Sandboarding is a recreational activity similar to snowboarding that takes place on sand dunes rather than snow-covered hills. It was developed in the Brazilian city of Florianópolis. For some, it involves riding across or down a dune while standing with both feet strapped to a board, while others use a board with no bindings. The latter method is considered much more dangerous than the former.

This boardsport has adherents throughout the world, but for obvious reasons tends to be most prevalent in desert areas, or coastal areas with beach dunes.

It is less popular than snowboarding, partly because it is very difficult to build a mechanized ski lift on a sand dune, and so participants must walk back to the top of the dune after every run or ride a dune buggy or 4 wheel drive back to the top. On the other hand, dunes are normally available all year round with numerous locations compared to winter-only snow sports.

Josh Tenge, professional sandboarding champion, holds the Guinness Book of World Records entry for the longest-distance back flip at 44' 10". Tenge is also a four-time world sandboarding champion and holds three world records.

Equipment

The sandboard base is much harder than a snowboard, built mostly out of formica or laminex with special base materials now being made for this sport. To glide in the sand, the board bottom is often waxed, usually with a paraffin-based sandboard wax, before a run. After use, the bottom of the board may have a lightly sanded look to it, while 'Race Base' tends to polish smoother and glossier with use. Most terrain sandboards are composed of hardwood ply, while 'full-size' sandboards are a wood, fiber glass, plastic composite. However, a snowboarding base will sometimes work on steeper dunes. Erik Johnson, a professional snowboarder and sandboarder, holds the Guinness World Record for Speed on a Sandboard at 51 mph (82 km/h). Unofficial speeds of 60 mph (97 km/h) have reportedly been clocked.

Sandboarding in South Africa

Though there were some earlier pioneers like Derek Bredenkamp that boarded Swakopmund in and around 1974 we had to wait till 2000 when the Sandboarding South Africa league was established. Sandboarding competitions started in 2001 when SA camps were held in 2002 up and until 2004. Unfortunately the sport took a bit of a dip in 2005 with no further development in the sport and the league collapsed. The sport was revived again in 2007 with weekly sandboarding sessions in and around Cape Town and Gauteng.

Sandboarding in the U.S.

Modern sandboarding was popularized in the U.S. by the efforts of Jack Smith and Gary Fluitt in California in the early 1980s. The pair were featured in numerous surf films such as Adventures in Paradise, and in magazines such as Action Now.

Sand Master Park, located in Florence, Oregon USA is the world's first sandboard park with 40 acres (160,000 m2) of private sculpted sand dunes and a full-time pro shop. Sand Master Park was opened in the year 2000 by sandboard pioneer, Lon Beale, and introduces sandboarding to about 25,000 people each year. Dune Riders International is the governing body for competitive sandboarding world wide and sanctions three events each season at Sand Master Park.

Sandboarding in South America

Peru is known for having large sand dunes in Ica, some reaching up to 2 km while Argentina has possibly the tallest in the world.

Sandboarding in Europe

A rather small sand mountain is the Monte Kaolino in Hirschau, Germany. Being equipped with a lift to the 120m top it is also the host of the annual Sandboarding World Championships.

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