Sandboarding in Fraser Island

Over Easter Holidays I traveled to Fraser Island and to the Great Barrier Reef. In Fraser Island, our tour guide gave us the opportunity to sandboard at a location called Lake Wabby; where large sand dunes fall into a freshwater lake. Although we did not have access to a real sandboard, our group used a boogie board to have a try at the sport. Sandboarding at Lake Wabby was a lot of fun when we were able to get the board to slide, but had a lot of trouble making our way down the hill once the board was soaked in the lake water. We tried conquering the dunes sitting on the boogie board, laying down on it and even standing on it – which always resulted in us falling onto the sand and watching the board slide down the hill. While our tourist group attempted sandboarding we saw a family nearby with a real sandboard sliding down the hills. They all sat on the board, often having numerous people go down the dunes at once. Both the parents and children who varied in age from around five to the teenage years seemed to love the sport. From observing this family, it became clear to me that sandboarding is a sport of leisure and one that seems to be based much more around personal enjoyment than on competition like many of the other sports I have seen so far in Australia. I really enjoyed attempting to sandboard and watching the nearby Australian family successful ride the sand dunes because sandboarding is a sport that I have never before seen in America, mainly because of the difference in terrain. I hope that I will have the opportunity to try sandboarding with a real board before I leave Sydney so I can successfully pursue this uniquely Australian sport!