Sandboarding

The German Experience

Sandboarding is growing fast. Each year more and more people find out about it and get hooked right away. Two major sandboarding associations exist in the world and both promote sandboarding in its own way. DRI ( Dune Riders International )

Both organizations have events each year with the most well known being the "Sand Master Jam" in Dumont Dunes, CA and the "World Sandboarding Championships" in Hirschau, Germany.

I have wanted to visit Germany for many years, but I never had the time, or the money. But this year I planned the trip for many months in advance and luckily got the support from most of my old and very supportive sponsors: WideRide Snow/Sandboards, Oakley sunglasses and Xwest Clothing Company.

When I arrived to Bavaria I was absolutely impressed with the majesty of the region. With a tiny rental car I managed to drive all around Bavaria for a total of 18 days, going from town to town , brewery to brewery ( I wanted to see those too ), and the dune. Monte Kaolino is an awesome place. It's hard to believe that a big sand dune exists in the middle of Bavaria. In fact, the dune is artificial. Its a byproduct of a silica mine that is located close by. They made the dune with the waste of the mine, build a lift on it, a nice swimming pool , a night club and a camping area. Now it is the center of recreation for thousands of people and the place where the World Sandboarding Championships are held each year.                                                    

The unbelievable night race!

The "sand" is like nothing that I had ever seen before. The particles are extremely coarse, almost like glass and destroy the boards in a matter of hours! To my surprise Formica wasn't the fastest material there. The experienced racers use special plastic bases which fly at Kaolino, but won't work anywhere else.

This year the event had more international competitors than ever. People from every country in Europe, South Africa, Namibia, Australia, Brazil and Peru. A total of about 200 competitors all sharing the same passion and love for the sport.

The quality and technique of the competitors was also impressive. Most of them were sponsored and even a good number competed in the FIS and ISF tours and some were even part of the Olympic teams for their countries.

 I rode fairly well and got a good time (around 22 seconds) considering the fact that I was using a freestyle board with a Formica base. However this wasn't enough to make it to the finals. The cut was 21 seconds.

The next day they had the boardercross qualifications. The course was pretty rough with 2 decent jumps, 3 bumps, many tight turns and a water pool at the end. The natural rocks of the dune added some danger to it. I made it through 2 rounds and unfortunately got disqualified in the next round when in a desperate attempt, one of the riders behind me pulled me by the back and threw me out of the course when I was leading the group. I couldn't recover after that. That was it for me. Overall I was happy with what I did. I didn't win , but that was never my goal. The European riders have been racing for years and are way ahead of everybody in that respect. It was an awesome sight to see them ride and I can say that I learned a lot from them too.

Boardercross Course 2000

Phillip Markthaller crosses the pool to win the men's boardercross

The finals were held the last day, tons of people watching the best riders in the world. All the finals were impressive, men and women gave it all for the glory. The times were "unglaublich" (unbelievable) and the courage was spectacular. There were some specific "battles" like the one for the Duel slalom finals where last year winner Dieter Moherndl raced against Holger Hirsch , one of the first sandboarders at Kaolino. Hirsch had some of the strongest and fastest runs of the event, but unfortunately lost control on his second run and fell, loosing precious time. At the end the final standings for each category were as follows:

Giant Slalom - Men
1.Dieter Moherndl
2.Bernd Flügel
3.Tom Müller
4.Markus Ebner

Giant Slalom- Women
1.Katja Reinauer
2.Simone Hurt
3.Simone Pullen
4.Heidi Leitner

Duel Slalom- Men
1.Dieter Moherndl
2.Holger Hirsch
3.Volker Weiß
4.Andreas Moller

Duel Slalom- Women
1.Simone Pullen
2.Katja Reinauer
3.Heidi Leitner
4.Simone Hurt

Boardercross - Men
1.Philipp Markthaler
2.Markus Bauer
3.Markus Ebner
4.Franz Reicheneder

Boardercross- Women
1.Katja Reinauer
2.Simone Pullen
3.Iris Preissinger
4.Birgit Brei

The first jump - BoarderX 2000

I will never forget my time in Germany. The people were great, the beer abundant and sandboarding was the ultimate experience. Maybe next year I will go back, this time better prepared. I would recommend any serious sandboarder to try it. Talking with the organizers they agreed that a freestyle event would attract more people from other countries. The World Championships will probably have a 'Big Air' event next year. Can't wait to see that! I want to finish this by saying thanks to all my sponsors, my parents, Camila C., Familie Lück (Gabi, Rainer, Katrin und Sandra), the Brazilian team, Familie Weich, Alex Loisl, Mike, Mathias, the Crazy Italians, Linda Corkery, and many, many more. To all of you, thanks for making this trip unforgettable.

Marco gives "Den Schorsch" a present. Schorsch in his classic Bavarian leather outfit  sang "Ein Prossit" to show his happiness.