:: groupthink ::

:: Monday, August 11, 2003 ::

Sandboarding: The Sport That Quickly Grows Tiresome

I consider myself a creative person with a certain degree of humility. I realize that while sometimes my ideas are good, often they’re not. However, I cannot be completely convinced my ideas are crap until I try them. In fact, I usually think they’re pretty awesome until I try them. Sandboarding is one of those ideas. I obviously cannot take credit for creating sandboarding, however, I did think of it before I knew it even existed. Hell, I was in Cabo San Lucas last year in March when I could have been snowbarding in Tahoe… Who wouldn’t have thought of taking advantage of the many beautiful sand dunes found in Baja California by sliding down them on little boards with arms flailing wildly? Unfortunately, while sandboarding had made its way to the internet in 2002, it had not made its way to the adventure sport rental shops in Mexico. I also had to suffer the minor embarrassment of my friends not actually believing that this sport actually existed, especially after every tour operator we ran into denied its existence. So, I waited. By keeping my eyes and ears open, I hoped that I would be faced with an opportunity to carve some sand.

That opportunity presented itself this week. I am on a road trip in Oregon with the same group of girlfriends, and as we drove up the coast I saw those three magic words “WE RENT SANDBOARDS.” I think I actually squealed. I had waited for over a year to experience this form of athletic masochism. We saw signs advertising the first sandboarding park in the world. After I gave a long satisfying I-told-you-so look to my friends, we vowed to return and spend a day amongst the dunes.

This morning, I couldn’t contain my excitement. I kept seeing visions of the pro sandboarder who graced my computer’s screen all year. I wondered how sandy I would get. I considered how cool I would look. As we drove the 100 miles from Corvallis to Florence, I grinned every few minutes and tried to keep quiet. As we passed small towns that encouraged passersby to “wave if we couldn’t stop,” and glided through a seemingly endless parade of forests, lakes, and sparkling blue streams, I considered only for a split second that sandboarding might not actually be fun. Perhaps that was part of the problem. I was transferring my excitement for snowboarding to sandboarding, when in reality I had no idea how (not) similar these two sports were.

Sandboards are much smaller than snowboards, though apparently the first sandboard was made from a snowboard. Fancy that. I am certain that the boards are smaller because it makes it much easier to haul them up the hill over and over again. Luckily, the size difference in reflected in the rental fee, which was a nice $15/day. People ride barefoot, and your feet are attached to the board usually by Velcro straps, though I saw some kids slide their feet into some mousetrap looking things. The footpads are nice and squishy. My board had two non-adjustable elastic straps for each foot. Not bad if your feet are big and fat. Too bad if your feet aren’t (like mine) because they slip right out at random intervals, causing you to lose balance and fly out (quite literally).

The other thing about sandboards that is different is you have to wax the bottom ALL THE TIME. If you don’t, your board will not go anywhere. Every time you want to go down, you have to apply (lengthwise) an even layer of hard wax to the bottom of the board, brush off the excess wax by rubbing the board against the sand, say a few Hail Marys, strap in, and slide down. Is it that simple? Pretty much. Wet sand is too sticky and you’ll end up flying off your board if you hit a patch. Can you turn? Yes! But sandboard bindings are not snowboard bindings and you’ll find that unless you’re strapped in really tight, you have very little control over your board. How do you get up the hill again? You climb up sand. Good hamstring/glut workout. Did I look cool? No! I tried to. But I had too much sand in my ears. And the little kids kept showing me up with their recklessness and lower center of gravity. Parents were yelling at their kids to “lean back and keep the front foot up.” That worked very well for this one kid who appeared to be 8 months old. It didn’t work so well for me. The little kids who looked cool were squatting a lot, going straight down, and picking up a fair amount of speed. I kept turning heelside only to fall on my ass once I lost momentum from digging too much into the wet sand. My only consolation was that everyone over the age of 10 was falling over, too.

Given the sorry state of sandboard bindings available to me, my two options were to go straight down on my feet or on my behind. There would be no carving. Unfortunately, my snowboarding instincts told me to carve. So, at the end of the day, I entertained myself by sliding down with my bottom in the middle, feet firmly planted towards the front of the board, and hands holding the foot straps behind me. This was fun for a little bit until I couldn’t blink because I had so much sand in my eyes. I am currently coughing and sneezing up sand. My cell phone makes crunching noises when I open it.

All in all, I’m glad I did it because I would have kicked myself if I hadn’t tried the sport I thought of. Also, falling in sand is incredibly unpainful. And I should know because I fell frequently and spectacularly. But whatever, I’m big enough to say I don’t need to do it again. Though I did look at sandboard prices ($150-$200). Who knows? Maybe I’ll get the urge again. Like, maybe next time, I’ll wear goggles to keep the sand out of my eyes. And try a board with better straps. Now, I’m looking forward to my next original adventure sport adventure: Snow biking!

:: Vidya 12:06 AM [+] ::
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