Week #14

I commonly here that guys do certain things to impress girls, whether its to show off, claiming they know how to do things when they really don’t, or learning something new to impress the girl. Little did I know, girls were capable of doing the same things as well.

It was my sophomore year in high school, and it was the second year I'd been dating my first serious, real, boyfriend, who was now a senior. He was big into snowboarding, and had been after me for a year to learn so I could go to Sugarloaf with him. I finally caved in, and that would be the winter I began to snowboard. That Christmas I my parents got me the works, a brand new snowboard, and the boots and bindings to match. I'm not sure why I didn’t think of renting a snowboard that were available at the mountain first, so I could try it out and decide if I was going to like it and stick with it first before I had my parents get me the works.

First day on the mountain, and my ever so patient boyfriend skipped the teaching, dragged me onto the lift and away we went. Wait- no, nope, we were not on our way. I fell getting onto the lift, I fell getting off the lift, both causing the lift to be stopped for safety reasons, I fell every five to seven feet, it was not working. I wasn’t taught HOW to snowboard the techniques of it, ya know, to keep me from falling! Needless to say, my snowboarding career was short lived, and my parents were less than impressed to see a very expensive Christmas gift thrown into a corner and left.

This year, about five years since I last used my snowboard, without the patient ex-boyfriend, I'm going to give it a try, but first I'm going to look up ways to successfully snowboard without having a black and blue rear end.

First, I need to be able to stand in the board comfortably, practicing falling and then figuring out how to get up once I've fallen with both feet in my bindings. I read, then when you fall on your rear end, to put your weight into your weakest foot/leg, then throwing your strongest foot/leg over the weaker one, this technique will allow you to get onto your knees. From yours knees you can then use your arms to push yourself back up onto your feet.

Now that I've learned how to fall and get back up, next I'll need to learn how to go down the mountain.
Before conquering the mountain, its suggested that I walk up a hill, strap on the board, and try going down a little hill a few times first to get used to dealing with the speed and control. To control the board, I'm going to need to learn to throw my weight between my tippy toes and heels, the toes will be used to control the board when going down the hill vertically, and to turn or stop, throw the weight into the heels, bending my knees more when I want to stop.

So, now that I know how to stand while strapped onto the snowboard, get up from falling, controlling the board, turning the board, and stopping when I feel like it. There is just one thing left that fills me with fear. The lift.

I read that the trick to the lift, is that you have to leave one foot out of the bindings, preferably the strongest foot. When I have to move in line, al I do is put my foot thats out of the binding onto the middle part of the board between the two bindings, securing it tightly against the binding my foot should be in, then I should just be able to slide down in line. Leaving my strongest foot out while getting onto and off of the lift will me to have more control. If I need to, I can use my strongest foot to walk, dragging my board and strapped in foot behind me. Sounds easier said than done, but we'll see.

Now that I have gained knowledge on how to stand while strapped into a snowboard, get up from falling, controlling and turning the board, stopping, as well as getting on and off of the lift, the true test will be when I arrive at the mountain this year, if we ever get snow. Perhaps I should take the lack of snow as a blessing in disguise. No snow means no snowboarding, no snowboarding means no sore body, no humiliation when they have to turn the lift off from me falling in the way, but I'm determined to learn to snowboard and do it successfully so fake snow or real snow, I will try to snowboard again after not doing so for six years.