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Sandboarding – England

North Devon, England.

January 2002

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Sandboarding is the same principal as downhill snowboarding, but instead of travelling across snow, you travel across sand.

If you have snowboarded or skateboarded before, then sandboarding should be an easy cross-over for you. If you have never boarded before, sandboarding is very easy to pick up.

If you are a beginner, you can select a small dune that is not too steep and have a lot of fun riding downhill and improving your technique.

 

 

If you are more advanced, you can find higher and steeper sand dunes. With these you can either concentrate on going fast, or create obstacles and jumps to maneuvre around and over.

For starting out in sandboarding all you really need is the sandboard itself. This looks a lot like a snowboard and has bindings to keep your feet attached to it.

 

 

It is also fairly light. This is a very important factor, as the rides tend to start at the top of the sand dunes. This means that each time you want to have a go, it is down to you to get the sandboard back up to the top.

To get the best results out of sandboarding, you really need to find dunes covered with dry sand. Wet sand can make the board stick and this makes for a bad ride.

 

 

Although you are riding on soft sand, accidents can still happen. A helmet can sometimes be a good idea, but safety gear is down to personal choice.

It is very important when choosing your sandboarding site. These areas should be sand only , (no dune grass), in order to avoid permanent damage to the roots of the dune grass. Sand dune ecology is a big part of sandboarding. Without the grass, the sand dunes will disappear. And without the sand dunes, sandboarding is a none starter. So please be very careful where you choose to ride!

 

 

Whenever we go surfing or bodydoarding, we always throw the sandboards in the back of the car. It doesn’t take up much room and if the waves are not up to much we can then have some fun on the dunes.

There are a few sites on the net that will tell you how to make your own board. Alternatively, you can buy your sandboard. We got ours from the guys at Surf Wax. It is well worth checking them out! Surf Wax also have information on some good places to take your board and some superb pictures of people sandboarding.

With such a simple toy, you can have a lot of fun!!

 

 

 

 

 


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