Snowboarding

I had never been skiing or snowboarding. I enjoyed playing in the snow but sledding was the fastest I had ever gone down a hill. I was fourteen and I had some money from working as a janitor at Snow College, the local community college in town. My friend Kyle Strate knew how to ski and he and his dad were planning to go up to Brighton, a ski resort in Big Cottonwood canyon about two hours north of Ephraim where I lived. Kyle invited me to come up with he and his dad. He was going night skiing which means that from four until ten the resort turns on a bunch of flood lights on select runs and it costs less to ski or snowboard. I asked my parents if I could go with them and they agreed. Now snowboarding was still a relatively new sport. My friend Kyle had never done it and since I had never been skiing I thought I might as well try this new thing that "everyone" was doing. So I went up with my friend and we got to the lodge bought our lift tickets and I went down to the rental office to get a snowboard and boots. The lift ticket is attached to the coat with a triangle like piece of metal hooked to a zipper or clip on the jacket. The lift ticket is a sticker that goes over the top of the metal and must be visible to the lift operators so they now that you have paid for the right to get on the mountain. I went to the rental area and got set up with boots and snowboard. The snowboards had a front fin shaped like a soft triangle that raised up gradually about three inches and the back of the board was completely flat. I got there and the rental guy asked if I rode straight or goofy. I had no idea what he meant. I stared at him blankly and he asked again only this time he said do I ride with my right foot forward or my left. I didn't know the answer to that either so I just said goofy and let him set up the board that way. Goofy is with the right foot forward. I learned the next time I went that I prefer straight with the left foot forward. Once I had my boots on and the board in hand I was ready to go. I stepped outside and watched other snowboarders to see what they did. My friend Kyle and his dad were already up the mountain and I told them I would catch up eventually. I saw that the snowboarders attached their front foot to the board and left their back foot out of the strap and then they would push and slide with the back foot to get over to the lifts so that's what I did. I strapped in and started to walk. Talk about the most awkward way to walk, I could barely keep my balance and the snowboard kept sliding underneath me and twisting my knee. I finally made it to the lift and watched again as snowboarders got on the lift. They do not strap the back foot in they sit down on the lift and dangle the snowboard at a very odd angle while the other foot just hovers. I was nervous. I had never been on a lift before. I had never been snowboarding before. I got to the top of the lift and watched as others got off. Skiers seemed to get off with ease with poles in hand and ski's clamped firmly in place they slid off with ease and grace. It soon was my turn to get off of the lift. I stood up with the board touching the snow and I promptly fell over. The lift operator had to stop the lift or me while I crawled away from the dismounting area. With me now out of the way it was time to put my back foot onto the snowboard. I strapped in and stood up. Once I had gained my balance I pointed the board towards where the other people were going and started to slide. At first I thought this was easy, just like skateboarding back home. What I did not realize was I was just on a small slope and the fun was soon to come. I followed other snowboarders and I saw several signs with different names of the runs, Whistling Beaver, Christmas Lodge, Tall Pine, or something very similar. The truth is I can not say that I read the names at the time I just saw the color labels. There was green, blue, black diamond and double black diamond with arrows pointing in the general direction of each run. I did not know what each color meant and since I was already pointed towards the double black diamond run I just kept going, no need to try and turn or anything. I was picking up speed. I was trying to watch other snowboarders to see how they steered but I couldn't tell how they got their snowboards to go so smoothly while I was just trying to stay standing. I had overheard one snowboarder talking to another about being careful not to catch an edge so I was at least aware of one issue I might have later. I liked speed. I always have liked to go fast but on this snowboard going down a trail labeled as a double black diamond I was terrified at how fast I was moving. I realize now that the first thing I should have learned was how to stop. I was starting to go so fast that I was passing other people on the run and then I hit the worst thing imaginable for a snowboarder, moguls. Now again I had never been skiing or snowboarding in my life and I did not know what any of these things were I just knew I hated moguls. Moguls are little hills of snow that skiers tend to enjoy. it gives a skier the sense of bouncing and it allows a skier to have fun bouncing over these mounds of snow. Snowboards don't do so well on bumps in the snow all together like that. I hit the first of many moguls and I went tumbling head over snowboard. I landed hard got back up and looked around more embarrassed that I had fallen so hard. I pointed downhill and tried again. Again the moguls made me get air born. I picked myself up half a dozen times before I got out of the moguls and I wasn't anywhere near the bottom. I continued down the hill picking up speed and trying to watch out for anyone around me. I was just starting to feel confident that I would not fall again when the run went into a single track trail through the trees. Now a quick side note. Skiers are traveling down hill while facing down hill. Skiers have poles that they can use to help them gain speed and provide balance. Snowboarders face sideways down the hill and do not have poles to help provide balance or gain speed. On the trail through the trees I was terrified. I was traveling at a very high rate of speed and there was a skier in front of me and behind me. I didn't want to wreck because if I did the skier behind me would wreck into me and if I couldn't slow down I was going to wreck into the skier in front of me. I was so worried about these two skiers that I forgot about the trees. I turned the snowboard slightly one direction and I "caught the edge" what I had overheard before. I went right into the trees. It took me a while to get out of the trees and although my body was uninjured my pride was severely bruised. I went down the rest of the way as slow as I could making sure not to catch my edge. I found the easiest way for me to stop if I got going too fast was to just turn facing the downhill of the mountain and sit down. I used this option a lot and my shirt soon stretched and froze over my backside. By the end of my first run my friend Kyle had gone down three times. He found me down at the bottom and we went back up the mountain. I followed him telling him of my adventures while leaving a few of the details out. I rode up with him and I fell again while dismounting. Once strapped in I told him which way I had gone that first run and he just started laughing. I didn't know why he was laughing. He explained that the colors and the diamonds meant the level of difficulty and that double black diamond is the hardest run on the mountain. Now with that new knowledge in mind I took the blue run next and it really was easier and less steep than what I had just done. I fell a lot more that night and soon had bruises on my bum from all of the stopping. I gave myself a small cut on my chin when I "caught the edge" again and I generally was wet and tired by the time we finished for the night. I tried again just a few weeks later this time with the left foot forward and the right foot back and I loved every minute thereafter. I love to snowboard and I eventually became very good at it. It took me years of practice. I am just glad that I didn't give up after my first run going down the double black diamond.