Winter Sports = Owwww

Monday was president's day so Matt and I both had long weekends and a while back we decided we were going to use the opportunity to go snowboarding. Matt has been snowboarding since he was in 8th grade so he is good at it and has no problem, I on the other hand only tried snowboarding for the first time last winter, and only did it for two days at that. I really enjoyed it and couldn't wait to do it again, but this was the first opportunity since then that I have had to be able to do it. I knew that since it had been a while since I had snowboarded, that it would almost be like starting all over again...and believe you me, I was right.

Last year when I did it for the first time, I learned that what everyone tells you about learning how to snowboard is true...you will fall...a lot!!! Snowboarding looks a LOT easier than it is, in my opinion, it took me a lot of tries last year just to get the hang of not "catching an edge" while trying to go straight and subsequently falling flat on my face or flat on my butt. This year, I tried to focus more on switching between my heel edge and my toe edge. This is pretty self explanatory but I'll explain it anyway in order to take up some space.

Lemme back up a little bit...snowboarders either ride "normal" (left foot forward) or "goofy" (right foot forward), hey, I didn't make up the terms. Most people who are right handed prefer left foot forward, but it is really just a question of which way makes you feel more stable. Now, regardless of your riding "style" you are always always always supposed to lean so that you are putting a lot more weight on your front foot, otherwise you will spin around and end up with the wrong foot going foward down the mountain. This is one of the hardest things to get used to because you naturally want to lean back when you want to slow down, but this will just make you spin around and fall over and put on a nice show for all the people on the lift above you.

Now that we all know about normal and goofy, the next thing you need to know about snowboarding is that you are always supposed to be on an "edge". Heel edge means your weight (while still mainly on your forward foot) is supported by your heels, while toe edge natually means your weight is supported by your toes. Heel edge allows you to turn left, toe edge allows you to turn right. Generally, you are supposed to switch between edges in order to basically continue in a straightish path.

As I said before, I made it my goal this time to work on switching between edges without going splat. Well, I would say I can do it about 50% of the time, I have a lot of trouble going from heel to toe which means I fall on my knees alot. And boy do/did I have the bruises to show for it. These pictures do not capture the full essence of how bright purple my knees really were, but they do show how much surface area the bruises covered.




I tried to buy knee pads on the second day, but they didn't sell them so I went without, luckily I didn't fall as much (mostly because I was afraid to turn right) and I didn't last very long as my entire body was one big sac of soreness. Also, I wanted to take pictures, but if I had had my camera with me on the mountain, it would have ended up in a couple hundred pieces by the end of the day.

Matt was very very patient and stuck with me on the greens the whole time, so I was very appreciative of that because I know he wanted to do harder stuff. He did a few right before we left when I had had enough so hopefully he still had fun! And don't worry, I wore a helmet and wrist guards the whole time!