This past Saturday at Monarch Mountain, with our sponsor cadet’s persuasion, I got on a snowboard for the first time.

I’ve been skiing since about age 18, gaining most of my experience during the two winters Dave and I were stationed in Korea. In fact, many of the resorts where we skied between 1998-2000 will be venues for the 2018 Winter Olympics! After over a decade of hiatus from 2000 – 2012 while the kids were little (skiing just once in those 10 years), we are skiing routinely now and the whole family truly enjoys it.

I had received ample warning of the differences between skiing (two independent legs) and snowboarding (both legs moving together.) I tried my best not to forget that fact.

While Dave and the boys went off and did their own thing, Cadet Rob spent all morning patiently working with me, talking me through the fundamentals of using my heel side and toe side of the board to move down the trail like a feather drifting side-to-side as it falls through the sky. By some miracle, I picked up the fundamentals pretty readily.

(Could it be because I enjoy physics?)

It certainly doesn’t mean I didn’t fall. I fell a lot! If on the trail the snow type changed…or if the slope changed…or if I leaned forward or backwards 1-2 degrees too much…I fell. For the first couple runs, the falls weren’t bad. I was going slowly and most of the falls were just onto my bottom. However, as I gained speed and confidence, and began to attempt turns on the runs, the falls became more and more violent.

I had in my mind that I would only use the (rented) snowboard till lunchtime, but I was actually having a pretty good time so I agreed to take a trail after lunch that the rest of the boys wanted to do. Even though I could do decent lengths on the green runs, my muscles were screaming at me so I had to rest often. And I was still falling. A lot. I felt so guilty at how slowly I was going…that by the end of that run, I agreed to turn in my snowboard, put on my awesome skis so I could keep up with the rest of the guys.

On the 2 hour drive home from Monarch, the pain really set in. My lower back, knees, calves, and shins were all screaming for the next 24 hours. My shoulders and wrists were also quite sore from catching myself dozens of times. In fact, the upper body pain lasted longer than the pain in my legs.

We are doing more skiing this coming weekend with friends coming into town for the President’s Day weekend, so I’m glad the discomfort from last weekend is finally gone…four days later!

I’m incredibly proud of how well the boys are skiing now. I’ll leave you with this cute picture Cadet Rob took of Timmy on the Garfield lift.