ManicMammy's Blog

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Snowboarding

Posted on | August 29, 2007 | 3 Comments

I’ve only been snowboarding once. It should have been 2 days on the piste but after all the falls, bumps and bangs of the first day, I had to just chill out on the second. My body ached but it felt good. Muscles I had never used before sore.

Snowboarding

I have never been a person who raves about sun holidays. I don’t like the heat and my skin just burns and returns to pale so I tend to just sit in the shade. I had been looking forward to giving the snow slopes a go. As a kid, when any amount of snow arrived in Wickla, we slid down the local golf links on old empty NET fertiliser bags and that had been the nearest I’d come to winter sports.

So it was with great anticipation that myself and a group of my friends and sisters headed away for a weekend just before I became pregnant with our last baby. It was brilliant. My sister is excellent at snowboarding having lived in Munich for many years, and was a great teacher. For something that looks sooo easy, it was bloody tough. My feet clipped into the board, my first problem was how  to stand up. A couple of hours later, I had managed that and some movement but was still at the “ok I’m up and moving, now how do I stop this, slow down without falling, arrrrrggghhh??”

It was both exhilarating and frustrating at the same time. It looked so easy, kids no taller than my waist whizzed by whilst I did my get up, fall down routine. Then when I did get going, I’d start going too fast and panic. Then fall again.

Eventually that afternoon we decided to brave one of the tougher runs. On the way up in the ski lift I thought I was gonna die, vertigo kicked in. Don’t look down. Once we reached the summit, all was well, it was worth it. The views were absolutely breathtaking, snow capped mountains, it was awe inspiring, so peaceful.

Then the fun started. I thought I’d never get down that mountain.  After an hour’s slow progress and my body aching, my sister took pity on me as I had resorted to shuffling down the slope on my bum. It was functional rather than aesthetically pleasing but I was totally wrecked and at least I was no longer falling. She convinced me to put my trust in her, I got up and she waltzed me down the rest of the way. It was bloody brilliant and I got a small glimpse of what it must be like to be competent at this sport. The speed, agility and ease at which we competed the run was amazing. I loved it.

I am smitten. So after an almost 2 year interval, roll on December when, I hope to do it all again. This time, hopefully there’ll be less falls and more graceful, speedy descents down the piste. In my dreams.

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Comments

3 Responses to “Snowboarding”

  1. pinkbelt
    August 29th, 2007 @ 9:02 pm

    Snowboarding is magicalt. It’s very frustrating at first, but just going up those mountains and seeing the glory of winter…well…It’s totally worth it.

  2. manicmammy
    August 29th, 2007 @ 10:02 pm

    Agree wholeheartedly!

  3. Twistedschwester
    September 10th, 2007 @ 9:56 pm

    Baby! We are sooooo gonna rip up the slopes this year!!! Bring on the snow! :) )

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