highpeaksdrifter
New member
On Friday, the winds where howling in the High Peaks and every lift was on hold at Whiteface except for the Mixing Bowl chair. This is a beginner chair that services 2 trails right in front of the main lodge next to the snowsports meeting place.
I’m just waiting, hanging around, talking to some friends in the lodge looking out a window at some beginners going up the Mixing Bowl. Then I decide I’m going down to the rental shop and grabbing some snowboard gear. I figure at least it will be better then just hanging around or going home and watching TV. A friend who started boarding just last month says he’ll go get his gear and meet me outside.
So I get my gear, get it on and just try to slide around a little with only one foot attached. It felt very alien to me. My friend comes out and we decided to go up in separate chairs so I don’t knock him over getting off. Needless to say I fell. I get over to the top of the hill strap in and try to get up with the heel edge in. Not happening, every time I try to stand up the board slides away and I’m back on my ass. My buddy is ahead of me so he goes down to come back up to help me. I finally make it to a lift tower, on my hands and ass mostly and use that to help me get up. My friend comes down and it’s the semi-blind leading the blind. He finally takes his board off and holds me up as I make my way down. It wasn’t pretty.
Unbeknownst to me another friend was watching from the bottom and asked a snowboard instructor to come over and help me. She gave me some pointers and told me a beginner lesson was about to start and I should get in, so I did. It was just me and another guy so I got a lot of one on one. Every time down, I got better and every time down I got more encouraged. I could do the “Floating Leaf” all the way down without falling, but my instructor told me I had to link turns cause that way down caused bad habits to form. Linking turns was harder and I got going too fast a couple of times and fell hard. Toward the end I could sort of do it toward the flatter part at the bottom.
In summary I had a blast. I fell a lot, and it was wind blown hard pack so it hurt, but I felt like I learned a lot. I really felt a sense of accomplishment with what I was able to do by the end of that lesson. What looked to be an el crapo day turned into a good day. It sounds weird, but I’m glad for the wind that day cause otherwise I never would have tried snowboarding.
Skiing will always be my thing, but I’m definitely going to snowboard again.
I’m just waiting, hanging around, talking to some friends in the lodge looking out a window at some beginners going up the Mixing Bowl. Then I decide I’m going down to the rental shop and grabbing some snowboard gear. I figure at least it will be better then just hanging around or going home and watching TV. A friend who started boarding just last month says he’ll go get his gear and meet me outside.
So I get my gear, get it on and just try to slide around a little with only one foot attached. It felt very alien to me. My friend comes out and we decided to go up in separate chairs so I don’t knock him over getting off. Needless to say I fell. I get over to the top of the hill strap in and try to get up with the heel edge in. Not happening, every time I try to stand up the board slides away and I’m back on my ass. My buddy is ahead of me so he goes down to come back up to help me. I finally make it to a lift tower, on my hands and ass mostly and use that to help me get up. My friend comes down and it’s the semi-blind leading the blind. He finally takes his board off and holds me up as I make my way down. It wasn’t pretty.
Unbeknownst to me another friend was watching from the bottom and asked a snowboard instructor to come over and help me. She gave me some pointers and told me a beginner lesson was about to start and I should get in, so I did. It was just me and another guy so I got a lot of one on one. Every time down, I got better and every time down I got more encouraged. I could do the “Floating Leaf” all the way down without falling, but my instructor told me I had to link turns cause that way down caused bad habits to form. Linking turns was harder and I got going too fast a couple of times and fell hard. Toward the end I could sort of do it toward the flatter part at the bottom.
In summary I had a blast. I fell a lot, and it was wind blown hard pack so it hurt, but I felt like I learned a lot. I really felt a sense of accomplishment with what I was able to do by the end of that lesson. What looked to be an el crapo day turned into a good day. It sounds weird, but I’m glad for the wind that day cause otherwise I never would have tried snowboarding.
Skiing will always be my thing, but I’m definitely going to snowboard again.
