A guy I had met through Couchsurfing.com told me he planned to rent a truck and take some of his neighbors to Cerro Negro. He has been living here in Leon for four or five months, and many of the kids in his neighborhood, who have been living here their entire lives, had never gotten a chance to go volcano boarding because it was too expensive. I had already been last weekend during my full moon volcano hike, but it was the middle of the night and I couldn’t get many photos or a video so I wanted to go again.
Just to be clear, volcano boarding is basically sledding down the side of a volcano on a piece of plywood with sheet metal on the bottom of it. You control how fast you go (to an extent) and the fastest ever recorded on this volcano is 87 kilometers per hour. Most people (including myself) reach between 50 and 60 kilometers per hour.
It ended up being an amazing trip, and seeing the reaction of the kids as most of them saw, hiked, and boarded down the volcano for the first time was a truly awesome experience that I am really glad I got to be a part of. Here is a short video of the trip, and although you don’t see much of the “high speed” stuff as it was really to film on that part of the volcano due to steepness and wind, you get the idea!
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QStxUE1-OY[/youtube]
Now, you might have noticed the ending of that video being a bit off. That was me crashing while trying to film. Funny, yes, but also a bit painful. You see, the first time I went down I went with a tour company who provided these protective jumpsuits along with the boards. This time we just rented from the park itself, and, well, they don’t provide jumpsuits… I had assumed they would, so I was wearing gym shorts and a tshirt. Definitely not ideal clothing for sliding down a volcano at up to 60+ kilometers per hour.
So, the next three photos are what happens when you volcano board, in shorts, while trying to video tape with one hand, and control your plywood board with the other hand. I will warn you that the last photo is a little graphic. Partly in that it is technically a photo of part of my ass, and partly because it is what happens when your ass meets volcanic rock. I tried to edit out as much as I could to spare your eyes so hopefully it helps!
These are (were) my shorts. Apparently athletic shorts, volcanos, and high speeds don’t really mix…
These are my boxers. I SWEAR that is dirt, and not a reaction to me being scared. This isn’t that interesting of a picture until I tell you that I’ve decided to take these bad boys to a laundromat mixed in with all my other clothes and then secretly film the reaction of the lucky person who ends up with my bag as they pull them out and, as most of us would, come to a very different conclusion about the origins of that stain other than “volcano boarding accident.”
This, ladies and gentlemen, is the debut of my ass on the internet (I hope). Again, I tried to edit it down to spare you as much as possible, what you are looking at is the top of my thigh and my hip is the top right, so nothing too graphic here. To put the size into perspective, that “volcano burn” is about the size of my hand. I have big hands… Yes, I will live to see another day, but the 3 hour bus ride I’m taking later today is not going to be much fun.
So, I’ll leave you with two pieces of advice from my second time volcano boarding. First, if you ever get a chance to go volcano boarding, do it. It is amazing! Second, if you do get said chance, don’t wear gym shorts…
Eric
Nice adventure you have…..wish to try that soon.
Matt
Definitely do it if you ever have a chance!
Cathy Sweeney
Fun experience, but ouch! Looks painful.
Matt
Yea…. I’m a bit sore today but I’ll survive.
Katrina
I did not know there was such a thing as volcano boarding. I am TOTALLY FASCINATED! Man, I LOVE volcanoes, so this is freakin’ great!
This is the closest I got to doing that: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2yBuwwdbgk Just kind of… skiing down the side of Mt. Etna with great, sliding steps. But, wow — volcano boarding. So excellent!
Matt
Haha, the skiing looks pretty awesome! But volcano boarding is definitely pretty awesome 🙂
Danielle
Ouch! Way to ruin the shorts I bought you 😉
Matt
Yea…. sorry about that…. Want to buy me some more?
Jeremy B
Oh what fun! Your strawberry there reminds me of my days of playing baseball with the diving and sliding. I got some pretty nasty looking cuts and scrapes and I wasn’t going nearly as fast as you were. However, I was more appropriately dressed! 🙂
FYI Matt – your retweet button doesn’t put the name of your post in there.
Brandon
Was that country music in the background?
Matt
lol, not even close! That was Sublime. Come on, you know me better than that!
Grace
Volcano boarding looks wild! Although I will think twice just by looking at the damage on you and your shorts.
Matt
The shorts were the biggest loss… Loved those things and would be wearing them this very moment if I had them still…
The Dropout
I can’t believe you tricked me into looking at porn at work. Bare arse is porn, right?
I’m so glad the guys behind me are late and didn’t catching me perving at a guy’s arse on the internet. Because I did tilt my head various ways to try to work out which bit of your butt I was looking at.
Thanks for sharing, though. Next time I go down a volcano I will definitely wear protective gear.
Matt
Ahahaha, sorry about that! I gave a warning in the text but I should have put it in bold maybe? I’ll remember that for next time I’m putting a picture of my ass online.
John in France
Ooooohhh! That even hurt me!! Safer travels in the days ahead!!
Matt
I don’t have much more crazy adventure planned but it’s those times when you don’t have something planned when the craziest adventures find you… so I’ll do my best to stay unscathed!
Ted Nelson
Cool video. I just got back from skiing in Utah and have a pretty nice bruise on my leg, buy my ass is fine.
Ted Nelson
That was supposed to say “but my ass is fine” LOL.
Matt
haha, no Ted… I don’t want to buy your fine ass.
Jozef @ Where Now
That looks great fun, but that last photo brings me back to my dirt biking days! Those kind of grazes hurt like hell. Oh well no pain no gain haha
Matt
It wouldn’t be as bad if it were in a different location but I’m sitting down on it 100 times a day…
Kerry-Ann
50 to 60 km an hour down a volcano on a board? I would like to say that you are mad but I won’t (maybe for doing it in shorts!). After watching the video I think it could be fun. Still not sure – maybe I will just do the sensible thing and be in charge of the cameras!
Matt
I mad is an ok label, haha. The video doesn’t quite do the high speed part of the run justice but it was getting seriously fast, haha. But if you ever have the chance you should do it! You can choose to go slower if you want!
Salvatore Greco
OOO MAN….that stings looking at it. I JUST got over road rash I received in the beginning of January. Its like a burn MIXED with a scrape…
But you would not call that road rash would you….Volcano Rash?
Nice filming job btw…that must have been tough.
Matt
Yea the filming is why I crashed in the first place. Definitely don’t recommend trying to do both at the same time….
Norbert
Volcano boarding sounds amazing! I’m in!! But that bruise… ouch! not as smooth as desert sand or snow.
Matt
Yea, here I am over a month later and it is still there a bit…
Michael Figueiredo (StruxTravel)
Wow! That looks really amazing (but kinda scary)…. I like the video too 🙂
robin
I echo the ouches!
Rease
I am so jealous. I live for sledding, this looks like a blast!
Matt
Definitely a great time!
Bluegreen Kirk
Sound and looks fun but the minute I say the first picture a was like someones going to be hurt and sore. Only one person had on knee pads. Rashes and bruises but well worth the fun.
Matt
well to be fair that photo was afterwards, so people were shedding the pads. I however went down padless because I dropped mine on the hike up…