Jean Spear
It’s 32_C and it feels silly to be putting on snow boots. Sweat drips off bronzed, bikinied bodies, orange juice is consumed in large quantities and sunscreen is passed around the group in preparation for the great ascent.
We synchronise watches and in the distance we can see K2. Well, actually, it’s K2 disguised as a sand dune, but it looks just as big. The sun reflects harshly off this mother of a dune.
Boots and all, we head for the hill, carrying lunch, sandboards and a small tent, just in case we get stranded 200m up the mountain overnight. And who knows what predators could be out there: disorientated surfers, lost hikers, a Gautenger in denial?
Downhill Adventures runs a sandboarding school at Betty’s Bay, about an hour’s drive from Cape Town. Instructors teach people the basic techniques: how to turn and how to stop. The latter is a very important technique to learn – 200m does not sound very high, but once you gather speed on a board, it can be dangerous to fall incorrectly.
One of our fellow expeditioners fell too hard too often, and began to see stars. A mild concussion sent him to the tent for most of the afternoon, mumbling something about voices in the dunes.
We eye the dune with scepticism at first. It looks like a giant ski slope without a lift. We are ushered into a circle to do warm-up exercises – nothing like an aerobics class that high up with a 180_ view of the ocean.
We’re then shown how to wax boards which, we are told, will help us to slide faster down the slope. After a quick lesson, we are off. Bums in the air, arms flailing, we fly down the slope. There are also some pretty nasty sand bites. Lesson number one: close your mouth on impact.
Sand gets in the ears, eyes, nostrils, but it is such good fun you hardly notice. Of course, the more you want to come down, the higher you have to walk and this is what kills the muscles. After one day of sandboarding, it takes a week of walking sideways down stairs to recover.
In the afternoon, the dunes attract groups of young sandboarders, who lounge around in cargo pants, torsos gleaming, bare feet buried in the warm sand, drinking beer and laughing.
Our little expedition feels slightly over-prepared, boots and tent and all. Many of these dune people have designed their own boards, made from plywood that move just as fast as professional sandboards. They polish their boards and then dash up the slopes, barefoot and fancy-free.
Boarders sometimes “castrate” their boards at the tail, with a grinder or a jigsaw to reach enough speed on high- friction sand. While may people do use snowboards on sand, a super-slick base is necessary to achieve the same speed on high-friction snow.
New, all-terrain mountain boards are now adaptable to the rocky and grassy slopes of ski resorts and sand dunes. South Africa is lucky in that it has some of the best natural dunes in the world.
Alexandria on the east coast has the most magnificent dune fields, but you’ll need a permit to ride there. Namibia has been blessed in the dune department. Dunes there can reach hundreds of metres high. Swakopmund, Sossussvlei and Sandwich Harbour are reputed to be the stuff sandboarding legends are made of.
If the slope is steep enough, anything will do, as long as it slides. Even a pizza – although I wouldn’t want to eat it afterwards.