Snowboarding is a Four Letter Word

Ever since high school, I've loved snowboarding. I still look back fondly upon the first memories I have of snowboarding. It was when I was in gr.10, when Bernie and Annie invited me to go on the snowboarding trip with their family. I was somewhat hesitant about choosing to snowboard, since I've only skied before in my life, but I decided to do it. And I signed up for a day-long beginner lessons, and so did Bernie's mom, hahaha. And so begun my love for snowboarding.

Granted, by the end of the first day my butt/knees/elbows were all practically black from the bruising. The first time I skied (when I was 9), I fell twice the entire day, albeit they were pretty spectacular falls (one involved me hitting a bump and literally flying into a tree). The first time I snowboarded, I had fallen 4 times before I had even reached the lift, and then getting off the lift...is one of the hardest things ever. I still haven't mastered this skill. I probably fall around 50% of the time I try to get off the lift.

On my trip to Devil's Head this past week, I did snowboarding on the first day, and then on the second day I decided to try skiing for the first time since 4th grade. In comparison with snowboarding, skiing seems so much easier to learn. By the end of the day I could go down black diamonds without falling on skis. It's probably a combination of the easy runs at Devil's Head and the relative easiness of skiing.

On this trip, I practiced and learned the following things:

-how to carve goofy style on a snowboard

-how to ski

-how to drive a manual (thanks for lettin me abuse your car, Peter =D...)

Learning how to snowboard goofy was almost like relearning how to snowboard again. Needless to say I fell a lot. But there comes a point, where your body is so bruised, that when you fall on it, there is a fleeting moment when the pain consumes your entire being. When you are incapable of feeling anything else other than pain, incapable of moving, or even to make a sound. It's almost a state of purity, when the pain cleanses your being for a moment, before the outside world rushes in again. As it happened over and over again, I became almost eager for the pain every time I felt myself lose control of the board.... For my mind to be consumed so singularly by one and only one thought. It must be what real love feels like...something I've never experienced from anyone, and something I may never get to experience.

I love snowboarding, because it takes so much focus and concentration, that I can just shut out the world for a while. It's the quality that makes me love everything that I love to do, such as piano and rock climbing. With all the distractions that the technological age brings, it's nice to just be able to dedicate and focus all my attention on a single thing, and let the rest just melt away into the background. When I'm on the snowboard, gliding down the slope, nothing else matters other than the joys that snowboarding brings. Just the slope, the feel of the snow, the wind rushing past, and the knowledge that I am in control of everything that matters to me, even if just for a fleeting moment.

-FCDH