Sand Boarding
Patty's perspective
As
predicted, Bob got the itch for another adventure. He decided to be one
of the oldest sandboarders in Oregon. Not for the timid of heart.
We rented an authentic board and plenty of "sex wax" to grease it up. Then, after some brief verbal instructions, we headed out to the big and threatening dunes once again. Since we were moderately concerned about looking like "grandpa and grandma on the slopes", we tried to find a secluded spot for our first attempt to conquer the dunes. We picked one a few dunes back that had a pretty steep grade. Bob was pumped up with excitement and dreaming of catching air like those twelve year old, bulletproof professionals.
He
made the long, steep, step-and-slide climb to the top, and began rubbing
his board with an extra thick coat of "sex wax" in order to get a
slick first-run. Actually, you have to apply liberal amounts of "sex wax"
before every run. There's an old saying "if you can think it you can do
it"; not so in sandboarding. Those suckers are really slippery and hard
to steer, especially after you really pick up speed. Fortunately, the
sand is not too hard. Bob took a number of earth-shattering falls
on his way to professionalism. It was hilarious yet painful watching him
develop his technique. He was flattening air instead of catching it.
After
a few "learn the hard way" lessons he was getting pretty good at
it. Soon he was striking professional poses, using good form and looking
like he knew what he was doing; at least until he hit bottom. I got up
the courage to try it a time or two with little
success so I started surfing it on my boogie
board.
This was a real adventure and it was fun; it was also a lot of work. We think we will leave this to the bulletproofs in the future.