Skiing in the Sahara
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]
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]
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
^ Dunes (2016) short video
^ "Sand Skiing: The Latest Sand Sport Fad" . Sand-boarding.com . Retrieved 30 January 2021 .
^ InterSands
^ "Fastest sand skiing" . Guinness World Records . Retrieved 2018-03-26 .
^ "The Namibian" . www.namibian.com.na . Retrieved 2018-03-26 .
^ Brown, Canter Jr. (2005) None Can Have Richer Memories: Polk County, Florida, 1940-2000 University of Tampa Press ISBN 9781879852365 pg 78
^ Petersen, Hanna (2022) "Whatever happened to Prince George’s Sandblast?" Prince George Citizen
^ "California never calls it quits" Ski 1980 v44 #7:19
^ Dorworth, Dick (1983) "The Dune Goons" Ski v47 #7:22,24
^ Abdullah, Michelle (8 December 2018). "بمشاركة 720 طالبا.. مهرجان للتزحلق على الرمال للجامعات في الفيوم" . El Watan News (in Arabic). Retrieved 11 December 2018 .
^ Hearst News No 51 (1919) newsreel
^ Ski Lesson photo
^ Blumenfeld, Jeff (2021) "Skiers Will Ski on Anything -- Especially Sand" Skiing History v33 #2:20-22
^ Med Sven Hedin i Österled (1928) at Swedish Film Institute
^ "Sand Dunes Skiing is Colorado Sport"
Washington Times 7 Jan 1931 pg 4
^ Bradley, Edwin M. (2009) Ski Pilots (1931) The First Hollywood Sound Shorts, 1926-1931 McFarland ISBN 9780786443192 pg 295
^ "French May Use Skis in Sahara Sand Hills" White Bluffs Spokesman pg 2
^ Sand Skiing! Over and Under ‘Down Under’ (1934) newsreel
^ "Just Can't Wait for Winter" D.C. Evening Star pg A-3
^ Sundberg, Steve website, photo of Sand skiing, Shirahama Beach
^ Azallion, Nancy (1968) "Who Said It Couldn't Be Done ..." Skiing v20 #6:36
^ Conniff, Cal & Allen, E. John B. (2006) Skiing in Massachusetts Arcadia ISBN 9780738545790 pg 34
^ Quirky: Ski Jumping On Sand At Long Island (1938) newsreel segment
^ Woman Skiing Sand photo
^ Grantland Rice Sportlight: Death Valley Thrills (1939) short film
^ Cinetopicalities in Brief No. 65 (1939) newsreel segment