Dune 7 and the “sand breekers”

This morning we went to Dune 7 for a bit of sandboarding. We met Wayne from Dune 7 Sandboarding (this is stand up sandboarding using a snowboard). While we were waiting two girls from Bloemfontein arrived and it turned out they were part of our group.

Wayne took us through the basics and sorted us out with “moon boots” and boards. We then got taken up in turn on a quadbike, which was quite a lot of fun (and a life saver), to the top of the dune. While waiting for everyone to get to the top I finished a quick crash course on how to use a Canon S5, which Madrie had recenty acquired, but not yet mastered. She was quite chuffed about the movie and burst mode functions. It has a few improvements over my S3 model and the larger screen is a bonus.

So on to the “sand breekers” 🙂 The first run is Cobra wax free. The wax is what allows you to pick up heaps of speed. So you amble on down to the bottom to find your balance and practice slowing down and speeding up.

When you get to the bottom it’s time for some “wax on” Miyagi style. The first run down on wax you can immediately feel the difference. By the 3rd run I was really getting the swing of things and let go for some speed. You can feel the rush of wind as you dip the nose down a notch and settle in for the ride with a hand trailing in the sand.

Wayne was really friendly and always checking to see that everyone had things under control. Being a small group of 4 meant not much waiting and attention when required. We were also the only people on the dune except for the occasional onlooker who thought we were mad as snakes.

The girls got the hang of it really quickly as well and we all took turns taking pictures of each other coming down. Everyone had at least one spectacular wipe-out all captured for posterity.

As the boarding came to an end the wind picked up which made things at the top of the dune unbearable so the timing was excellent.

On the way back to camp we stopped at nice German butchery we had discovered yesterday and bought a huge Gemsbok steak, bratwurst, smoked Gemsbok and landjegers. Yum!