Wednesday, February 18, 2009

On Snowboarding

Snowboarding can be a painful sport. I went snowboarding 3 days ago, but I still feel the bruises every time I lay down or walk. This was only the second time I went snowboarding. The first time was in March and we had a coupon that gave us lift tickets, rentals, and a lesson for something like $20. That was a pretty damn good deal since this time, I paid nearly $80 for a lift ticket and rentals.

The first time I went snowboarding was one of the most exhausting experiences I can remember. After learning the basics and falling down immediately after I got up, the remainder of the day mostly consisted of me falling down every 5 seconds and having to do a giant pushup to get myself back on my feet (while attached to a snowboard). Doing one pushup at a time? That doesn't sound so bad! Well, it is when you're doing it for 5 hours and when you actually have to push yourself up with all your might or else you won't generate enough force to get yourself back up. The thing that actually bothered me was that my boots were too tight. I have wideish feet, but the boots I rented were normal fit. So, this resulted in pain and then my feet going numb after an hour or so. Also, it was drizzling that day. At the end, I took off my jacket (not waterproof) and squeezed it out like a rag. About a gallon water rushed out onto the floor.

Despite all these things, I had a ton of fun snowboarding that time and decided to go again with some friends from college. We went to Catamount, in Hillsdale, MA and the drive alone would have been worth it. Taking 22 North, you can see on your right a wide valley that has been cleared as farmland. Since the valley has been cleared, you can see for miles and miles and have an unobscured view of the road ahead and on your right, the mountains of Taconic State Park. It was like a perfect painting of rural America. I drove on that same route on the way back. The view was made more spectacular by the setting sun, which made the landscape and sky eminate a golden glow. It was among the most beautiful drives I have ever taken and I regret not having brough my camera with me to capture the moment. Then again, the moment was made more memorable as I did not concern myself with its preservation.

Once we got there and got our equipment around noon, we only had about 4 hours to go before the slopes closed, since it was a Sunday. Everyone expected the mountain to be open until 6 or so, and resolved to continue skiing/snowboarding until the place closed without stopping for lunch. I don't miss meals, so I stopped for lunch and forgetting their promise to go hardcore, everyone else did as well.

Snowboarding itself was a mixed bag. First off, I was a lot better than the first time I went since I had a faint idea of what to do and wasn't falling much at all. Now that's out of the way, let's move on to the bitching.

There were waaaaaaaay too many people there. It was President's Day weekened and the place was packed. There were huge crowds of people at the base of the mountain and the trails had constant traffic. The so called easy slopes for some reason had extremely narrow lanes at their beginning. This is a problem since there were so many people, you had to avoid all these other people but stay in the lane. It is also hard for snowboarders to turn/slow down in a narrow corridor, or more accurately, it is hard for people who suck at snowboarding to do so.

A narrow lane wouldn't be much of a problem if all that lay to the sides was untended snow. However, this was not the case. To your right are rocks. To your left is a very very steep cliff (with a flimsy wire fence). If you are new at snowboarding and are only able to turn one way (toeside), this situation freaks you the fuck out. If you go too far one way, you'll bash your head on rocks and die. If you go too far the other way, you'll go off a cliff and die. Fun!

So, I proceeded down this narrow corridor very slowly. However, you cannot go too slowly on a snowboard without slowing down and you can't slow down without making turns, and let me remind you that this corridor is narrow and you can't make turns. So, the only way to go on is to barrel down as fast as possible. Since I was new to this, that seemed like a bad idea, so I just fell on purpose so I wouldn't have to go play speed racer on the edge of a cliff.

The temperature had been above freezing the two days prior and the snow on the mountain melted and reformed as ice overnight. This was bad news for me, since when I fell, I fell hard. I wasn't falling on fluffy white snowflakes, but on a deciptive layer of crushed ice. Underneath, it was all solid. I brushed the hell out of my knees, hip, and ass that way. Luckily for me, I didn't suck as much as snowboarding, so I didn't fall too often. Nonetheless, I got beat up quite a bit, though not too much, since I was able to run on the treadmill the next morning.

Anyways, this post has reached tl;dr length long ago and I'm going to stop. Two posts in one day. How's that for being frequent?

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