Monday, December 22, 2008

matching bruises

against my better judgment, i went down the blue run to warm up. i had second thoughts, but she said i could do it. turns out, that run was pretty much ice. my heel side turns had become nonexistent in the off season. toe side, i picked back up pretty quickly, but finding that soft(er) patch of ice to make the turn proved more difficult than expected.

as i've been told repeatedly, when the conditions are good on skis, they're great on a snowboard. conversely, when they're bad on skis, they're horrible on a board. proven right yet again.

i smartly made the best of it by working on linking my turns on the bunny slopes before attacking anything more challenging again. i think i got my turns back to where they were at the end of last season. i attacked a long, narrow green repeatedly by the end of the day. it was different every time. i used the terrain to my advantage to make those heel turns, but i'll need to get them solid before i get comfortable with any speed. i'm more or less plowing the whole way down any semblance of a steep grade.

all things told, i kept it together pretty well for the amount of falls i took. she was awesomely patient and ditched me for a while to ride two runs to my one. she always met me at the bottom and told me funny stories about gumbys hitting on her on the lifts. at the end of the day, my final fall to my knees left me with a sore neck...and a hankering to get back out there for some more.

2 comments:

All Art is Quite Useless said...

Wicked Squid! I didn't know you rode slopes! I'm going snowboarding when I head back over the pond. Happy Christmas to you too! Hopefully our paths cross again!

Mr. J said...

Perhaps our paths can cross on the slopes. Let me know when and where; I'll see if I'm in town...