sand kiteboarding

fredf · Since 10 Jan 2009 80 Posts Eugene. Or

I ran into a couple of YouTubes with people getting pulled by traction kites on snowboard-like boards with kiteboard-like footstraps on the beach. Looks like fun.

Since we have so much great wind/sand terrain along the coast I´m wondering if anyone knows about this locally? Any opinions or tips?

Blazeheliski · Since 30 Mar 2011 659 Posts Mosier Addicted

We stayed at Honeyman beach state park a few weeks ago and they rent sand boards for riding downhill on the dunes. They are basically small snowboard shaped pieces of wood with footstraps and you use a special wax on the bottom to make them slide better. I had my kites with me and thought about grabbing one and seeing if I could sand kite. But the wind was so nice at the south jetty - I decide to just ocean kite instead. One thing that had me worried about sand kiting was that I wasn't sure how clean the wind would be. What if there were weird thermals and turbulence coming from the peaks and valleys of the sand dunes? Would it just turn into some sort of kitemare that would end up on youtube? Smile

Youkai · Since 08 Feb 2010 553 Posts Beaverton Addicted

Not to mention that the spills are a lot harder on sand than in the water.

DROCK999 · Since 31 May 2007 852 Posts Left Coast Opinionated

lets see, kiting on the beach or just going and riding waves......hmmmm...WHICH SEAT CAN I TAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAKE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

fredf · Since 10 Jan 2009 80 Posts Eugene. Or

Sorry about the double posting but I was getting an error message each time I hit Send which made me think it was not getting through.

I wasn´t thinking sand kiteboarding would be better than being on the water but there are times when the water isn´t feasible. For example yesterday i was at Florence and it was so foggy you couldn´t see 50 meters but there was a nice 15 - 20 mph wind so I opted for the landboard (with wheels) instead of the kiteboard. Landboarding is fun but it requires the timing of wind with low tide and, of course, low tide conditions don´t last more than a couple of hours. If you could sand board (no wheels) on dry sand the tides would´t matter.

The possibility of crazy air currents amongst the dunes is something to consider as you say Blazeheliski but in at least 2 of the YouTube shorts they were sandboarding on the beach next to the ocean.

Yes Youkai the sand is harder than water but not nearly so hard as pavement.

Blazeheliski · Since 30 Mar 2011 659 Posts Mosier Addicted

One thing I noticed about watching the people sand board using gravity down the sand dunes is that even small bumps or inconsistancies in the sand seemed to cause the people to faceplant. They really were not going that fast because the dunes were not that steep. So I am not sure if the slow speed was causing them to crash or if the boards just don't handle bumps well. I would imagine you could get going a lot faster with kite power. The nice thing about landboard in the lowtide zone is the sand is smooth. Soft, blown sand is not always smooth. One dip or bump at kite speeds might really hurt.

Grabbing onto the bumper of a moving car when it is snowy and skiing on your feet is really fun until you hit a manhole cover with no snow on it.

If you try it - make sure that someone gets some video - you might be a youtube star Smile