Getting Into Snowboarding

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!