Board to Death? - Certainly Not! - Sandboarding in Death Valley!!!!

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Do you know how incredibly excited I was when I found out that I could sandboard in San Pedro?!

My little face was beaming with excitement! It was almost like someone had told me that Christmas was coming all over again!

You see, my only experience of sandboarding so far on this trip had been abit of a wash out .... literally....no pun even intended there. So I was in the Bay of Islands in NZ and took a day excursion to Cape Reinga and Ninety Mile Beach where there are huge sand dunes that  you can body board down. Unfortunately, that day, the heavens had decided that NZ needed a bath and it rained cats and dogs. Although that certainly didn't stop me from sandboarding.....and I enjoyed it immensely...but it just gave me a taster for it and a huge desire to have a go at proper sandboarding.

I loved my sandboard!!!
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Now what I mean by proper sandboarding is boarding down the dunes standing up....just like how people snowboard.....and yes, it would also be nice to be able to do it in shorts and t-shirts basking in the glorious sunshine.....as opposed to being in a rainmac with my combats rolled up, soaked to the bone and looking like a drowned rat!!!!

So what better place to say that I've been sandboarding than Death Valley in the Atacama Desert - the driest desert in the world!!!

And this time....sandboarding definitely lived up to expectations!

Isn't that just the bluest sky ever????
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Now Death Valley.....what a name....sounds frightening doesn't it?! Well, it wasn't  half as scary as the name would suggest although I have to say that the sand dunes were enormous and ridiculously steep! Frighteningly steep especially when your silly instructor doesn't let you practice on the baby dunes first and instead pushes you down the steep one on your first try!

So there we all were at the top of the dune.....our feet all strapped into our boards after having waxed the bottom with candles (the more waxed the board is, the smoother it will be and the faster you will go....so just alittle bit of wax for me then for the first go!) and staring down at the bottom...all just alittle apprehensive with the steepness of it all!

Move over Avril Lavign....this is the newest skater boy's girlfriend in town!
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(At this point, let me introduce our instructor....basically, he was abit of a d!ck if I may say so myself....he knew English but wouldn't speak it to us....instead....watching us struggle with our limited spanish.....he was also unprofessional (alittle later, one of the French guys annoyed him so he took him to this incredibly steep dune...probably in the hope that he would go too fast and fall and hurt himself!)....oh and he wasn't a very good instructor at all, I mean he showed us how to stand on the board and how we should move our body and legs and feet to change directions in order to not fall off but apart from that......he spent the rest of the time leaving us to our own devices and practising his own moves down the sand instead!!!!)

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Anyways, with my fear of falling, I was very worried that I would fall and break something so Annie and I asked if we could practice on the softer dunes nearby. "Don't be silly "he replied as he walked over to us...."now you should do this" and he stood beside us and showed us again how to balance on the board and to control the board with our body movements. And then he just grabbed us, moved us to the edge of the dune and gave us a push in the downwards direction!!! I know that sometimes, going in head first into the deep end is the best way.....but I didn't expect to be pushed into it!!!  At this point, I could do absolutely nothing except to try and stay on the board as I zoomed down the dune!!!! Well, I admit, on the that first go, I was literally flat on my arse within seconds!!! (Although thank god, no damage done!) But it was so much fun and I got straight back up and carried on!

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And I soon realised that falling back onto the board into a sitting position such that you carried on going down the dune still on the board was alot easier than to fall off the board completely and land in a random position on the scorching sand!!

I think the hardest part of the whole sandboarding experience was climbing up the steep sand dunes in the ridiculously hot sun! It's funny how it took us all like 30 secs to go down the dune and then about 30 minutes to climb up it again for another go!!! And you had to carry the damn board up with you as well! I had to admit, I had to stop several times up the dune and when I got to the top I would fall to my knees, crawl to my daypack and guzzle down as much water as I could!!!!! You would have thought that I'd been lost in the Sahara for a few days!

It was a long way up and down!
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For those who wish to see me fall flat on my arse and shriek like a girl whilst showing off my tomboy side...here's the link to the video of me attempting to sandboard!!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPd7htSvLwk

And bless Annie....our silly instructor took a huge shine to her and took every opportunity to hug and hold her!!! He even told Annie that he wanted to have 5 kids with her!!!! Haha!!! Oh and I had to say....he was quite funny and came up with a great line.....we took a picture of the 3 of us in it and he looked at Annie and me and went "happy hour, two for one!!!" Cheeky bastard!!!!