FLORENCE — On this Thursday afternoon Chris Bourgeau’s form is the only thing moving in the windswept dunes of Sand Master Park outside of Florence.

That is, unless you count the sand itself, which blows off the tops of dunes like sea spray.

Bourgeau hikes to the top of one of the dunes, straps himself onto a board and rides down, cutting left and right, finishing with a flourish on a little lip at the bottom.

For those familiar with dunes activities around Florence, the sight of people sandboarding — riding dunes on something akin to a snowboard — might not come as a surprise. In fact, the sport is so popular that even as Bourgeau is taking his solitary ride in Sand Master dozens of kids are lining up down the road at Honeyman State Park, waiting their turn to take a run.

What’s unique about Sand Master Park is that it’s empty. Some of that may have to do with the wind — by 1 p.m. it’s whipping — but it’s also because the 40-acre Sand Master is a private sandboarding park, the only one in the United States. It’s also adjacent to another 200 acres of land that’s accessible from the park.

“This is a good place at the right time of day, in the right conditions and with the right people,” says Bourgeau, an avid boarder and employee of Sand Master, which offers sandboard rentals and has a ramp and rail to ride. “A lot of times we come out here, make our own jumps, set up our own rails. There’s no one here to tell us any different.”

Sand Master opened in 2000, founded by Lon Beale, one of the early pioneers of sandboarding,  who hatched the idea in 1972 in the Mojave Desert.

“In the old days, we used to ride on old water skiis. Very dangerous,” says Beale, standing in his shop, which is full of snowboarding gear and bottles of sand bearing labels like “Canton, China” and “Siwa, Egypt.” “Even today, sometimes you walk into the dunes with a board in your hand and people don’t know what you’re doing. Or you have one strapped to the top of your car like a snowboard, and it’s July. People look at you like you’re crazy.”

Outside the shop, Grant Slewitzke, Brody McGowan and Grant and Eric Stewart, all of Eugene, are gearing up and getting ready to take some runs in the park.

“I think it’s pretty similar to snowboarding,” says Grant Stewart. “The biggest difference is it’s much cheaper.”

“It’s an awesome way to keep your (snowboarding) skills up,” adds Slewitzke.

The Eugenian foursome heads out to the private acreage behind the Sand Master shop to check it out, but at this point in the afternoon masses of people have escaped to the less windy conditions of Honeyman State Park south of Florence.

There a horde of kids wait their turn to ride a fairly steep face, as parents wait at the bottom with cameras, some grinning and others looking a bit anxious.

Caleb Cooley, 10, whose family is visiting from Belem, Brazil, rides down in a yellow soccer jersey, managing to finish the run without wiping out.

“This is very strange to me right now,” he says, noting that the sand has been surprisingly forgiving when he has fallen. “It depends on what type of wipeout it is. I just (fell), and it didn’t hurt.”

Up the dune Shawn, 17, Taylor, 12 and Tyson Hill, 13, are trying their luck on a jump made of sandbags.

“It doesn’t really hurt when you crash,” says Shawn.

“Oh, yes it does,” says Taylor.

He should know — moments earlier he took the jump and flew off into the brush in a spectacular crash.

The skate-park atmoshphere of Honeyman is a real contrast to the empty vastness of Sand Master. The rides are longer and faster at Honeyman, after all, and in the afternoon the wind is less severe.

Bourgeau says the best times to check out Sand Master are in the morning and evening, when the wind calms down. Then, it can be a great place to do some low-key sandboarding without crowds or sounds of ATVs in the background.

“It’s a good place for beginners to start. You don’t have to hike a bunch of huge dunes,” says Bourgeau. “And the dunes move, so you never know what to expect. It’s always changing.”

Sand Master Park offers 24-hour sandboard rentals for $10, $16 and $20, depending on the quality of the board.

Entry to the park is free with a rental, or $5 a day without.

Honeyman State Park has a $3 day use fee.