Teaching An Old Airdog New Tricks
Do you ever get that nagging feeling in the back of your head that you haven't punished yourself enough lately? Last night I got that feeling big time, so I hit the slopes with my cousin and uncle to take on snowboarding.
I'm sure most of you are snowboarding champs, but this was my first time. I never thought it was humanly possible to take as many unintentional face plants as I did. I now know differently. It is a little humiliating to watch an 8 year old kid catch air on a jump while I'm doing my best not to catch an edge.
After about an hour and a half of bunny hill action and tail bone destruction, I was able to do some basic cutting back and forth, but still not very aggressively. I was feeling pretty good, so I figured I'd take on a real hill with the rest of the group. We went down a fairly straight path down the front of the hill, and I was feeling like a rock star, only one fly swatter! The next time, we took the back path, and it curved right the whole way down, which meant I had to ride my front edge for the majority of the trip. That is when things got ugly. Nearly every 50 feet I was on my knees and wrists. Ouch. Towards the end I felt like I was really starting to get the hang of it, but I have a little bit of work left to do.
For those of you who have never done it, I was surprised at how much more fun snowboarding is than skiing. At least on a recreational level, snowboarding seemed to be much more technical, with balance and foot control much more important than in skiing. There is a common misconception (I had it myself) that snowboarding is much like skateboarding or wakeboarding. The balance and turning in each of these is much different than snowboarding. The dynamics of traveling on a slanted surface along with the difficulty of cutting into hard snow or ice as compared to water or ball bearings makes getting down the hill a much more challenging experience. It is the challenge though that makes it all worth it.
A time or two more and I have a feeling I'll be feeling pretty confident out there.
I'm sure most of you are snowboarding champs, but this was my first time. I never thought it was humanly possible to take as many unintentional face plants as I did. I now know differently. It is a little humiliating to watch an 8 year old kid catch air on a jump while I'm doing my best not to catch an edge.
After about an hour and a half of bunny hill action and tail bone destruction, I was able to do some basic cutting back and forth, but still not very aggressively. I was feeling pretty good, so I figured I'd take on a real hill with the rest of the group. We went down a fairly straight path down the front of the hill, and I was feeling like a rock star, only one fly swatter! The next time, we took the back path, and it curved right the whole way down, which meant I had to ride my front edge for the majority of the trip. That is when things got ugly. Nearly every 50 feet I was on my knees and wrists. Ouch. Towards the end I felt like I was really starting to get the hang of it, but I have a little bit of work left to do.
For those of you who have never done it, I was surprised at how much more fun snowboarding is than skiing. At least on a recreational level, snowboarding seemed to be much more technical, with balance and foot control much more important than in skiing. There is a common misconception (I had it myself) that snowboarding is much like skateboarding or wakeboarding. The balance and turning in each of these is much different than snowboarding. The dynamics of traveling on a slanted surface along with the difficulty of cutting into hard snow or ice as compared to water or ball bearings makes getting down the hill a much more challenging experience. It is the challenge though that makes it all worth it.
A time or two more and I have a feeling I'll be feeling pretty confident out there.
posted by david at Saturday, March 25, 2006
4 Comments:
Dude! That's awesome, I so want to go snoboarding next year!! Ang tried it out this year and actually went today, I declined, I actually had other stuff going on, but really want to do it!
We should get a bunch of the peeps together next year for a fun run of it! :) sweet... well have a nice week!
Let's do it! I need some other newbies to go out with me on the slopes!
sweet, it's official... wouldn't it be funny if we tried to plan a time right now for like November or December?! haha... that would be funny! or maybe not.. just kinda dumb :)
later
(i say sweet alot) :)
Let's do it! That's not dumb, that is proactive!
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