Sand skiing

Sand skiing (occasionally sand-skiing) is a sport and form of skiing in which the skier rides down a sand dune or strides across a beach on skis. It is practised in many sandy areas, including Sossusvlei, Namibia and Peru,^[1] along with other boardsports such as sandboarding. Sand skiing equipment includes a pair of skis with a laminate base and wax that needs to be applied to reduce friction from the sand.^[2] An International Sandboarding and Sandski Association (InterSands) was founded in 2014 at St. Gallen, Switzerland.^[3]

Skiing in the Sahara

Henrik May, a German living in Namibia for some 10 years, set a Guinness World Record in speed sand-skiing on 6 June 2010. He reached a speed of 92.12 km/h.^[4][5]

Competitions over the years have included:

• International Sand Ski Tournament in Florida held from 1949 to 1951^[6]
• Sandblast held in Prince George, British Columbia annually from 1971 to 2003^[7]
• World Sand Skiing Championships held at Redondo Beach, CA^[8]
• Nevada Sand Mountain GS Championship^[9]
• international European championships in sand skiing held regularly on Monte Kaolino since 2007
• Freestyle SandSnow was first held in 2018

In 2018, Fayoum University held a sand skiing event in Fayoum with students from around Egypt joining in on the fun.^[10]

History

Egypt 1939

Skiing on sand has been reported before 1920 in Germany,^{[11] [12]} in 1927 Sahara,^[13] on an Asian expedition^[14] and throughout the 1930s in

• Great Sand Dunes National Park, Colorado^[15][16]
• French Algeria^[17]
• Cronulla sand dunes, Australia^[18]
• Venice Beach, California^[19]
• Shirahama Beach, Japan^[20]
• Peru^[21]
• Cape Cod, Massachusetts^[22]
• Long Island, New York^[23]
• Tadoussac, Canada^[24]
• Death Valley, California^[25]
• Camber Sands, England^[26]

See also

• Dry ski slope
• Roller skiing
• Grass skiing
• Lençóis Maranhenses National Park