my first attempt at snowboarding

Remember way back at Christmas when I got a snowboard and I was so excited to learn? Well Danny and I finally found time to go up to Wolf Creek on Monday after work.

I was a little nervous about the whole thing. I'm pretty hit and miss on all things that take any sort of skill. I usually either catch on on my very first try (i.e. wakeboarding - got up the first time) or I fail miserably and end up looking like an idiot (i.e. pretty much all sports). I was hoping that snowboarding would be one of those catch on right away things.

When we got up to the resort, Danny's parents, brother and sister were already there. I was secretly hoping that Danny and I were going to be able to go alone so that I wouldn't have an audience to watch me fail. But oh well.

We started by getting all of our gear on. I felt like Ralphie in A Christmas Story - very puffy and awkward. I stepped into my snowboard and was having a difficult time balancing. Then came getting onto the chair lift. For some reason I was twisted around the wrong way and Danny had to pretty much pull me on. Nice way to start.

We talked about what to do on the way up and I started to feel pretty good about things. I was super nervous about getting off the lift but it was easy and I fortunately didn't fall. We strapped on our bindings, Danny gave me some more instruction and I went for it.

And guess what - it came to me like wakeboarding! I was thrilled! Of course I wasn't a pro but I made it down the mountain without really falling and was able to slow down and stop and sort of steer (apparently that's the tricky part).

The next time down the hill Danny felt that I was ready to learn to go "toe side" and go down the mountain backward. This was a lot more difficult than what I had been doing. My first try, Danny was kneeling behind me about 10 feet away watching. I was bent in half with my bum straight up in the air going backward. I managed to aim directly for Danny who got my bum covered in snow right in his face. I thought it was hilarious. On my next attempt I "caught an edge" with my snowboard which made me fall flat on my back and hit my head. Hard.

I got up and tried again but my head was killing me and I was over thinking things so I wasn't doing as well. I made it to the bottom and we decided to go up the lift again. On the way up Danny was asking me about my head and then he started thinking about Natasha Richardson and had pretty much determined I was dying by the time we made it to the top. It was actually pretty cute how concerned he was. I convinced him I was fine and we went down the mountain again. Danny has already informed me that I'm not allowed to go again until I get a helmet.

Overall snowboarding was really fun and I'm excited to do it again. But I'll have to wait a little bit because I'm still hurting from that fall. My neck hurts too much to turn my head and I feel like someone hit me in the back with a baseball bat. See, doesn't that sound fun?