Have you ever tried sandboarding? It’s a little like snowboarding except you’re doing it on sand dunes instead of alpine slopes. Also, you don’t have the same control a snowboard gives you since a sandboard is literally a skateboard with all the wheels and lower half removed.
It’s quite fun though since the sand dunes in Port Stephens, Australia is very high. You’ll be surprised since there’s not a lot of shadows and contrast in the desert (it’s actually a beach) so it’s hard to tell distance and height. This sand dune we went down on is easily 30 feet high.
I hear that some children can actually stand up while sandboarding and do stunts. I don’t know how though since you’re not physically attached to the sandboard (unlike a snowboard, so you can do an Ollie, which is just about the only trick I know). Haha!
Check out the video of me sandboarding! I managed to go the furthest. The only way to control your descent is to use your hands to steer / slow down. You can actually carve the slopes dunes if you’re good enough, but the sandboard itself is pretty basic so you need at least one hand behind you to navigate.
…and unlike other places where we actually have to *climb* back up the sand dune to do it again, we were on a quad bike expedition (also known as ATVs in the US) so we had the quads to drive back up the sand dunes (as you can see in one of the photos as I forgot to take the protective cover off my head).
It’s a blast, I’ll love to do it again! 🙂
Sure looks like you’re having a whole lotta fun…and I’m pretty sure you are. Love that first pic – looking good!
Thanks buddy! 🙂
Yeah, I loved the dune buddy ride, it seemed like we were in Dubai or somewhere in the Arabian peninsula instead of Australia coz of the sand dunes all around us.
I was quite surprised to learn all the sand comes from the sea too, which I guess is where Dubai’s sand comes from too.
sandboarding looks ace! photo in a hairnet is ALWAYS WINNING! hahahaha 😀 i love hairnets. i never knew they were the miraculous answer to not having smelly helmet head!
Yeah, I love sandboarding, too bad your feet is not attached to the board like a snowboard so you can do tricks. 🙂
I doubt you can do an Ollie with this, it’s physically impossible to lift the board while going downhill unless you do it like a skateboard for some other tricks e.g. using your hand to keep the board to your feet while grabbing massive air.
It would be dangerous with a sandboard though coz you’re going down an (abrasive) sand dune and your fingers might just be broken if you do it wrong. Haha.
Yeah, it’s Australia, they have strict health codes to comply with – it’s not just to prevent smelly hair but to prevent transmission of lice and stuff like that through helmets! 😀
I had an opportunity to play this when i was in Perth but decided not to play since the tour guide warned us that we might lose our stuff like specs and wallets and i can’t see without specs LOL!
Hmm…you’ll only lose it if you fall off the board so if you keep your balance you’ll be fine! 🙂
I know someone lost her sunglasses though, but not from sandboarding, from the dune buggy ride, she took it off and it somehow it bounced off her head coz we were going through very high sand dunes. Our guide managed to find and retrieve it though.
The Perth one is pretty well known too, sandboarding at The Pinnacles but they didn’t have dune buggy rides, only 4WD ones where you can’t drive yourself, last time I was there anyway.
Wow …That’s so fun ! Seems not dangerous at all.
Yeah, it’s a lot of fun! 🙂
It’s not dangerous too, unless you fall off at high speed, then you might get some abrasions coz of the sand but it’s nowhere near as dangerous as snowboarding.
I once carved a black diamond slope and did an Ollie and accidentally landed front first instead of back coz I saw a steep drop off and panicked and tried to stop but instead I flipped head over heels (was travelling at a very high speed) and landed smack on my chest and hit my head on the snow (which is not soft as many people think but very hard).
I couldn’t stand up for a full minute coz my balls were hurting so bad (I fell horizontally, exactly flat) and a guard skiied up to me and asked me if I was alright and I still couldn’t answer her for a long time. That was quite funny in hindsight but I thought I was better than I was and went down black diamond instead of my blue skill level and I could have been killed or seriously hurt if I fell down the cliff.
That looks like so much fun!
Yeah, it is a lot of fun! 🙂
You have to try it if you’re in Port Stephens!
It’s so surreal too – it doesn’t seem like you’re in Australia at all, but somewhere else in the desert in the Middle East. There’s so many sand dunes that you can’t see anything else but sand, sand, sand everywhere.
That sounds exciting .
Yup, it was very cool! 🙂
I loved sandboarding, too bad it was getting dark quick so we could only go down several times before we had to head back. I would like to do it front first too.
It’s autumn now, nearing winter so sunset is at 4:30 pm and it’s not like Malaysia where it’s slow but when the sun sets in Australia, it goes from bright to dark in 15 minutes.