Oh sandy....baby
Trip Start
Feb 14, 2007
1
55
68
Trip End
Ongoing
Kalbarri, Australia
Sunday, October 21, 2007
With our background in snowboarding, both Jen and i felt it was a must to attempt the potentially skin flaying sport of sandboarding whilst cruising down the west. Stopping off in kalbarri for the second time on our trip (the first as you will all remember was a quick overnighter on our way down to 'Parklife'), we immmediately booked ourselves onto a trip out to the 20km of sand dunes that run south of the town. The principal is pretty simple. Find a big dune, grab an oversized skateboard deck, wax it a little with a candle, and plummett headfirst down at a great velocity. They tried to dress it up as something more technical, but when they assert that you should not under any circumstances 'rest your chin on the board' you know they are making it more complicated than it needs to be. We visited several dunes of varying steepness, but the people's favourite was always going to be the 85m 1in2 beastie. The photo's just don't do it justice as you balance teetering on the summit waiting for someone to propell you over the edge. Failing to dig your toes into the sand resulted in a kind of 'warp speed effect' that rattled your bones and sandblasted your face, but try to apply the 'brakes' and you end up skinning the ends of your toes. Just excellent. Of course after our initial run I lived up to my 'Competitive Dad' moniker and challenged a fellow boarder to a small race, which in turn encouraged others to dispense with braking in the search for more speed. By the end, all we were missing were some mad austrians and the sound of cow bells in the background.
Included in our ticket price was the chance to do a bit of snorkelling after the last run of the day. Although due to a breakdown in communication we found out that it wasn't the last run of the day. A problem that only became apparent once you mix damp clothing, high velocity, and large volumes of sand. Human schnitzel - more like human bloody chicken kiev. It took days to get the sand out. I'm sure i'm still finding it....
