|
And trust me on one thing; a dune always seems three times higher when you’re standing at the top than it does before you start the long and winding climb. But once you’ve peaked, it’s a wild ride all the way - get down on your stomach and bite the bullet as you slither and slide your way down the smooth face of the dune before trekking to the top again. If you decide to not go solo, hook up with one of the many recognised sandboarding operators you will find wherever high dunes line the South African landscape. Here we’re talking a completely different ball (or shall I say board?) game though, with specially manufactured sandboards borrowing heavily from current snowboarding trends. With their design firmly rooted in powder culture (with a dash of surf thruster mixed in for good measure), stand-up sandboards combine the exhilaration of surfing with the kick-ass attitude associated with carving through a virgin snowfield. A big plus is the fact that sandboarding is an accessible, four-season activity that does not require a huge investment in cold-weather gear - all you need are boots, bindings and a board (and maybe a peak cap and a generous lathering of sun screen. An added bonus for cash-strapped South Africans is that sandboarding offers the perfect practice ground in which to hone your snowboarding skills before hitting those northern hemisphere slopes. (Believe me, it will be a huge boost to your ego to not spend half the holiday looking like a pillock along the kiddies’ slope). My introduction to stand-up sandboarding came courtesy of Axel Zander, the aptly named Chief Explorer with Downhill Adventures, a Cape Town-based adventure company running trips at both Betty’s Bay and Atlantis, situated along the Cape West Coast. As an avid snowboarder and edge sport aficionado, Axel has been at the forefront of fine-tuning the sandboarding concept locally, and it is under his watchful eye that I head into the dunescape shimmering along the West Coast highway. Although Betty’s Bay boasts higher dunes, Atlantis combines perfect weather with a full gamut of slopes ranging from beginners’ mild to awesome and wild. I’m primarily here to get pictures of the dudes doing their thing, but it also offers a perfect opportunity to get a feel for this latest in high octane adrenalin rushes. | 
