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Bill Goericke Spring Lake - Michigan - USA

I'm 35 years old and I have been sandboarding ever since I was about 13. I started out on what would be the predessesor of the snowboard-something called the Snurfer, which is basically an enlarged and shortened wooden downhill ski with a rope attached to the front of it to give the rider a little bit of turning control. (I stress "little"). The Snurfer was basically made of plywood and was at one time made by Brunswick Corporation. Yes, the same company that makes bowling balls and bowling alleys. Growing up on the beach of Lake Michigan, my friends and I often had plenty of snow to run our Snurfers over the sand dunes. But it was a long summer on occasions and had to do something else to keep our minds out of mischief. So why not try the Snurfers on sand? We called it "sand blasting". Since it was such a blast to ride these Snurfers at such an incredible speed down some of these sand dunes. However, we somehow got to thinking that if we melted plain old candle wax onto the wooden Snurfer's bottom and then ironed it on with one of mom's old irons, that the wax might improve our speed. And look out. At first, the wax stuck to the sand. But the gradiant of the dune eventually took a toll on the wax and it quickly rubbed off the bottom within about ten feet of our descent. It was in effect - terrifying. We discovered that the Snurfer was going at speeds equivalent to those which we were experiencing on the snow. We knew if we wiped out that the fall would also be more painful - almost like that of rubbing 20 grit sandpaper all over your body. We did not know whether we should bail or just hang on for dear life. Eventually, we got the hang of it. We were attaching bungee cords to our boards and taking incredible jumps, making some descent carves, and even some water runs. There are several great places to sandboard here in Michigan, at least along the western coast. Silver Lake state park has over 300 acres of dunes with a lake at the bottom of some of them in which the rider can be thrust out into the water for a short hydroplane action. And for a suicide run (I have never tried this) a rider can go to Sleeping Bear National Park located by Traverse City for an incredibly fast run (I would imagine a rider could easily reach a speed in excess of 70 mph down this dune if insane enough to try it) which would launch them out into Lake Michigan. Thanks for reading. Bill Goericke Spring Lake, Michigan 6/2000

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LON BEALE
KEITH CONSIGLIO
ZAC DUBEL
GARY EVANS
JASON FORD
BILL GOERICKE
JOANNE HARVY
ERIK JOHNSON
TYLER KENT
ALEX KING
MARCO MALAGA
SARAH MYERS
JORDAN OAKLEY
TIM OATES
WILLIAM PARRISH
HARLEY PARSON
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