The origin of sandboarding is surfing, skateboarding and above all snowboarding. It is practiced on sandy slopes. This extreme sport was invented in Brazil in the early 80’s by a group of surfers from Santa Catarina Island (Florianopolis) who resisted not being able to practice their favorite sport during the days when there were no good waves. They thought that a beach dune would be a good surface to glide on. In the case of surfing, the maximum emotion is reached with a big wave, but, in the sandboard it is the magic dune: the most inclined and with the finest sand. For this reason, any place is not ideal to practice this sport.
There is even a world championship in Germany. The most attractive countries to practice it are Morocco, Namibia, Brazil, Australia and Peru. There are two ways to do sandboard: lying on the board or standing. The first option uses a polished board, which allows speeds of more than 80 km/h! Meanwhile, the second has a certain similarity to surfing and it is better that the descent is made in a sandy area that has a greater firmness.
Whichever option you choose, the truth is that one of the greatest attractions of sandboarding is to enjoy nature and breathtaking scenery, while doing sport. Many of them, almost virgin places and free of pollution.If there is a magical place to practice this sport, it is the Sahara Desert. In Merzouga, it is possible to reach the interior of the desert by camel and sleep in tents living a night in the company of the Berbers, the famous men in blue on this trip through Morocco. An impressive way to be dazzled by nature is to climb a dune more than 150 meters high to watch the sunrise, and once there enjoy sandboarding by sliding through its fine red sand. The best of all? It is not necessary to be an expert to have fun with this sport!
