SANDBOARDING COMES OF AGE

Like many, you may consider sandboarding to be the "latest" in board sports. In a sense it is new and still relatively unknown. However, sandboarding certainly is not as "late" as the word might imply. Dune Riders International, (the governing body for sandboarding), provides accounts of ancient Egyptians and other cultures sliding down golden dunes of sand on planks of hardened pottery and wood. If this is accurate one begins to view the slopes of the pyramids and consider the possibilities. Rare yet still present B&W photographs of upright sandboarding date even as early as World War II.

Greatly influenced by the surf board, boards of every sort were soon to follow. The sandboard, like itÍs cousin the snowboard, made sense to many and found a permanent place in our efforts. Pieces of cardboard, car hoods, snow discs, old surfboards and water skis lent themselves to the quest for another 20 years. Through the 60's sandboarding began to gain momentum through surfers and skateboarders who found that riding the dune was not only challenging but was also great fun. Shaping wooden boards specifically for the sand was a natural and primitive boards were then ridden like a skate or surf board, naturally.

By the mid 1970's sandboarding had been introduced in a number of publications, ads and television sports segments thanks largely to the efforts of sandboard pioneers, Jack Smith, (to those of you who know your skate history this is the same man), along with the stylish riding of Gary Fluitt. But sandboarding was not to take its place at this time, no... snowboards quickly became the rage and abruptly pushed sandboards onto the back burner for another 12 years. Snow resorts were already operating with full facilities to cater to the masses. The ski industry and others were more than willing to offer a new twist to a proven past time and greatly boost revenues. And snow, like surf, was available at a good number of locations world wide. Snowboarding raced ahead.

A passion for the dunes continued to burned for those who preferred to ride sand over snow? One such person was Sandboard MagazineÍs publisher, Lon Beale. During the spring of ï73 Lon was introduced to sandboarding through a friend who migrated to the Mojave Desert, (home to many sand dunes). "A board that would glide over sand! I was fascinated and had to know everything I could find out about it," relates Lon with a smile, "The quest had begun."

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If you have enjoyed this brief history of sandboarding and would like to learn more about it check out Sandboard Magazine.