The dunes can be one of the most amazing, thrilling and beautiful places to ride and spend time with your friends and family, or they can become a place of bad memories and close calls. The deciding factor in how your first dune experience (and future trips) may turn out can ultimately depend on knowing and following some basic safety tips and suggestions that apply to this type of unique riding landscape.
Soft sand, ever-changing landscape, witch’s eyes and slip-faces can offer up quite the challenge to any ATV or UTV rider. That is why it’s important to be aware of some basic safety “rules” when riding in the dunes. Every camp has its own set of “house” rules and these are some of ours:
Don’t Ride Alone
One of the most important rules we adhere to when riding is the dunes is “don’t ride alone.” This is especially important if you are new to dune riding and new to the area you are riding in. In a place as large as Glamis, CA, it is very easy to get lost or turned around and that can make for an extremely long day (and possibly even night) for everyone involved if you wind up getting lost.
While getting lost is no fun, it’s even more dangerous if you wind up getting hurt while riding solo. There have been several times when we were out riding and came across a downed rider who is completely alone and unable to find help, simply because he chose to go out in the dunes for a quick ride by himself. It’s bad enough if you are by yourself and suffer a mechanical issue with your machine, but to be alone and wreck and get seriously hurt—that can be extremely serious.
It’s just not worth the risk to ride alone and if you are new to the dunes, it’s absolutely imperative that you ride with others who know the area and can show you the safest way to approach any obstacles. If you absolutely can’t avoid it, at least let everyone know where you are going, and what direction you will be taking to get there.
Follow The Leader
If you are fortunate enough to go to the dunes for the first time with a group that has a good leader, then you are in for some of the best riding of your life. Being new to the dunes, it is very important to not only stick with your group, but to follow the lines of the person in front of you on any ride you go on.
We have seen many new duners stray off of the line of the person in front of them and wind up facing a drop-off or a witch’s eye (a deep hole in the sand made by wind) that they had no idea was there. For safety’s sake, if you are following the leader and staying in the line that everyone else is in, it gives riders ahead of you the opportunity to warn you if there is something to look out for. You can also pay attention to the rider ahead of you and see if he suddenly swerves to avoid something or disappears quickly due to a sudden drop-off. This gives you a few seconds to prepare and know how to take the next obstacle before you get to it.
We know it can be tempting to forge your own path, but we have seem more people wreck that way than by doing anything else in the dunes. As you gain more experience in the dunes and learn to read how they lie, then running your own lines becomes much less risky.
