When referring to winter activities, it’s like you have to pick a side… skiing or snowboarding? Well, I’ve tried both now and snowboarding definitely picked me.
A year ago I learned to ski. I’m severely pigeon-toed and have weak joints so naturally, skiing sucked. I always pizza’d no matter how hard I tried to french fry. Anyways, a year later I got to try snowboarding. Even though most people say snowboarding is a lot harder to learn than skiing, I felt the opposite.
Tanner brought me to Arapahoe Basin, close to his usual spot at Keystone. I rented some snowboarding gear from Happy Sport Ski Rental in Parker, and we headed to the mountain early Sunday morning.
I was nervous heading to the mountain– probably because I was on my way toward possible broken limbs if I sucked. Luckily, we were all smiles when we reached the mountain because the weather was beautiful! Nature’s the best.
When Tanner and I were on the mountain, he only took me on green runs (the easiest ones) so I wouldn’t get frustrated. Good thing he knows me (/my temper) so well. He taught me how to slow down, ride toe-side/heel-side, and snowboard in the shape of an S. I also learned how to avoid falling by staying off the wrong edges of the board (sometimes). He thought I was great for my first day but I’m definitely hurting now.
My attitude toward learning– I can usually pick up any task fairly quickly. My trick to trying something new is thinking that anything is easy because other people can do it. So, each time I struggled or fell, I thought of all the X-Games athletes who started their sport careers later in life, or the 3-year old on a snowboard zooming past me while I sit on my butt in the snow. I knew it would keep getting better if I kept trying!
Positivity + A Realistic Idea of How Painful Learning is (+ a really cute instructor 😉) = A Successful Day of Learning. Plus, it’s cool bc Tanner and I can be a snowboarder couple now!!
Until we conquer another mountain!
-ksex
KSL 