Once at the snowboard hire shop, they had to determine what size board would be right for me. I was 15 years old at the time, and about 5”5 tall. As a rule of thumb, the end of the board should reach up between your chest and your chin when it is standing up next to you. The longer your board, the faster it will go.
The first thing I learnt was what stance you are meant to have when riding. You are either regular or goofy. Regular is when your left foot is your front food i.e. when riding down a slope your left foot is in front. Goofy is the other way around. To determine which one you are, get someone to push you over: the foot you put out to stop yourself from falling is your front foot.
We were taken to the green slope to learn how to slip heelside down a slope. Learning to 'slip' down a slope is essential, the most rudimentary skill. After mastering that, i learnt how to 'slip' toeside, with my back facing the slope.
I was in a beginners group with four other people. Little did one of the group members know that she would not last for more than a day. That sounds sinister, I know, but it isn’t as bad as it sounds…she didn’t die or anything…
We were getting on to the t-bar, which would take us up to the top of the blue slope…t bars can take two people max…so we both got on and it started to move, dragging us forward…her board was slipping all over the place, and she couldn’t keep it in control…eventually our boards crossed over each other and we both went sprawling to the ground. I got up, dusting the snow off my coat, whilst she lay on the ground, writhing in agony and clutching her arm. She had broken it.
That was the end of her boarding holiday. One of the other girls in my group moved to the intermediate group, and the other two guys quit because they didn’t like snowboarding. So, it was just me left. My instructor was a young man called David, early twenties, weather-beaten face. So it was just him and I left; personal tutoring. It couldn’t have turned out better even if I’d paid a mercenary to break her arm with a crowbar.
The next few days passed by with a mixture of pain and excitement. I fell over countless times whilst I was learning. It’s unavoidable. If you want to learn to board you have to accept that you will fall over a lot, and yes, it will hurt.
In the week I was in Austria, the sun was out everyday. You might think this a good thing; however, snow blindness is a danger. The sun gets reflected off the snow and blinds you. I stupidly didn’t wear any sunglasses on the first day.
As the days went by I could confidently execute pendulum turns. My method was slightly bizarre-I moved my arms about in an unnecessary manner- but could do them nonetheless.
Now, getting to grips with the t bar was an ordeal. The t-bar is essentially a type of drag lift. You take one foot out of your bindings and keep the other one in. The foot you took out just rests on your board. For skiers, they are relatively easy to use, but for snowboarders (mostly men)…lets just say there is a lot of pain involved. You slide one side of the‘t’ between your legs and let it drag you along the snow and up the steep incline until you get to your destination. When you arrive, simply let go and the bar will head back down the mountain. The painful thing about them: as they drag you up the mountain, the bar pulls tight between your legs, and your *erm* groin area.
By the time the week was over, I was officially labeled a ‘level 2 snowboarder,’ which means I could: link sliding turns on easy blue terrain, learn to ride on uneven terrain and I was ready for Level 4.
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