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.
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. 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.
Josh Tenge
Equipments:
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.
Sandboarding all over the world:
1- Sandboarding in Australia
Little Sahara on Kangaroo Island, South Australia, is a heritage area, with a sand dune system roughly covering two square kilometres. 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.
2- Sandboarding in Egypt
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), 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 Pharaohs where they slid down dunes on pieces of wood.One of the biggest companies in organizing this kind of activities is Remal Adventures Egypt.
3- Sandboarding in Namibia
Namibia features sand-skiing, which is similar to sandboarding, performed with skis instead of a board. Most of the sand-skiing is performed in the Namib desert dunes aroundSwakopmund and Walvis Bay. 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 10 years, set a Guinness World Record in speed sand-skiing on 6 June 2010. He reached a speed of 92.12 km/h.
4- Sandboarding in South Africa
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.
5- Sandboarding in the U.S.
6- Sandboarding in South America
- Peru is known for having large sand dunes in Ica, some reaching up to 2 km. Duna
rande in Ica is the largest sand dune in the world. The Copa Sandboarding Perú (Peru – Sandboarding Cup) is held near Paracas every year since 2009.[4] There are also great dunes near the capital city (Lima) in Chilca. - Chile sandboarding is practiced throughout the north of the country, including the Medanoso dunes in Copiapo (where the Dakar rally takes place), Puerto Viejo beach in Caldera, excellent dunes in Iquique, and some near Viña del Mar.
7- Sandboarding in Central America
- Nicaragua is home to Cerro Negro, the youngest volcano in Central America. Since it has steep slopes and volcanic sand, it is possible to sandboard down this active volcano.
8- Sandboarding in Europe
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.
Kites Egypt 