“Are you a skier or a snowboarder?” That’s a pretty typical question for the winter sports group in Utah. My answer? Well, I’m neither… yet! As you readers might recall, I tried skiing with my company a couple weeks ago. After the rather traumatizing experience, I think I was hesitant to learn any new sports that might result in me stranded at the top of a mountain. My roommate is a big snowboarder though, and wanted to teach me how to snowboard. I’m open to new experiences and try to be open-minded about learning new skills, so I agreed on the condition that I don’t get in over my head.
We went to Brighton on Sunday. It had snowed the day before, so everything was covered in fresh snow and it was a beautiful blue sky day. Another thing about snow sports? They are expensive (but a season pass cuts down on the cost if you choose to go enough). Luckily, I am an unashamed “learner” and this particular resort offered a ski lift pass that for the two beginner lifts. I only made it to the easiest of the easiest on Sunday. I wouldn’t say that snow sports come to me easily… but I wouldn’t say that I am terrible either. I borrowed Somer’s (my roommate) snowboard for the day.
Lesson number one: how to stand up (which was my problem with skiing as well). Lesson number two: how to stop. Those are the first things I wanted to know both with skiing and snowboarding. It’s terrifying looking at any sort of incline without having options of how to steer, stop, slow down, anything. I was able to stand up on the board backwards. I did a lot of the “downward dog” motion to stand up. Somer and Brighton were telling me to use these mysterious “edges.” My thoughts were “what are these edges? How do I use them?” Of course, they meant the edges of the board but it’s something you learn to maneuver by leaning/shifting your weight. Since I could only stand up using my “toe edge” facing the mountain, I usually ended up going down the mountain backwards fearing that I’d hit the little children in ski school that were doing much better than me, by the way. By only favoring my toe edge, and attempting to slowly move down the mountain, my calves were burning very quickly. Once I stood up, I’d move a few feet, get going too fast for comfort, and fall. This is how it took me 30 minutes or more to get down the first run.
The worst feeling was falling backwards, because I’d land on my butt or tailbone every.single.time. When I fell forward, I could have a little more control in my fall. The downside to falling on my front was that I would catch myself with my right wrist. I still worry that my right wrist is fragile from the break back in September. The doctor said broken bones don’t usually heal completely for at least a year. Perhaps next time wrist guards will be in my future?
By the end of the day, I was shaking, sore, and worried about my wrist. I called it a day because it’s exhausting falling down and getting up a bunch of times, sounds pathetic, I know! My overall feeling of the experience was that I don’t feel that it was as easy to pick up as skiing was, basics anyways. But I believe that at this point I’m very much a beginner at both of them and don’t have a preference. I think that I would like snowboarding better if I could practice more. It seems like it would be more fun. My goal is to get “okay” at one or the other by the end of the semester/winter sport season. I have roughly three more months… andddd GO!