Sandboarding is an unusual sport on the Oregon Coast

You can ride a surfboard on waves in the ocean off the Oregon coast. You can snowboard down the snowy sides of Mt. Hood. You can even skateboard on the streets of Portland. But here’s something unusual: You can also “sandboard” in the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area near Florence.

What is “sandboarding”? Sandboarding is when a person stands on a wooden board similar to a skateboard but without wheels. Instead, the wood is waxed. This makes it slide easily down sand dunes. (Sand dunes are hills of sand.)

Gabriel Cruz works at Sand Master Park in Florence. He says the sand is always moving. It changes. “So you never get the same ride,” he says.

If you are new to the sport, you can take lessons and practice on small dunes. Then you can move to the larger dunes between Florence and Coos Bay. Some of those dunes are 500 feet high. That means the ride down can be very exciting.

Some people like sandboarding more than snowboarding. Why? Sandboarding happens all year. It requires less equipment. And it doesn’t hurt as much when you fall because the sand is soft. That means injuries are rare.

^{-This story was first published in ESOL News Oregon October 29, 2021.}