SnowBoarding Lesson 3-8-08

I went snowboarding for my first time this weekend. Matt went with me to teach me what to do and not to do. The weather made visibility bad. It snowed from the time we got up there til the time we headed home. The wind was blowing hard and the gusts were really hard. It did calm down when we arrived around 4pm but around 8pm the wind really picked up. It was fun though being out there even with the more extreme weather. We stuck with the small lift after we tried to go up the mountain once and I did horrible. I couldn't see where I was going so I would stress about that and then crash and burn. My first time up Matt taught me how to do heel side and then announced that I was to do toe side next. Toe side did not go very well that time down and I decided to trade my boots in for a smaller size. After Matt thought I had those two maneuvers down (I didn't agree, tried to point out I had fell multiple times - I had only been down the slope a few times) he decided it was time for me to learn to carve. Meaning I did hill side, forward, toe side, forward, and on and on til I would crash and burn. I found it was much easier for me to snowboard on the steeper part of the bunny hill and then we started going to the left of the lift which I really enjoyed.

Matt said there were several runs I would have enjoyed if the visibility had been better. The last few trips up the lift we couldn't even look forward. We would keep our faces covered as much as possible and then lean towards each other so we could hear each other. It was fun. The snow beating down on my helmet sounded like rain beating on a roof. Once when we got to the top I told Matt that it had to be a gust and we should wait a minute. He laughed and said no it wasn't. The weather and my more humorous crashes had us laughing and smiling most of the evening. Once when I was learning toe side I crashed and Matt was behind me asking if I was okay. I turned around and he stopped in mid sentence and started laughing. I had snow all over me, my face, eyebrows, eyelashes, etc.. The evening was very entertaining. At least once when we arrived at the top of the lift with the wind blowing crazily Matt started hooping and hollering.

Snowboarding was a lot different than skiing. I am really confident skiing, I have done it for years. I can't wait til I feel like that snowboarding and not like some funny dud. Matt asked me once when I was flapping my arms on the flat part towards the lift if I thought I would take off into flight. I told him ya. Now though I am extremely sore and have lots of big bruises. The things we will do for fun.