If you think sandboarding is just a modern thrill ride, you’re partly right — but there’s also a wild myth floating around that this adrenaline-pumping sport dates back thousands of years to ancient Egypt.
According to some stories, pharaohs supposedly slid down desert dunes on wooden boards, making sandboarding one of humanity’s oldest extreme sports. Sounds incredible, right?
Well, here’s the thing: that story isn’t true.
In fact, sandboarding as we know it today has a much more recent and surprisingly sunny origin — right in the coastal city of Florianópolis, Brazil.
Mythbusting the Ancient Egyptian Origin Story
For years, a popular tale circulated that sandboarding was invented in ancient Egypt, based on hieroglyphs allegedly showing pharaohs sliding down dunes on wooden planks.
Sounds epic, right? But here’s the kicker: this story is more myth than fact. Lon Beale, aka “Doctor Dune,” who is widely credited with inventing modern sandboarding in the early 1970s, himself confirmed that the Egyptian origin story is false.
“The whole story about the ancient Egyptians is bogus. We just made it 20 years ago to mock the media as gullible. So for sure, you can lose that part completely… it’s not true in the least. We figured the alien story would likely be unaccepted so we went with the Egyptian story.”
While it’s true that ancient civilizations might have slid down dunes on simple wooden boards or pottery, there’s no concrete evidence that this was the birth of sandboarding as a sport.
How Sandboarding Really Got Its Start
The real birthplace of sandboarding is Florianópolis, the capital city of the state of Santa Catarina in southern Brazil.
Known for its stunning beaches and massive coastal dunes, Florianópolis became the natural playground where surfers in the mid-20th century started experimenting with sliding down sand dunes when the ocean waves were flat. It was a natural progression for surfers who wanted to chase the thrill even when the surf was down.
Here, surfers adapted their boards to sand, creating a new way to ride the “waves” of the dunes. This innovation was less about ancient tradition and more about modern creativity and a surfer’s relentless pursuit of fun.
While Florianópolis planted the seed, sandboarding’s modern evolution took shape in the 1970s in the United States. Lon Beale began experimenting with sandboarding in California’s Mojave Desert in 1972, earning the nickname “Doctor Dune” for his pioneering efforts. Around the same time, other enthusiasts in Australia and South America started to develop the sport further.
The sport remained niche for decades, partly because sand dunes don’t have ski lifts, so riders had to hike or use dune buggies to get back up. But the thrill of carving down endless dunes kept growing the community.
More than just a sport
Unlike snowboarding, sandboarding requires a specially designed board. The base is made harder, often from formica or laminex, and waxed with paraffin-based sandboard wax to glide smoothly over dry or wet sand. Unlike snow, sand is abrasive and tricky, so the equipment has to be tough and slick.
The terrain varies from coastal dunes to massive desert mountains. Places like Peru boast some of the highest sand dunes in the world, making them hotspots for sandboarders seeking true adrenaline.
Sandboarding is a fusion of surfing, skateboarding, and snowboarding — a testament to human creativity in adapting to nature’s playgrounds. It’s also a sport that connects people to some of the planet’s most stunning and fragile ecosystems: deserts and coastal dunes.
The sport’s rise has brought attention to these landscapes, highlighting their beauty and the science behind their formation. Sand dunes are not just piles of sand; they are dynamic landforms shaped by wind, sand grain size, and erosion processes — a natural art form in constant motion.
Read more: The History and Origins of Sandboarding
Sandboarding Locations
Sandsports
 Sandboarding Sand Sledding Volcano boarding |  Sand Skiing Sand Kiting |  Sand Kiting |  Desert Travel Desert Camping Desert Running |
Your n°1 source of information on the world of sandsports and desert adventure travel. Our articles are the result of extensive research, personal experience, and knowledge-sharing within the global sandboarding community.