Sandboarding World Championships

Sandboarding

Article by: © Michael J. Rosen 2010

"It's Swandy! It's What You Get After a Hike Then a Fall-Sweaty and Sandy."

- blogger posting on www.sandboard.com

Just as some people like to talk about infinity in terms of snowflakes - no two are alike - others describe it in grittier terms: It's like grains of sand on the beach. Can it be a coincidence that both particles are ideal for boarding? Yeah, probably.

In regions where snow's unlikely to provide much of a surfing surface, athletes go sandboarding. First seen in California in the 1980s, bare-footed pilots ride waxed-up snowboards down steep sand dunes at speeds of over 50 miles per hour. Boarding on dunes in Europe, Egypt, and the Middle East has people spending as much time in the sand as golfers afflicted with a bad slice.

While the difficulty of building a ski lift on sand dunes does delimit the sport's popularity, as well as the chance to come home with lift tags pinned to your windbreaker, complexes such as Oregon's Sand Master Park are attempting to change this, providing equipment rentals, lessons, and 42 acres of sand mountains.

Monte Kaolino in Hirschau, Germany, plays host to the Sandboarding World Championships, at which competitors compete for international supremacy and first dibs at that mirage of a Dr. Pepper machine. The contests include:

• In the sandboardercross event, pilot deftly navigate slaloms and race through tight turns.
• Sand slopestyle competitions feature flips and spins off large ramps; professional Josh Tenge holds the Guinness World Record for the longest distance sandboard back flip: 44 feet 10 inches.
• And in the sand waterslide competition, boarders attempt to ride into a small pond and skim across the water's surface-a contest that leaves much less sand in the competitors' shorts.

The only genuine trick every competitor faces: How to convince the airlines not to charge extra for bringing along a skimboard. (Alas, it will not fit in the overhead compartment.)

Want to add a little grit to your sporting diet? See www.sandboard.com.

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Sandboarding World Championships Dates, Location and Further Information

The Sandboarding World Championships take place at Monte Kaolino in Hirschau, Germany each July. For more information and up-to-the-minute dates and details, check out the Sandboarding.org website.