Go volcano boarding in Nicaragua

“At the beginning of the day, standing at the base of a tall black volcano I wasn’t sure which part of the excursion I was dreading more: the hour-long hike up [...] or the minute-long plummet down the surface of it. Both had me feeling a bit weak in my stomach. Not to mention the fact that no one tells you beforehand that you have to carry your board the entire way up. [...] When it was my turn to go down, when the guide waved from below signaling for me to start, I was still scared to death. But, at that point, my only option was to go. So I put down my board, sat down, and pushed myself forward. I deliberately started off slowly [...] And then, as I felt more comfortable with it, I started to bring up my feet a little, lean back a little, watch the volcano breeze by through scratched goggles, let myself go.”

“The truck dropped us all off at the entrance to the National Park, so it would be a 15 min walk to the base of the volcano and a 45 min hike up the volcano. And the closer I got to the volcano, the bigger it got! Halfway up, I felt so exhausted – full disclosure, it probably didn’t help that I had a bit of a hangover and not in my best shape. [...] Standing at the highest point of the volcano made me feel like the Queen of the World! BUT looking down the volcano and visualizing what I was about to do next literally made my knees tremble. [...] I couldn’t back down now, so I grabbed my board and down I went. It felt like my heart was trying to race or at least keep up with the speed of my board sliding down the volcano. A one hour hike up the hill culminated in a 1-minute slide down the volcano side. Sliding down so fast that I got black sand everywhere and my long hair blowing all over my face.”

“The night prior I made the mistake of googling if anybody had ever died volcano boarding and rather than find an answer, I found dozens of YouTube clips of people bailing halfway down, breaking limbs and ripping several layers of their skin off in the process. I highly suggest if you decide to partake in volcano boarding that you do absolutely no research prior. [...] My general idea was to just stay on the board and get an average speed. Easier said than done. These boards are ridiculously hard to steer, constantly going left then right then left. I fell off no less than five times. Then it’s a struggle to catch your board before it continues down the decline without you. I finally reached the bottom shaky, covered in ash, chasing after my board.”