misadventures in snowboarding

This weekend we drove to Liberty, a ski hill near Gettysburg, PA. Normally, Lelaine snowboards and I ski. But this time I felt like changing things up. We were meeting Rich, a friend from Mizzou who starting boarding last year, and I figured I would join them on a snowboard.

This is despite the fact that the one time I previously attempted to snowboard turned out to be one of the most frustrating days of my life. Back in January 2002, several friends were in Keystone, CO, and we had the bright idea to ride a gondola and another lift to the top and assumed we would just learn how to snowboard a couple thousand feet above the base. That was a mistake. The others picked it up relatively well, but I couldn't keep my click-in boots in the bindings and it took three or four hours to get down, broken up by falling on my face every three minutes.

Well, not much has changed since that day in Keystone. Even with a lesson, I am terrible. I have probably gone skiing twenty times in my life. And in those twenty times I have fallen half has many times as I did in three hours of trying to snowboard this weekend. None of the falls were bad...except for one that involved my elbow going into my ribs and making it hurt to breath deeply, laugh, and sleep.

After making it down the bunny slope only twice (in three hours!) I traded the board for skis. I don't understand why anyone snowboards. It isn't like I am the best skier, but it isn't that difficult to at least snowplow your way down a hill. But just standing up on a board for more than two seconds, let alone things like turning to avoid crushing into groups of people or figuring out how to stop (I finally managed to stop without falling...once) are nearly impossible. Somehow Lelaine likes it, and that is nice and all, but I will never be able to do it.

I'm glad I tried it again, but I will stick to skiing when we go to Wisp with a big group MLK weekend.