Let Them Eat Sand!
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"Dude. Did you see that sign?" I said, taking a sip of tepid coffee from my thermos.
"No. What was it?" Spencer looked back through the rear window of the Syncro.
"'Sandboarding! Rentals$20 for 24 hours. The sign is straight out of Back to the Future."
"Fuck yah, lets check it out."
Signaling my concurrence, I turned onto the shoulder just north of Florence, Oregon on the 101 and let the minivan behind us pass.
"I have always wanted to try this. It looks totally ridiculous."
Five minutes later, Spencer and I were standing in one of the world's only dedicated sandboarding shops getting the scoop about the history of the sport from the owner, operator and enthusiast. Resembling a former WWF wrestler, and sporting a mustache and ponytail, he informed us that sandboarding has been around long before snowboarding and that it was in fact an inspiration for Jake Burton. I kept my mouth shut and nodded. After the "history" lesson and short video highlighting the sport's potential in various sand dunes around the world, Spencer were on our way, boards in hand.
That afternoon, we hiked around the dunes of Honeyman State park exploring shoots and picking lines. Although the conditions weren't ideal, (sandboarding favors dry sand and being the middle of January in Oregon, the sand was wet) we got the hang of things pretty quickly. Sandboarding feels like riding a snowboard in powder. All the steering is with your back foot, and bad things happen when you put weight on your front foot.
They ollie just like a snowboard. Yours truly shredding a shoot.
Waxing up the board before a session.
Spencer summitting the hill.
The boards have similar construction to a skateboard, but with a layer of polyurethane on the bottom. Home Depot project perhaps?
Sand scrub.
Cranking a turn, hand on the wave.
Dodging a patch of grass, I carved my way down the narrow shoot. Pointing the board directly at Spencer, I picked up speed and turned to the right at the last minute spraying him with a few handfuls of sand.
"Duddde. Seriously."
"Haha you were asking for it."
"I'm over it. Lets head back to the car."
Taking a moment, I looked back up the hill at our handy work. In the distance a yahoo's four-wheeler screamed up a hill. I kicked off the board. "Alright. I'll be doing this again."
"As will I."
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