If you happen to head out along the curve and swerve of that beautiful strip of tarmac tripping past Gordon's Bay and Rooi Els, you'll eventually encounter a turn-off to a small dorpie by the name of Pringle Bay. Hit a hard right here and take a slow cruise along the main drag until the tar road peters out into an eroded strip of red dust and stone.
Right about now you should notice the looming presence of a monster of a mountain, topped with a formidable overhang, skylining away to your left. And rising up from the Cape coastal plains like a scene from the movie Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, you'll see the trippy colours and low slung buildings of the legendary Hangklip Hotel, haunt of the hardebaarde of the Cape South Coast. It is within the shade of this monolithic mountain that giant crayfish dwell and gargantuan great whites cruise the big blue.
Now, if you are planning on getting in a full day of sandboarding, mutter a few Hail Mary's and drive on past, avoiding this horribly addictive watering hole and instead continuing along the dirt road traversing the coastline towards Betty's Bay. As you round the mountain, towering dunes of white sand will hove into view below the rugged peak of Hangklip, presenting you with a selection of premium grade sandboarding slopes.
On my first day of play in the dunes, we had never heard of stand-up sandboarding and whatever equipment came to hand had to suffice (in this case, it was a boogie board, although we later twigged that a smooth length of plywood does the job even better). All you need to do is step onto the lower slopes and face up to gravity as you skyline for a killer view across the False Bay coast line.
And trust me on one thing; a dune always seems three times higher when you're standing at the top than it does before you start the long and winding climb. But once you've peaked, it's a wild ride all the way - get down on your stomach and bite the bullet as you slither and slide your way down the smooth face of the dune before trekking to the top again.
If you decide to not go solo, hook up with one of the many recognised sandboarding operators you will find wherever high dunes line the South African landscape. Here we're talking a completely different ball (or shall I say board?) game though, with specially manufactured sandboards borrowing heavily from current snowboarding trends. With their design firmly rooted in powder culture (with a dash of surf thruster mixed in for good measure), stand-up sandboards combine the exhilaration of surfing with the kick-ass attitude associated with carving through a virgin snowfield.
A big plus is the fact that sandboarding is an accessible, four-season activity that does not require a huge investment in cold-weather gear - all you need are boots, bindings and a board (and maybe a peak cap and a generous lathering of sun screen.
An added bonus for cash-strapped South Africans is that sandboarding offers the perfect practice ground in which to hone your snowboarding skills before hitting those northern hemisphere slopes. (Believe me, it will be a huge boost to your ego to not spend half the holiday looking like a pillock along the kiddies' slope).
Stand-up Sandboarding
My introduction to stand-up sandboarding came courtesy of Axel Zander, the aptly named Chief Explorer with Downhill Adventures, a Cape Town-based adventure company running trips at both Betty's Bay and Atlantis, situated along the Cape West Coast. As an avid snowboarder and edge sport aficionado, Axel has been at the forefront of fine-tuning the sandboarding concept locally, and it is under his watchful eye that I head into the dunescape shimmering along the West Coast highway.
Although Betty's Bay boasts higher dunes, Atlantis combines perfect weather with a full gamut of slopes ranging from beginners' mild to awesome and wild. I'm primarily here to get pictures of the dudes doing their thing, but it also offers a perfect opportunity to get a feel for this latest in high-octane adrenalin rushes.
In order to get your kicks, you first have to deal with the step-exerciser from hell, but once you hit the summit, it is all play and no work as you lay fresh tracks along the face of the dune. Despite the harder, formica base of modern-day sandboards, speeds are still not quite up to powder standards, but expert boarders will have no problem launching radical manoeuvres off natural kickers.
With the assistance of an instructor, even newbies can soon learn how to tame a dune. And then all you have to worry about is sand up your orifices and how to keep the beers cold under a murderous African sun.