Sandboarding at Gumuk Pasir

For those of your who loves the outdoors and happens to be in Yogyakarta, you should get your hands dirty (trust me) with this one! Yes, I know there are a lot of things to do in Yogyakarta such as hiking the Merapi or visiting the temples but if you have an extra day or two, go SANDBOARDING at Gumuk Pasir!

Located about an hour away from the town of Yogyakarta, Gumuk Pasir is part of the beach of Parangtritis and the sand is so fine that you can actually sandboard on it. There will be an entrance fee of IDR5000 per person which will be paid at the entrance.

I was lucky to have met Zah, Serena and Nina during my trip or else I wouldn’t be able to experience this at all. They were planning for the trip and I decided at the very last to chip in my part and followed suit. Easily the best decision ever.

If you are planning to head to Gumuk Pasir, my recommendation is to hire the car for a day IDR500,000 and share it with at least 4 of your friends. This way, you get to cover more grounds at less time (yes, I know I backpack around but that doesn’t mean I have to take the public transport all the time).  Also, it’ll be more fun if you go in groups unless you are the type who prefers to sandboard alone and scream alone. (not, going to judge you)

The board can be rented at a cafe there. We got a pretty good deal at IDR90,000 for an hour and you can actually share that with your friend, you don’t need one board each. An hour is pretty long and it gets really tiring especially the climbing back to your starting point part. There are different levels of steepness at Gumuk Pasir beach but easy thing to do is just follow where everyone sandboard-ed before (you will notice the obvious smoother path).

Eventually, you will get more confident from repetition and from there, you can try jumping off the ramp. I saw some guys did it and let’s just say it looks cooler in the pictures than real life.

Try to go early in the morning or late evening when the sun is not so hot. We were there around afternoon time and it was so hot the sand was burning our feet! Also, you will need to keep waxing the base of the board to make sure it slides smoothly.

Sandboarding at Gumuk Pasir was a real fun experience. By the time you are done, you would be covered with sand but worry not, there will be a toilet for you to use where you rented to board. I would suggest bringing an extra shirt as well since you will be sweating buckets under the hot sun.