'Surfers' Reclaim Old Gold Mines
The health retreat Tomorrow’s Life where too much purity Rooted in Rioja – British Sea Power new respect for chart a course for is deemed boring C7 old techniques Food Hong Kong Gigs FASHION TRAVEL DIVERSIONS ON AIR www.scmp.com SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2009 C ‘Surfers’ reclaim old gold mines Streetball has proven especially popular among Filipinos who have ...................................................... formed their own league “This reminds me of a beach. If Alexandra Lesieur there was an ocean there, I would Cherie lands head-first at the base of not be surprised,” says Jai Sewram, a sand dune, her feet in the air but a 30-year-old artist with sand still still strapped to the “sandboard” she stuck around his ears and mouth is hoping to master to surf on dunes after a particularly graceful fall. in Johannesburg’s old gold mines. “I would have never thought a One of a group of budding mine dump would be like that,” sandboarders, she was taking her he says. first ride down Mount Mayhem, one “You see it from the motorway,” of several dunes near the airport. says Laura Hills, a 34-year-old South Africa’s biggest city lies six mother who came with her children. hours from the sea and six hours “I expected it to be a little bit dirty from the nearest ski slopes, but the and not so nice.” metropolis built on gold is dotted The dunes have been around for Streetball, the brash, raucous with abandoned mines, many filled a century, after an 1880s gold rush with powdery sand that has inspired a new sport.
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