"Sandboarding is a combination of surfing, snow and skateboarding. And then again, it's different", says Jack Smith, Sandboard Magazine's featured rider. "There are no crowds, there is no road rash and there are no lift lines (there are no lifts). What's more, anyone who has surfed, skated or skied before will quickly adapt to sandboarding."

Nobody is quite sure when and how sandboarding began, though I've heard stories of people in the fifties riding car hoods down the dunes in California, USA and Brasilians inventing a basic form of sandboarding in the early forties. Now looking back from the nineties it seems that groups of fun lovers around the world have been inventing and improving on this sport unknown to each other. "I made my first sandboard in my high school woodshop class in 1973, and rode it every day for the following two weeks. I found out two things rather quickly: (1) the board didn't work very well, and (2) I was getting into great shape from walking up the dunes."

About 1974 skateboarding entered Jack's life and sandboarding went on the back burner. Then early in 1979 Jack's skateboard sponsor sent some snowboards for him to try out and after a week long trip to Tahoe, CA Jack was convinced these boards that worked so well in the snow could be put to use on the sand as well. "My friend, Gary Fluitt, and myself set out to fully test my theory." 

"In short order Gary and I discovered that snowboards did indeed take to the dunes. Falls were numerous and in the first few days our noses were constantly filled with sand, but it was still fun!!" 

Jack began using a fin to control the side-slipping they encountered, but after experimenting with various sizes and numbers of fins they realized too much drag was created and inhibited 360 type maneuvers. "Then we discovered that by turning the board up onto its edges we were able to carve extremely tight turns", notes Jack. 

It wasn't long until another surfer/skateboarder friend of Jack's, Dave Arend, became involved in his sandboard project. Within a few weeks the three had wired the basic linked carving turns, 360's and small aerials. By that time the boards were improved with pizzatape for traction and wide rubber straps with Velcro releases for holding the rider in the board during aerials.

About this time Jack, and friends, turned their attention to the many sand bowls and banks created by drifting sand gathered around the vegetation that grows on the dunes near Los Osos, California. "We couldn't believe it! It was like a skatepark except that it changed every day due to the constantly blowing winds. Every skateboard move we knew was soon adapted to these sand bowls and banks."

As more people became aware of what was happening on the dunes and started getting into it themselves, the skill level of sandboarding increased dramatically. Perhaps the greatest advancement came in the area of distance jumping. Flights of thirty feet became common with the longest aerial then belonging to Gary Fluitt at a little over fifty feet. Now in the nineties distances have increased and almost every maneuver that is being done with a snow/surf/skate board is also being performed on sandboards. 

Jack is still very much involved in skateboarding, having challenged the downhill world speed record in '86 and twice skateboarded across the USA, and snowboarding. But now, with the re-emergence of sandboarding and its phenomenal growth, Jack is back in action and planning to compete in sandboard events around the world. 

We at Sandboard Magazine are thrilled to know Jack and are proud to introduce Jack Smith to our readers as our very first featured rider. 

by Lon Beale
Sandboard Magazine