An Experiment

by Helen

I have decided to take up snowboarding. I actually started trying this a couple of seasons ago, but this season I am really going for it.

I remember my first lesson that I took at Steven's in 2008. It was a beginner package (great deal by the way, $89 and you get a lift ticket, gear and a 2 hour lesson). The instructor was no older than 20 or 21 and clearly did not just smoke cigarettes in his free time. When he was trying to teach me to do something on that first day - I remember him telling me "you can't be this uptight when snowboarding, you just gotta relax and go with it." And then he walked up the hill with difficulty to meet me because I couldn't get up and he struggled with his smoke filled lungs to walk up hill.

Well needless to say, I am not the most relaxed person you've ever met. Going with the flow is something I can sort of do, but not when it involves doing something new that I'm not very good at and could result in broken bones. So the direction of relaxing seemed absurd to me.

Then I bought a pink and blue patterned jacked. Also something that I would really never embrace, but it gave off a good vibe and looked like something a snowboarder would wear.

So slowly but surely, snowboarding has become this thing for me - it is everything I am not. It is slightly dangerous, it attracts hipsters and it involves bright colors.

But I've finally linked my turns and I have bought my own equipment. As someone who always strives to improve at everything I do, I will also do that for awhile with snowboarding, but only until I can get down a black diamond in a comparable way to people who know how to board or ski. And then I will stop trying to improve. I will just go up to the mountains to be in the snow and enjoy people's company. I am not going to perfect snowboarding and learn how to jump or do tricks or stunts.

As a result, snowboarding is this activity in which I push my boundaries - I wear pink, I try to "loosen up" and I aim to just be good enough but not to excel and embrace that.

I am not sure if I will succeed, but I am going to do my very best.

Comments

[Chih]

That's exactly my goal for snowboarding! I just want to be able to comfortably go down a mountain without worrying too much about dying. With that said, how's the snow? I hear that Washington may have been the only region to get any decent snow this season. (Hence Joe and I have not gone snowboarding at all since last season.)