snowboarding base will sometimes work on steeper dunes. Erik Johnson, a professional snowboarder and sandboarder, holds the Guinness World Record for Speed on a Sandboard at 51 mph (82 km/h). Unofficial speeds of 60 mph (97 km/h) have reportedly been clocked.
Little Sahara on Kangaroo Island, South Australia, is a heritage area, with a sand dune system roughly covering two square kilometres. The dunes vary in size with plenty of small dunes and the highest dune is approximately 70 metres above sea level.
Lucky Bay, about 30 km south of Kalbarri, in Western Australia, is another sandboarding hotspot. Sandboarding Tours are offered in the area.
The Stockton dunes, 2.3 hours north from Sydney. Stockton Bight Sand Dunes system is up to one kilometre wide, 32 kilometres long, and covers an area of over 4,200 hectares. The massive sand dunes climb up to 40 metres high. Located only minutes from the centre of Nelson Bay, it is the largest sand dune system in Australia. [1]
The best sand dunes for sandboarding in Egypt include the Great Sand Sea near Siwa Oasis واحة سيوة in Egypt's Western Desert, the Qattaniya القطانية sand dunes (1.5 hr drive on/off-road from Cairo to Bahariya Oasis), El Safra الصفراء and Hadudah هدودة dunes midway between Dahab and St. Catherine in Sinai. Sandboarding is said to be originated in Egypt in the time of the Pharoahs where they slid down dunes on pieces of wood. [2]
Most of the sand-skiing in Namibia is performed in the Namib desert dunes around Swakopmund and Walvis Bay, however, with a special permit it is sometimes possible to sand-ski at the world's highest dunes in Sossusvlei.
Henrik May, a German living in Namibia for some ten years, set a Guinness World Record in speed sand-skiing on 6 June 2010. He reached a speed of 92.12 km/h[3]
After some pioneers like Derek Bredenkamp who boarded Swakopmund around 1974, commercial operators began offering sandboarding to tourists since 2006. In 2000 the Sandboarding South Africa league was established. Sandboarding competitions started in 2001 when SA camps were held in 2002 up and until 2004. The league collapsed, then the sport was revived again in 2007 with weekly sandboarding sessions in and around Cape Town and Gauteng.
Modern sandboarding was popularized in the U.S. by the efforts of Jack Smith and Gary Fluitt in California in the early 1980s. The pair were featured in numerous surf films such as Adventures in Paradise, and in magazines such as Action Now.
Sand Master Park, located in Florence, Oregon USA is the world's first sandboard park with 40 acres (160,000 m2) of private sculpted sand dunes and a full-time pro shop. Sand Master Park was opened in the year 2000 by sandboard pioneer, Lon Beale, and introduces sandboarding to about 25,000 people each year. Dune Riders International is the governing body for competitive sandboarding world wide and sanctions three events each season at Sand Master Park.
The Copa Sandboarding Perú (Peru Sandboarding Cup) is held near Paracas every year since 2009.[4]
A rather small sand mountain is the Monte Kaolino in Hirschau, Germany. Being equipped with a lift to the 120m top it is also the host of the annual Sandboarding World Championships.
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