Extreme Sandbox: The Pros and Cons
We visited the Extreme Sandbox in Hastings on Saturday, October 5, to celebrate my father-in-law's birthday and the birthday of another friend. We bought them the package where you split your time between the excavator and bulldozer. From our experience, I came up with a list of pros and cons:
Pros:
This was a birthday surprise, and when my father-in-law finally saw the Extreme Sandbox area with obstacles set up and heavy equipment waiting to be operated, he was all smiles.
Owner Randy got us checked in promptly and showed us a safety/instructional video about the machines. This was not your typical, boring video. It featured the owners themselves and was very humorous. Let's be clear, safety is their top priority, but they are all about making sure people have fun too.
Just my father-in-law and friend were going to do it, but co-owner Don offered us a deal to use an excavator that wasn't going to be used, so my sister-in-law and I also got to join in on the fun.
Randy and Don took us out to the machines and strapped in and ready to go. They were patient and kept things light-hearted. They are very funny guys.
You are always in contact with an employee of Extreme Sandbox through a headset. In our case, it was Randy and Don. They were great at explaining which joysticks and knobs to use, and made what could have been an intimidating thing to learn very easy to learn.
After some initial instruction, they cut us loose and let us dig and build our own hill of dirt with the excavator. When it was a mound (or "tee"), they placed a basketball on top and had us swing the arm of our excavator around and "drive" the basketball off the tee with the bucket. Trust me, if you do this, you are going to be the only one of your friends who has played excavator golf.
For those of us who drove the bulldozer, we got to build a giant hill of dirt and then drive up. You sit at the top, almost vertical, and then get to "tip" over. It is all very safe and makes for some great photos.
Speaking of photos, for a reasonable fee, they will take professional close-up photos for you and then email them. We chose this option and received our photos promptly the next morning - on a Sunday. The photos were awesome and captured the experience perfectly.
The spectator area was great too, as we had our wives along to watch. There is a covered area behind some barricades that provide a great place to take photos and videos. It is almost as much fun to watch the whole process as it is actually do it.
Cons:
Cons? There are no cons! Well, maybe there would be cons if you are the kind of person that doesn't enjoy having fun or getting the chance to operate 19 ton excavators and build giant hills with bulldozers.
This was truly an awesome, unique experience and I would recommend it to anyone. This is not just for guys either. My sister-in-law is only 5'4" and she operated the excavator just as well or even better than the guys. And the biggest key to making our time great was Randy and Don. They truly care about you as a customer and do everything to make sure you have fun. They run their business with a customer-first perspective which is refreshing to see. Go visit Extreme Sandbox soon - you won't regret it! read more