Activity: Snowboarding
Location: Monarch
As a telemark skier, I always thought that picking up snowboarding would be contrary to evolution. But... I was proven wrong! Snowboarding was fun, but carving absolutely put me in heaven. The feeling of going super fast into a turn, being able to lean all the way down onto the slope, and having enough G's at the end of it to just pop back up is incredibly special. I found a new passion...
Learning to snowboard
My friends Michael and Kanyu came to visit for a few days, and as they're both boarders I thought I'd strap the board on and give them something to laugh about. Lisa and Scott came along as well, and actually both devoted the entire day to teaching me how it's done.
I'd like to think that I picked it up reasonably quickly -- and I was having a great time doing it as well! I couldn't stress too much how generous Lisa and Scott were -- taking the entire day to hang out with a slowpoke like me. Their attention made a huge difference, and I had a lot of fun that day.
Tom learns to snowboard
They set me up on a learning board with soft boots, which felt weird after using plastic telemark boots for the past few years. It seemed like the boots and the bindings had a lot of give to them, and I had a hard time controlling the board. By the afternoon Scott said I was overpowering the board and that I was ready for something stronger!