September 13, 2020 by Chai Vuriti

Sand Boarding in Port Stephens

We reached Port Stephens at 9 AM but our Sand-boarding slot is at 10 AM, so we have an hour to check out the places in the area.

So we wandered around to visit Port Stephens Beach, Nelsons Bay Lighthouse and finally Boat Harbour Beach.

All set for our Sandboarding Adventure, we got into the 4WD Truck to ride the Stockton Bight Sand Dunes, the largest moving coastal dunes in the Southern Hemisphere. The sand-scapes are phenomenal and I have never seen anything like these. The 4WD truck managed to hover on the loose sand and the 10-minute journey to the Sandboarding area was exciting. The instructor gave us a little orientation on how to sand-board and left us for good. We are free to do this all day until the last return trip. Free as in it’s included in the ticket price. Duh!

The sand dunes are so high and beautiful and there’s nothing I can see except sand on all the sides. I got my sandboard and climbed to the top of the dune. It’s really damn high and even though I know it’s just sand, I felt really scared at first. Well, you know me. I manned up and just slid to the bottom. It was so exciting and I got the adrenaline rush. It’s so much fun that I repeated this a couple of times but as exciting as sliding down the dune, it’s so tiring to climb all the way to the top. I started taking a rest for a couple of minutes between the slides until the guys in the beach party costume in our tour started doing it by standing upright on the board.

Usually, the sandboard should have bindings but unfortunately, mine doesn’t. Well, that shouldn’t stop me from trying. I tried to sandboard standing on it and of course, failed the first 2 times. But I kept trying and succeeded. I did it like 3 out of 7 times successfully. It’s so exciting and much fun compared to doing it sitting on the board.