The "Bowl' is located a little way out of Beachport and adjacent to Lake George - South Australia.
Closest Town - Beachport [approx. 6km]
Closest City - Mt. Gambier [approx. 75km]
Also known as the '3-Mile', the Bowl is a long time favourite boarding location for the Ocean Culture crew. Discovered by Jo, back in 1995 on a mission to find a really cool and most secretive location to test ride boards (!!) This place offers moderate to fast rides on a range of different slopes, including jumps, drop-offs and ledges to leap off...The hours and hours of video footage we have of this place is mostly of the early days and mostly hilarious, if not for the stupid hats everyone wore! Ahh....the good old days, what fun it all was!!!
The whole boarding area stretches about a kilometre in length, varying from steep inclines in the bowl sections and longer, flatter runs at a place we call "Racetracks", which is a short walk away (this is where a particular foot was broken!)
Over the years the shape and condition of 'the bowl' has changed more than slightly... a widespread outbreak of the evil marrum grass weed has started taking over a large area of the first main bowl (who ever said sandboarders jeopardise the life of this plant would be seriously mistaken, in this case anyway) and the increasing number of motobikes that have discovered the place have reeked havoc on many of the clean walls and gullies of sand and have cut away plant roots that keep some of the dune-faces together. Then you have good 'ol mother nature whippin' up a wind storm and the place changes AGAIN!!
Really, in the interest of preservation and the fact that places like the Bowl (and many other places around Oz) are used on a regular basis, these places are barely under any kind of serious environmental threat from sandboarding. Sandboarders with a sense of responsibilty will always respect their riding ground and do anything to keep their sandboarding locations in quality condition and leave nothing behind but footprints, stack marks and occasional loose change falling from unsealed pockets!
Anyway, how to get to the Bowl? First, you must find yourself in Beachport, South Australia, and then, after stuffing yourself full of fish'n chips and browsing the gear at the local take-away shop, you head down Railway Tce (past the pub), keep driving on this bitumen road (the way to Lake George) when you hit the winding dirt road keep going until you see a 4WD access track on the left. This is where you either park your 2WD go-nowhere car and walk the few hundred metres to the consealed walking trail to the Bowl...if you have a 4WD you can drive and park your car closer to the walking trail. If you get lost, don't expect your mobile phone to work either! (It might be best to let people where you are going) Alternately you can hook up with the locals and then they can tell you where to go!!! |
