Master of Sands

Source: Speak Up

Language level: Intermediate

Standard: American Accent

Master of Sands

“No snow? No problem! Sand Never Melts! In the US, sandboarding already has some 14.000 fans. The sport has been called a cross between “dry surfing and hot snowboarding.” Sandboarders use the same equipment as snowboarders, but you don’t need any snow, you just need a good sand dune.

Josh Tenge, 27, is a pioneer of the sport and one of the best riders in the States. He’s based in Florence, Oregon in the Pacific Northwest region and he first came to sandboarding from snowboarding. As he explains, he was in Nevada at the time:

Josh Tenge:

(Standard American accent):

My name’s Josh Tenge: I’ve been sandboarding for about six years. I got involved through some friends that were working with me at Diamond Peak Ski Resort in Lake Tahoe. I was teaching snowboarding there, and some people I rode with said, “Hey, come out and try this new sport, it’s called sandboarding, it's much like snowboarding." And so (I) came out and gave it a whirl. The second time we did a TV show and…we managed to start doing front flips at that point, and then no-one had ever done that before. So that kind of how I got into it, and she sponsors picked me up from there and then I’ve been competing ever since.

ANCIENT OR MODERN?

So how long has sandboarding been around? It is possible that the ancient Egyptians slid down the desert slops on whatever was to hand. Others say the sport was invented by Brazilian surfers on a windless day, sometime in the last century, using doors, planks of woods or cardboard. In the US, some of the best sand dunes are in the seaside town of Florence, Oregon. Here, at the world’s  first sandboarding park, you can hire boards, take lessons, try out your maneuvers and buy your gear from boards to goggles, wax and T-Shirts. It’s still a small scene, so anybody who wants to can get a lesson from air master and four times world champion Josh himself, whose trophies line the wall of the shop.

THE CHAMP

Josh still divides his time between teaching snowboarding in the winter and sandboarding in the summer; that is if he’s not competing in Brazil or Peru, or practising for the World Championships in Germany. Josh is already in the Guinness Book of Records, for the longest-distance back flip. Recently, he has been sandboarding in Dubai and Egypt, to film front flips, back flips, and rail slides for the Discovery Channel. In true American spirit, Josh Tenge wants to see how far he can go:

Josh Tenge:

I feel like I’ve got a pretty good background at what I’ve been doing and I constantly try to keep pushing myself and I keep trying to learn new maneuvers, and to stay fresh. And I like to do new things with sandboarding because no-one’s really done it, so there’s no limits; and there’s no-one saying, “Oh, well, you can’t do that,” and it’s more like, what can I think of, my imagination, it's free for my imagination to run free in this sport, so it’s…it’s  really inspire to me.

Lesson One (no audio)

Our first sandboarding lesson takes place on a large dune. We watch as Josh Tenge, our instructor, comes down the school, whooshes past us and swings down the sandy slope. This is how it should look, then

Josh shows us how to rub wax onto our boards, ease our feet into the Velcro bindings and jump up and down, left and right, to soften the board. Off I go, taking Josh’s hand and slowly moving down the dune.

Thankfully, sand is much slower than snow, so you have more time to find your balance. So after a couple of false starts, I’m at least able to progress a few metres, even if it doesn’t look very graceful. The problems begin when I reach a bend and promptly fall over, landing softly in the sand. I never did mast that bend in my first session, but I definitely enjoyed myself!