On Snowblades and Snowboards

I am in pain. . . every single part, bone, joint, and corner of my body is in pain. And is not just the muscles due to the exercise, but the pain also comes due to some. . . er. . . falling? Yes, I hit the ground a couple of times and that shit wasn't as soft as it was suppose to be.

As I stated before, I got me the snowblades and that was such a good decision. Those are not really that fast, but still you can manage to get some pretty decent speed. Besides, snowblades are way more easy to handle than regular skies. I think from now on I'm gona stick to the snowblades and try to improve my style with them. I didn't rent poles when I first got the snowblades, but I found out that I still need them, specially when I was in the chairlift area and I needed to propel myself, those come very handy. So I just rent two from the ski place (it was only $3!!).

We went to Winterplace in West Virginia, which is a nice mountain. I would say is perfect for people like me who think that they are the best skier to ever set foot on this planet, but that actually need to improve their skills "a little bit more". You can go all the way to the top and ski down to the base of the mountain through some mix of beginners and intermediate trials, which is pretty cool. And as I said, while I was using the snowblades everything went smooth and I didn't fall at all, I really felt that I was an expert. So confident I was in my skills that I had the "great" idea of borrowing the snowboard of one of my friends.

Good God! Talk about a good idea turned bad. . . You see, this was the first time my three friends were skiing and they choose to try the snowboard. I told them that it wasn't a very clever decision because from what I've heard, the snowboard is more difficult. And when we were in the mountain it seemed to me that they were falling like every three meters! I even got upset and told them to stop being so fucking stupid and try to stay on their two feet for more than ten seconds at a time! Seriously, it was frustrating! But they kept falling no matter what.

Finally one of my friends got fed up and he said that he had had it; that he was too sored to snowboard more and that he was going back to the Main House to have some hot chocolate. At that time was when I had this "wonderful" idea of borrowing his snowboard in order to show my other two friends how easy it was to stay on your two feet. Talk about big mistakes in my life and that one. I made it to one of the beginners trials and after falling every three meters or so, I was able to climb on the chairlift and head to the top of the easiest trial of them all. Once I made it to the top of the beginners trial and while jumping out of the chairlift I landed face first on the snow -the people that work there had to stop the whole lift and help me get up. Embarrassing. And then, while snowboarding down the hill and heading straight to the trees with a terrifying scream, and landing on the hard snow, I realized why those poor fuckers had been falling all the time: that shit is not easy!.

But as hard headed as I am, I decided that it was just the first time and that I had to try again. So I climbed in the chairlift only to fall again at the top and to have to be helped by the same staff people. Embarrassing again. And I have to point out here that it had been snowing and it was freezing cold, so the snow wasn't soft and smooth but in a lot of parts it was frozen, and you just can't steer on frozen snow! To make a long story short, I manage to stay on my feet for quite a while which resulted in poor Jean-Francois going very fucking fast downhill and at some point loosing control of the snowboard only to have a massive fall out on the hard-as-concrete snow. And the thing is that once you fall, the snowboard is still attached to you! That was a very VERY painful experience. As I said at the beginning of this post, I am in tremendous pain. . .

So from now on, I'm just gona forget about the whole snowboard thing, because obviously I didn't come with the snowboard chip installed in my brain, and going to concentrate on skies and blades for the next time. Which by the way I hope it will be at some point in January again. . . hehe can't wait!