Snowboarding!

[Carol]

One of the ski resorts up by where I like to hike just put a "learn to snowboard" package on special.

Its basically an all day group lesson with other noobies. Its all inclusive -- instruction, gear, lift ticket, everything except lunch.

I spent a good part of last week on my butt in the snow...I mean... teaching myself how to snowshoe, I think spending a weekend day wiping out in the snow...I mean...trying to snowboard will be a trip. :lol:

Just curious, any riders out there? If so, how long have you been at it?

 

[Phenix_Rider]

Me! I've been at it since I got my first cheap plastic board in high school years ago. I fall somewhere in the "Advanced Intermediate" category. As in I still fall, but usually only on extremely advanced terrain, and I manage to pop back up without losing or breaking anything.

 

[K-man]

I mainly stick to the two planks but every so often I jump on a board, especially if conditions aren't too good. Learning to ride tows is tough when you first start out but they might be more of an Aussie thing. In the US and Canada all the lifts I've found have been chairs or gondolas.

What I discovered was that there are two fundamental laws.
1. When you fall it is always on hard pack.
2. You always fall on the same bony area of your ****.

After a while, every time you fall, the pain goes from the **** to the top of your head.

However, in fairness it is great fun and I'm sure that you would be a lot better at it than me. In the words of that well known brand ... just do it.

 

[David43515]

You`ve all got to save your pennies and come join usin us up in Hokkaido some winter. I don`t ski or board myself. I`m the friendly guy making the cheesecake and hot buttered rum for afterwards, but we all still have a great time and Hokkaido has some of the best conditions around. I live 90 minutes south of Sapporo in a resort town called Rusutsu, and it`s known for some of the best powder snow in the world. Come on over, I live 5 minutes from the resort and my couch is always available.

 

[seasoned]

You`ve all got to save your pennies and come join usin us up in Hokkaido some winter. I don`t ski or board myself. I`m the friendly guy making the cheesecake and hot buttered rum for afterwards, but we all still have a great time and Hokkaido has some of the best conditions around. I live 90 minutes south of Sapporo in a resort town called Rusutsu, and it`s known for some of the best powder snow in the world. Come on over, I live 5 minutes from the resort and my couch is always available.

This would be my idea of enjoying snowboarding. Cheesecake and hot buttered rum, while chatting with the participants and how much fun they had, after they get back.

 

[elder999]

Rita-that's the wife-is a ski instructor. Taught at Taos for years.

Fifteen years ago, when my son was 12, he asked to take snowboarding lessons. We were all recalibrating our lives at the time, and it had always been the kids’ mother’s and my policy to encourage all their endeavors, so I said “sure.” Since I’d skateboarded and surfed when I was his age, I had always been somewhat intrigued by snowboarding, so I took lessons with him. Now, my son doesn’t get onto the slopes much anymore-he probably likes falling into cold wet snow even less than I do, if such a thing is possible, but I stuck with it-in fact, in spite of falling on my butt several times, I was sooo happy!

Later, I met Rita-that's the wife-and wound up married to a ski instructor/wilderness freak/fitness Nazi, so I get to spend lots of time backcountry skiing, camping and snowboarding…..heck,one of our first weekends away together was avalanche school in Silverton, Colorado.

You don’t see a lot of black guys on the slopes-or Indians. While I qualify as both (and often get asked “What are you?&#8221, when skiing, I’m that rarest of birds, the rara avis Africanus Americus, or the black American snowflier.:lol:

The men on the pro patrol up in Durango don’t like me.

Here I am, some black, "city-fella," who married the most intelligent, gonzo-skiier, beautiful blonde any of them ever knew, and they just don’t get it. Never mind that I make her happy, or that I manage to keep up with her (actually, while I’m better at cross-country skiing than she is, and she doesn’t board at all, the lady was an instructor at Taos-a pretty big deal-she's a downhill godess, and I am not worthy…:lol:....)I'm not a cowboy (lots of them out here-real ones), or a ski-instructor, but some sort of engineer-nerd:a sailor, fer chrissakes, and not even a commercial airline pilot.(Yeah, she dated an airline pilot for a while. Him they liked.)

When I first met her old ski pals, the reception from more than a few of them was chilly, to say the least.

Forget that I’m a “snowboarder,” which is somehow supposed to be beneath them. I really pissed them off one weekend though. They just can’t stand it that on one fine day, I jumped off the biggest cliff at Purgatory. I hung in the air a looooong time. I made the landing, surprising myself, and in sweet relief, looped toy turns through perfect powder on down.

All that day, they didn’t talk to me. Kids saw me do it, and a few may even have tried it and made their jobs harder, but what it really was is that they were jealous.They didn’t talk about me either, or the jump, not to anybody, but they knew: a black guy on a snowboard had done it first.

That cliff had been under Lift #3, waiting since 1965, or at least for 15 years or so since that lift was put in. They could have jumped off anytime-lots of dudes had-but none of them had. :lol:

I was just out for the afternoon. I’d been nursing a not-quite bum knee (surgery a few years later), but Rita (that’s the wife) wanted to go skiing, so I brought along my snowboard. I knew I shouldn’t jump, but I couldn’t help myself. The conditions were perfect.

There was enough snow to cover the logs in the landing area and to allow me to clear the outcropping rock, and oddly enough,and rest had made my knee strong that day.

I was sooo happy-andI bet you'll be too, Carol.

Hmmm.....maybe we'll head up to Durango this weekend.....

 

[seasoned]

Rita-that's the wife-is a ski instructor. Taught at Taos for years.

Fifteen years ago, when my son was 12, he asked to take snowboarding lessons. We were all recalibrating our lives at the time, and it had always been the kids’ mother’s and my policy to encourage all their endeavors, so I said “sure.” Since I’d skateboarded and surfed when I was his age, I had always been somewhat intrigued by snowboarding, so I took lessons with him. Now, my son doesn’t get onto the slopes much anymore-he probably likes falling into cold wet snow even less than I do, if such a thing is possible, but I stuck with it-in fact, in spite of falling on my butt several times, I was sooo happy!

Later, I met Rita-that's the wife-and wound up married to a ski instructor/wilderness freak/fitness Nazi, so I get to spend lots of time backcountry skiing, camping and snowboarding…..heck,one of our first weekends away together was avalanche school in Silverton, Colorado.

You don’t see a lot of black guys on the slopes-or Indians. While I qualify as both (and often get asked “What are you?”), when skiing, I’m that rarest of birds, the rara avis Africanus Americus, or the black American snowflier.:lol:

The men on the pro patrol up in Durango don’t like me.

Here I am, some black, "city-fella," who married the most intelligent, gonzo-skiier, beautiful blonde any of them ever knew, and they just don’t get it. Never mind that I make her happy, or that I manage to keep up with her (actually, while I’m better at cross-country skiing than she is, and she doesn’t board at all, the lady was an instructor at Taos-a pretty big deal-she's a downhill godess, and I am not worthy…:lol:....)I'm not a cowboy (lots of them out here-real ones), or a ski-instructor, but some sort of engineer-nerd:a sailor, fer chrissakes, and not even a commercial airline pilot.(Yeah, she dated an airline pilot for a while. Him they liked.)

When I first met her old ski pals, the reception from more than a few of them was chilly, to say the least.

Forget that I’m a “snowboarder,” which is somehow supposed to be beneath them. I really pissed them off one weekend though. They just can’t stand it that on one fine day, I jumped off the biggest cliff at Purgatory. I hung in the air a looooong time. I made the landing, surprising myself, and in sweet relief, looped toy turns through perfect powder on down.

All that day, they didn’t talk to me. Kids saw me do it, and a few may even have tried it and made their jobs harder, but what it really was is that they were jealous.They didn’t talk about me either, or the jump, not to anybody, but they knew: a black guy on a snowboard had done it first.

That cliff had been under Lift #3, waiting since 1965, or at least for 15 years or so since that lift was put in. They could have jumped off anytime-lots of dudes had-but none of them had. :lol:

I was just out for the afternoon. I’d been nursing a not-quite bum knee (surgery a few years later), but Rita (that’s the wife) wanted to go skiing, so I brought along my snowboard. I knew I shouldn’t jump, but I couldn’t help myself. The conditions were perfect.

There was enough snow to cover the logs in the landing area and to allow me to clear the outcropping rock, and oddly enough,and rest had made my knee strong that day.

I was sooo happy-andI bet you'll be too, Carol.

Hmmm.....maybe we'll head up to Durango this weekend.....

Your stories are the BEST.