An old report of my first encounter with snowboarding

Post by AZ » Monday 3 December 2007, 13:06

Hello dear Friends:

while looking in almost forgotten areas of the disc of my PC, I found my old report on my very first day on the snowboard.
It was quite some time ago (1997!) and it was directed to a bunch of motorcycling friends of mine.
But it still made me laugh when I re-read it yesterday.
Here it is.

Date: Sun, 12 Jan 1997 22:52:41 +0100
To: vidiot@zinet.com
From: Alessandro Zorat
Subject: snowboard report (no BMW content)

Hi friends:
Just to show that I can never learn, I signed up for a 2 day snow-boarding course.
This is something that I wanted to do for awhile, but so far I had been able to do nothing more dangerous than just think about it - until Nina (daughter) decided that we should give it a try.
So, 85.000 Liras later, at 1:00 on Saturday we were on the bunny hill at Mt. Bondone. I had convinced two other friends (Carla and Ruggero - both of my tender age) to take part in the event.

The thing is MUCH more difficult than it looks! - Believe me!!!!
Small children were in the same area - that serves as an initial testing ground for skiers as well. Parents who wouldn't let their children to cross the road without holding their hands, did not even blink at leaving their first borns and assorted munchkins in an environment more dangerous than that of a ship's bridge where a few lose cannons are caroming around.
You first have to decide if you are "regular" or "goofy"; This has something to do with which foot you put forward when sliding - not with your attitude at handling simple tasks, so don't make easy irony if I tell you that both Nina and I (and just about everybody else - 12 all in all) - were "goofies".

You strap a board to your feet and you are told to push off straight.
Simple enough, except that your feet are put at about 60 degrees relative to the board. You push and the board goes the other way.
Nevertheless, we managed that in short order.
And then all of a sudden, we started getting it: hey - this thing is not that different from my windsurfing board: you bank it and it turns!
Pretty soon not only children and small dogs were running for safety, but mothers as well. There is an unconfirmed rumor that even inanimate objects moved out of the way. And MAN - What a FEELING!!!
All this was on a slope that is aptly called (in dialect) "the idiot hill", max. slope, probably 3-4 degrees, max. distance, about 20 meters.
Still, it felt like we had been accepted into the Olympic team.
Actually, I was not doing too badly. Nina not bad either; my two friends were close to disaster, but hanging in there.

The problem is that you have BOTH feet bound to the board, you cannot walk, you cannot spread your feet to slow down/stop (I was tempted to say, spread your legs, but you might have gotten the wrong idea )
When you fall, getting back to vertical is not that easy.
Anyway, we spent two hours going down those tiny slopes, taking off the back foot and pushing ourselves up again. - And we PAID for this!!!

Score for the first round:
falls: 2
sheer delight: some milliseconds
Home, shower and sleep on it.

Today it downed just *perfect*: no clouds in the sky, reasonably cold (so good snow), and there was no avoiding the simple fact that we were expected at 11:00 for the second part of the course (4 hours this time) that we were told would include going down the "piste" and take the chair lift up again: no more pushing up the "idiot hill" anymore.
Worried, but bravely trying not to let it show. Nina more forthcoming and attempting to vomit on the twisty road to Mt. Bondone. Blame it on the curves ...

We get to the ski-school, find our two instructors (Fabrizio and Fabrizio).
I am in the "advanced course" with Fabrizio, Nina, her friend and my two friends are with the "slower" group - with Fabrizio - of course.

We start with an easy diagonal crossing of a slope. Gravity is an interesting force: it pulls you down, no matter what you do. Then we discover the joy of digging in with the edge of the board and we are getting somewhere.
Turn around and we cross over in deep powder snow. This was actually fun.
We reach a piste with plenty of skiers and some curves start coming out right.
I discover a new truth: falling on one's wallet (right side back pocket) does nothing in the way of protection. The wallet provides more of a bump that tries to embed itself into the right cheek, rather than a soft cushion. (Remove wallet and put it in the breast pocket of ski-suit: Now I want to see how this is going to hurt me...)

Well - wouldn't you know: we started enjoying it and time was flying. Our Fabrizio was very encouraging and took us to a nice powder snow field. In powder, when you fall, you cannot easily push yourself upright again: you just dig holes in the snow with your fists and sink.

After some heated discussions with various trees that did not get out of my way (and a slide on my ass on a steep slope) I was coming up at a good clip against a bush. What the hell, let's try a turn. Lean in, bank the board a bit and .... I just did it!!! the most beautiful turn, all uniform - all just so - for a looong time! (yes - I missed the bush )
That was pure ecstasy. That single turn in powder really made my day.
Some more runs and finally home.

Score for round two:
falls: let's say .... several
sheer delight: several seconds!!!!!

Will I do it again?
Yeah - I am hooked.

Alessandro Zorat
Trento - ITALY

Post by **sonofabeach** » Monday 3 December 2007, 14:35

hahaha, nice report!!

sounds pretty familiar

Mike

Post by **István** » Monday 3 December 2007, 14:55

I think there is one part that is very common but not included in this report, and that goes somehow like this:

'... oh yes, I can do this.... see how nicely I slide?....I'm so cool..... I love this speed .... oh mum, I'm so great.... I think everyone is watching me... or at least they should.... oops this is getting too fast.... where is the break? ... holy crap, what the heck is that??? this slope is not wide enough!!.... aaargh stupid skier.... oh my f...in god.... CRASH.... FU#@!°%....!!!!'

Post by **Pogokoenig** » Monday 3 December 2007, 15:49

István wrote:'... oh yes, I can do this.... see how nicely I slide?....I'm so cool..... I love this speed .... oh mum, I'm so great.... I think everyone is watching me... or at least they should.... oops this is getting too fast.... where is the break? ... holy crap, what the heck is that??? this slope is not wide enough!!.... aaargh stupid skier.... oh my f...in god.... CRASH.... FU#@!°%....!!!!'

Hmmm, what is so special about this? This is how i feel every single day on the slope.

Post by **skywalker** » Monday 3 December 2007, 16:00

Of course you can't understand, pogokönig, I can neither

What I wanted to say was:

Pogokoenig wrote:Hmmm, what is so special about this? This is how i feel every single day on the slope.

I can confirm: This is exactly, what it looks like

skywalker

Post by **Pogokoenig** » Monday 3 December 2007, 16:07

Mr. Skywalker. I am not able to understand your post.

Post by **István** » Monday 3 December 2007, 17:59

I think I understand what Tom says here.... but I cannot confirm as I have not seen you riding

Post by **Felix** » Monday 3 December 2007, 20:04

István wrote:I think there is one part that is very common but not included in this report, and that goes somehow like this:

'... oh yes, I can do this.... see how nicely I slide?....I'm so cool..... I love this speed .... oh mum, I'm so great.... I think everyone is watching me... or at least they should.... oops this is getting too fast.... where is the break? ... holy crap, what the heck is that??? this slope is not wide enough!!.... aaargh stupid skier.... oh my f...in god.... CRASH.... FU#@!°%....!!!!'

Nah this in only for softboot beginners, if you started like me on on F2 raceboards there was no way for an beginner to go straight. That was part of the teaching concept back then too. First learn to do turns, then learn to carve, then learn to glide. I had like the smallest Raichle boots on my feet that existed. My sister had to start on a softboot board as Blue-Tomato had no hardboots in size 28 (like around 18 Mondopoint). For me it was just the smalles Raichle boots that existed. The teachers weren't exactly pleased about softbooters by that times. Holy Shit how times have changed.

I still remember my second day, after having been on a snowboard for 3 hours on the first day on the bunny hill I took a chairlift up trying to go down a red slope but could turn only in one direction as i feared the steepnes on backside turn. So I went down 500m vert just by going from one side of the slope to the other turning, going back, then sitting down, turning then board around and continuing. Afterwards realised that I should have chosen an easy red slope instead of an rather challenging red slope first - but hell there were only t-bars accessing easier slopes which I didn't know how to use.

Nice report Allessandro.

Post by **István** » Tuesday 4 December 2007, 8:24

I actually started with the following gear:

- Hooger Booger snowboard (I am not even sure if it had a radius)
- Elfgen bindings (It broke on the first day)
- Salomon ski boots (one buckle version)

And I've managed to get the feeling described above.... believe me.... with the above stuff you definetely could go straight....

Post by **Ohawa** » Tuesday 4 December 2007, 10:11

Well my first board was some sort of crazy banana, binding was done by me (broken constantly every second day). There were some radii but I had no clue as how to use them. I was falling back and forth most of the time but finally I managed. I had this board for two long years. At that time I was almost the only one on the slopes but soon I met some friends hardbooters and it started to be okay. btw I've never had softboots except for a few rides when I broke my board.

Post by **Viviane** » Tuesday 4 December 2007, 19:44

Hi there,
all the above mentioned sounds very familiar.
My first time on a board was somewhere in 1983, crazy banana's, bindings???, I believe raichle shoes of perhaps even my ski-boots, I don't remember. What was worse was that there was nobody to teach you besides a man with rasta hair who smoked joints. At least he thought me how to use a T-bar with wich I was very happy because the lift-men were very angry with us snowboarders trying to use their lift. But... we had to learn it didn't we?
I was wearing volleyball kneepads after the first day. My knees were dark blue and I wouldn't have kneecaps left if I hadn't done that.
But with all the pains and strains, one thing was sure I really had to know how to board. And when I see people struggle I am so glad I learned it and try to encourage young and old to not give up.
IT REALLY IS BIG DEAL!!!
V.

Post by **Pogokoenig** » Wednesday 5 December 2007, 9:36

Viviane wrote:somewhere in 1983

Post by **Ohawa** » Wednesday 5 December 2007, 10:58

Well mine was in 1991 and I was a poor student:-)

Post by **Silber** » Wednesday 5 December 2007, 11:07

Well...1988 for me!! Timberland leather boots and a SIMS with square (exagonal) point and tale..! First day my whole left buttcheeck was dark blue...I had to find 3 pillows to be able to sit at dinner for a week!

Post by **Swiss Mike** » Wednesday 5 December 2007, 11:16

Well for me it was 1994.
With ski boots on a snaker 155 from WildDuck