10. Try a Snow Sport

Complete: 12/26/2012

Final group picture (Dave, Cyndi, me, Stacy) after a day's worth of snowboarding

Christmas this year was particularly special for our family since both my sister and I as well as our cousin in California were able to make our way up to Canada to spend the holidays with the rest of our extended family. While the main purpose of the trip was to spend time with the family, we were pretty stoked to get to try a winter sport. After deliberation, my sister and I decided that snowboarding would be a good one to try. Luckily, our cousin Dave had both the time and research skills/motivation to find a great hill for us to do some snowboarding. After taking in the location, difficulty, and cost into consideration, he decided that Mt. St. Louis in Barre would the choice location for us beginners to attempt the sport. He even found some YouTube videos for us to watch to learn a bit about what to expect.

Snowboarding action

First thing on our quest to snowboarding, we needed to make sure we had the gear. The day we landed in Canada, we went shopping for some snowboarding jackets and pants. Hard to beat Walmart prices of $30 for a waterproof snow jacket and snow pants. Yay for being able to fit kids clothing and saving some money. 

Since we went on a Canadian holiday (Boxing Day), we were greeted by some pretty empty hills. That's a good thing since that meant less obstacles and therefore less chances of crashing into people. After we reached the destination, which happened to be the first time I witnessed a substantial amount of snow, I couldn't help myself and made a little snowball to throw at Dave. So technically, I had a snowball fight when Dave returned the favor, which was one of the things on my mental "to-do snow things" list.

We paid for gear rental (boots, board), group lessons, and access to the beginner hill for a grand total of about $150.00 per person. Before our group lesson started, we decided to try the magic carpet (minimal incline). The first time down, not so bad. The second time, I couldn't stop properly and had my first hard fall. The picture above is me sliding the hill and the one below is after I ate it really bad trying to avoid hitting Stacy at the bottom of the hill. Shooting pangs through my tailbone and I think my brain hit the side of my head. That smile in the picture below is not an accurate reflection of what I'm feeling. 

 

Snowboarding fall/fail

Then we headed over to the meet-up spot for our group lesson, led by Julia and Bethany. I really liked Julia as an instructor because she seemed down to earth and not as judgmental about our lack of skills. Just the kind of person a beginner with no background skills whatsoever needs to start off. The lesson began with some snowboarding terminology, followed by a few basic movements up and down a tiny slope. By the way, walking up any incline with a snowboard is harder than it looks. You're expected to basically carry the board attached to one foot (and since the foot is strapped to the left/right side of the board and not the center, it requires more energy to lift the entire thing. Also wanted to point out that rental snowboards are often heavier than regular snowboards to maintain greater durability from usage by multiple people.). We then learned to ride the lift, which is one of the more fearful parts of the whole experience since no one wants to be that person that fails to get on and has to have the entire lift stopped.

Now that we were at the top of the beginner hill, we started to learn how to navigate down. It's a pretty substantial hill considering our lack of skills and my poor sense of coordination when it comes to any type of physical activity (that's why I like hiking because it's not necessary to have such precise and quick reactionary body adjustments to do it). I quickly learned that although I deemed myself goofy-footed based on the tutorial YouTube videos we were watching prior to our snowboard outing, I was in fact regular. I can fly down the hill in small bouts, but not very good with steering and the brakes. Cyndi can attest to how I whiz by and fly into fences. Everything was fine and dandy (and by that I mean lots of spills, but which I could handle) until the end the lesson when I fell awkwardly and sprained my wrist. It hurt. A lot.

 

Riding the lift all alone because I couldn't keep up with the pack...boo

After the lesson, we had some lunch. I tried being optimistic that my wrist wasn't sprained and that the pain would go away with a little rest, but when my wrist still hurt like a mofo after the meal, I was pretty sure it was sprained.

Now, having paid $150.00 and driven 1.5 hours to try this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to snowboard, I didn't want to just sit it out for the rest of the day. So, I decided to go up for at least one run down the beginner hill. The picture above of me in my own lift is because I failed to move fast enough to ride with the rest of the gang and got denied by the automatic gate that times your entry to the lift and so I just had to wait for the next one. Stacy (with Dave and Cyndi beside her) turned around in her lift to take a picture of me all by myself. 

Anyway, the trip down the mountain was all right, though my wrist was killing me. I had to snowboard facing the mountain the entire time, thereby allowing me to throw my body across the floor as my brakes instead of using my wrists (which also gave my tailbone a break because I fell on my butt a lot. And while you'd think snow is soft and snowboarding gear is thick, it provides no cushion whatsoever against the snow that gets packed down with people continually riding over it). It was an ordeal to make it down the mountain, but I did and after that I called it a day.

 Cyndi and me at the bottom of the hill. And I just noticed I'm sporting a double chin.

Man, the after effects of all the falling were brutal. While we were tired and sore for the remainder of the day, the following day was filled with immense pain. Every (no exaggeration on the every) single muscle from my neck all the way to my knees hurt so bad. I didn't even realize how many muscles existed in my body until that day. Any movement brought major discomfort (I had to use my hands to help shift my head during my sleep because my neck muscles were aching so much). I've learned to appreciate what my muscles do for me every day. Experiencing how much it takes to snowboard makes me quite proud of this accomplishment.