A Wave In The Desert
I've done a lot of traveling in the past few years as a result of skateboarding. Usually, where I get to go is determined by the popularity of skating in that particular place. In the fall of 2000, just before Halloween, I got a chance to go to a place where the foundation for skateboarding is just beginning to be set.

I was invited by my watch sponsor Swatch to Dubai, a country in the United Arab Emirates in the Middle East. Dubai won independence from British colonization in 1973 and since then, not only has it become one of the world's most oil rich nations, but it is also known as the most forward thinking and liberal countries in UAE. This "forward thinking" has been a huge draw for tourists and has allowed events like the "Flowrider" contest Swatch was putting on there to happen.

The Flowrider is a standing wave-shaped mass of fiberglass over which four inches of water "flow" at about 35mph. It's difficult to picture unless you've seen it.

My fiancee and I arrived mid-morning in Dubai on Emirates Air, sans luggage of course. We were greeted by our tour guide of the day. He was from Lebanon, a country I remember hearing as a kid that we had bombed.
Off we went to check in to one of Dubai's numerous five-star hotels. Around two o'clock we found ourselves back on the road. This time as part of a caravan of brand new Toyota Land Cruisers. After we'd been driving through the desert for about an hour, I asked our driver where we were heading. Just then, without slowing down much, he made a turn off the concrete road, into the sand dunes and headed for the biggest one in front of us. There we were, in fourth gear, sliding sideways across the crest of the dune. There were about six of us in the car, all suddenly holding on to anything within reach. I thought for sure that any second, the nice new SUV, with us inside, was going to roll over. I checked my seatbelt again. Our driver dropped in to the faces of dune after dune; we were rolling and rocking and sliding over them like we were at sea in a storm.

Finally, we drove straight up the tallest dune until we started to slide backwards. Our driver yanked hard on the emergency break and told us to get out on the higher side of the hill. (That was so if the car started sliding, it wouldn't crush us. Nice.) Once we were all out, he walked around to the trunk and pulled out a couple snowboards. Sandboarding, anyone?