SNOWBOARDING

Heck yes, I am excited.

I will remember today forever.....'twas the day I first met my true love, snowboarding. I had heard of him in passing, and longed to meet him, but today, this glorious day, I finally got to experience the wonderful thing he is!!!!


It was oh so wonderful. I don't even know if words can do it justice....but I will try. I must try.

I began the day with a lesson. There were 4 students in my class, none of whom had ever snowboarded or ski-ed (? how do you spell that? Skiid? Skiied? Hmm...) First we learned basic basic stuff--how to put on your snowboard, how to figure out if you're goofy-footed or regular-footed, how to make a heel-side turn, a toe-side turn....all kinds of good stuff. After we felt confident with those things, we headed up the chair lift to try out a real mountain-side. It was amazing. Not saying that I didn't fall a lot, or eat a lot of snow, but flying down on the board was oh so epic. The only slightly un-epic thing was that my "classmates" were somewhat slow on the uptake in learning some stuff.....meaning that I did spend a few minutes waiting alone at the base of the mountain by the lift....but still! So fun. Oh, the one sad part of my day was seeing my snowboard instructor slam into a pole and then limp back to the lodge to find us a new teacher......very unfortunate.

After the lesson and a bit of lunch, I decided to be brave and try the some of the greens (Green meaning for not-so-skilled ski and snowboarders but not the bunny hill). That was an adventure....I did the one that said "Zig-Zag"--dumb idea. I spent about 70% of going down the hill on my butt, but the 30% that I could actually stand up for was not too bad! I went really really fast. After that I headed back to the bunny hill (? Maybe it was a bunny hill....it still looked pretty big to me...). Then I spent the rest of the day trying to remember what teacher Grant had said; of course thats sometimes difficult while flying down a hill trying to run into other people, trees, or the big pillars for the ski lift... after a while I got my mojo back and was able to get down without wiping out until the very bottom.

I think my main issue that I'm having is 1) controlling speed 2) turning to a stop at the base of the mountain after you've picked up a lot of speed. I wiped out A LOT at the base, and each time it ended with a showering of snow that my snowboard had caught. Well, at least I go out with style....

So the day's progression is as follows: 1) I learn to snowboard 2) I feel really good, almost prodigy-like, since I am ahead of my class and can link turns 3) I try the green and feel lame and stupid 4) humbled, I go back to the basics and find that I fail at those 5) I remember what my instructor said and get to a mediocre beginner level.

Needless to say, I can't wait to go again! Yes, parts of it were frustrating, and I have many bruises, but falling is part of getting better. And getting better is what I'm interested in :)