Wow -- it's been quiet on Daggle. OK, I've been writing tons at Search Engine Land. That, along with other work plus travel has left me neglecting my personal blog here. But now I'm on vacation, enjoying the tons of fresh snow in Vermont. With a little quiet time this evening, I wanted to write a bit about snowboarding.

I've been skiing for about 20 years now. I learned by having my friends take me to the top of Snow Summit in Big Bear, the mountains in Southern California. I love to ski, though it's always with the same dread before I start any day. Damn. Time to put on the boots.

What's the deal -- two decades, and boots haven't gotten any better? Not more comfortable? Last year, I'd had enough and purchased my own for the first time. I figured making the plunge would expose me to a new world of more comfortable skiing. No such luck.

I probably made a mistake in telling the guy I was an advanced skier, because I think to him that meant stiff boots for better performance. The boots are much better than rentals, but they still suck to wear.

Last year, I also finally decided to try snowboarding. I get so little skiing time that snowboarding -- learning to snowboard -- felt like wasted time to me. But the resort we go to offers night snowboard lessons, so I could go out without losing any quality skiing time. I picked up the basics in the lesson. The next day, I went out on my own and found I could fly down a hill easily enough but stopping, well, stopping involved a lot of falling down.

I figured that would be it for me and snowboarding, since I was loathe to waste daylight on lessons. But in January, I spent a day trying it again out near Seattle, and it clicked. I could turn and stop without resorting to becoming a human anchor and throwing myself to the ground. I loved it.

I especially loved the boots. Snowboarding boots are way comfortable. Plus, carrying that single board is much easier than carrying two skies and poles around.

Now out on our yearly ski trip, I decided to make the plunge. This time, it's snowboarding everyday. Maybe I'll ski one day toward the end of the week. Maybe not, because I'm loving snowboarding.

I'm not loving the sometimes spectacular spills, but they are becoming fewer -- and snow's so fresh and deep that they don't feel so bad. I've also made the plunge not just to commit my time to snowboarding but also some cash on equipment.

As I said, I only got ski boots for the first time last year. I never felt I skied enough to make buying equipment worthwhile. Plus, who wants to be trucking around a giant bag with skies on flights? But boots -- they're small enough to take, so they finally made sense to buy.

I also remember the first time I did inline skating. I've been rollerskating since I was three. When I first tried inline skating as an adult, it was terrible. I could barely stand, much less control myself.

I figured it was just a case of being ruined by having grown-up on regular rollerskates. But then I tried on a pair of skates my friend owned, some Rollerblades rather than the cheap inline skates I'd purchased. Wow -- what a difference. I could do everything with complete control.

So equipment can make a difference -- something that's obvious to many people but for me, it still took that personal lesson. Starting out with snowboarding, I want to start out right. Getting boots was an obvious good move to make. But you know, snowboards are smaller than skies and easier to truck around. So why not get a board as well.

Well, thanks to my new friends at No School Snowboards, I'm fully equipped. They spent a ton of time talking to me about different boots, boards, binding and so on. For those who care, the equipment rundown:

• Salomon Maori Boots (and I thought rental shoes were comfortable -- wow! Plus, these have this cool pull-and-your-laced system)
• Burton Custom Bindings (I liked especially that they clap down on the toe)
• Burton Blunt (155) Board

A quick shot of it:

I'm not so thrilled with the graphic, but the woman said it's a great board. And the three 16 years olds that walked into the shop later were all pretty impressed as they watched her putting on the bindings, saying how great it was. Since they came AFTER she sold it to me, I figured it wasn't a setup :)

Of course, now the pressure is on. If there's anything I hate, it's seeing someone all equipped with the latest stuff but barely able to use any of it. I had a great day today and feel I'll be able to grow into my new board. Time will tell!

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