Cerro Negro (Black Mountain) is the youngest volcano in Central America. It first appeared in 1850 and has erupted 23 times since 1999. The slope at its steepest is about 41 degrees; its height is approximtely 2,400 ft (731 meters). And there’s several tour companies who’ll take you there. And you can totally surf it!!!!! Woot.
Photograph by Jenny Salita on Flickr
Apparently it’s a 45 minute climb the the top for a 45 second ride back down…
Photograph by Garrett Ziegler on Flickr
Photograph by Bigfoot Hostel Nicaragua
According to Bigfoot Hostel, who run tours to Cerro Negro, the origin of this ‘new sport’ is as follows: Volcano boarding is an extreme thrill-seeking kind of sport created by an equally extreme, Australian thrill seeker, Daryn Webb, Bigfoot Hostel’s original owner. After Daryn opened Bigfoot in 2004, he began to cultivate the sport. Daryn and his crew endured a fair share of trial and error, testing everything from picnic tables to mattresses until they arrived to a sit-down, wooden toboggan, made of metal and Formica-reinforced plywood. The adventure sport was born! Volcano boarding was a world first. León became the only place in the world you could slide down the side of an active volcano. By 2009, Bigfoot Volcano Boarding sent 10,000 boarders down Cerro Negro. Today, over 25,000 people have sled down its slope at up to 95km/hr!
Photograph by Oswaldo Rivas (via NBC News)
