Bottom Of The Barrel

Snowboarding

This weekend we tried snowboarding for the first time over at Wachusett Mountain. It was funny to see a group of 8 people who are in there late 20's/early 30's waiting for Beginner Snowboarding lessons on one side of the sign and a group of 4 and 5 year olds waiting for the same lesson. We spent the next 2 and a half hours learning to make heal and front side J turns with our instructors [note they were 15 year old - made me feel a bit old]. We spent more time learning how to fall and sitting on our buts in the snow. Overall, the lesson was pretty good and it definitely helped get us more comfortable on a board. After our lesson, we took several runs on Easy Rider, using the Magic Carpet to get back up the slope. It was a bit crowded in this area of the mountain with other lessons but it was a good next step learning area.

After a few runs down this part of the hill, I was able to actually stay on the board and not fall down [which I did many times already]. Now I was ready for the lift and trying a little longer trail, named Sundowner. This was much longer but had much less traffic than Easy Rider. The first time down I dumped out a couple of times but was doing better. The next two runs went great and I didn't fall once. Feeling confident, I went for one more run and fell pretty good - a reminder that I'm not that good on a snowboard. Trying to do a heal side turn, I clipped the toe side edge and went flying head first. Landed on my shoulder and chest and that left me very sore. Oh well, that's the side effects of picking up a sport like snowboarding at my age.

Overall, it was a fantastic day with perfect weather for snowboarding. I would do it again, just with ski pants this time and maybe one less run. Thanks to everyone who went - it was a blast.

Labels: snowboarding

posted by TheWino @ 11:26 AM