The day I played hooky - my adventure in snowboarding
(Continued)
There I was standing on top of one of the eas- ier beginner slopes. I rented a snowboard and of course decided that I didn’t need a lesson. My friend was a good snowboarder and he said he could teach me. What could go wrong! Very quickly I learned that turning was impor- tant. Why do you need to turn when you’re go- ing down the hill? In case you don’t know let me tell you what I found out on my first run down the hill. Without turning you start going pretty fast...pretty quickly, as in immediately. So while I was rocketing down the slope, the wind trying hard to knock me backwards, I sud- denly realized I had better learn how to turn. The next three hours went like this: Get to the top of the mountain. Race down the mountain in a straight line, then turn hard left (I figured out how to turn left because that way I could still face the downward slope of the moun- tain). Then I would straighten out and continue my meteoric plunge in another straight line but then I had to turn right because left now meant the edge of the mountain. I wasn’t as comfortable turning right because my back was then placed toward the downward side of the mountain and I would be looking back up the hill instead of down. So I tried to turn right and had some absolutely fantastic wipeouts. Bouncing and crashing down the mountain, arms and legs splayed out in all directions as
won a gold medal at the Winter Olympics. I met up with my friend, who had abandoned me for more difficult slopes and we decided to have one last run before we headed home. Myfinaltrekdownthemountainwasanabsolute pleasure. I was relaxed and still high on my previous successful run. This was getting easy and I felt like I really knew what I was doing... and then I caught an edge on the front of my board and before I could even register that I was falling I face planted hard into the snow– breaking my goggles and splitting my lip. In the end the mountain humbled me yet again. The trip back home was uneventful but I do remember when we got home my mother had asked my friend how I did. His response: “Mrs. Ostling, I don’t know how your son is even standing right now with the kind of falls I saw him take.” I kind of felt the same way. And that was the first and last time I’ve ever tried the outdoor mountain sports. I can’t even imagine how I would feel if I did the same thing now. Hope you enjoyed my funny story. It’s not intended to discourage anyone from skiing or snowboarding...on the contrary, you know I have two kids who are going to need to go to college sometime so feel free to go up there and fall down the mountain. Just make sure you come see me afterwards (I kid).
I tried to somehow stop from becoming one of those huge snowballs you see rolling down the mountain. Had I already been a physical therapist I would have noticed all the liga- ments and joints in my body straining to keep myself in one piece as my body was bending and contorting into angles and positions that even at the age of 18 I knew were not supposed to happen. Then I would pick myself up at the bottom and wait for the chairlift to take me back up the same mountain. Rinse and repeat. Finally the day was coming to an end and my moment of glory was upon me. After several hours of practicing on the same mountain I finally figured it out. I knew this slope like the back of my hand and when I slid down to the bottom having made it all the way from the top without falling once I felt like I had just
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