New Extreme Sport Alert: Volcano Boarding

When I was in Costa Rica earlier this year, I hiked up the side of an active volcano in the pouring rain. I couldn’t see the rim through the dense clouds and mist, but I could hear the magma bubbling up and spewing over the top.

I thought that was adventurous. But they’re taking it to a new level in neighboring Nicaragua. Not only are they climbing up an active volcano, they’re sliding down it, too.

Surfing the black ash of the active Cerro Negro volcano on metal-reinforced plywood, tourists are “volcano boarding” and having a blast.

The newest extreme sport to hit a region known for extreme sports, volcano boarding is obviously dangerous, (Cerro Negro has erupted 20 times since 1850, most recently in 1999) but it looks like a lot of fun. Tourists climb to the top of the volcano, don orange jumpsuits and goggles to protect themselves from the pebbly ash and volcanic dust and slide down at speeds of up to 50 mph.

From the article in the NY Times… There’s nothing quite like the sudden silence one experiences midway through the descent down a roughly 1,600-foot volcanic slope, having just somersaulted out of the pebble-scraping, air-rushing trajectory previously occupied by you and your volcano board.

Volcano boarding will undoubtedly be popular with adventure tourists… let’s just hope it doesn’t ERUPT.

Via GetOutdoors blog