What I Wish They'd Told Me

Oh snowboarding...here's the beginner tips I wish people had told me.
-buy a face mask. Better to have and not need then need and not have.
-wear a helmet. wear a helmet.  wear a helmet!
-take a class.  I found the beginner's class at Snowshoe to be so helpful!
-clarify the difference between bunny slope and a green/beginner trail!!!  I naively thought the green trail at Snowshoe would be a large hill.  Not at all.  It was very long and then fed into 2 other green trails.  So when I thought I was going down one hill that would take me 5 minutes to finish turned out to be 3 long trails, many many hills, many falls and it probably took me about an hour and forty five minutes to fall my way down.
-you can make your own padding for falls.  Aaron cut up an old yoga mat, folded it into a triangle shape and fixed it in place with duct tape.  Then we slipped it in our pants.  It made the falls so much easier, I looked like I got a Nicki Minaj butt job and in my mind I imagined myself as Minnie

Minnie skates with a pillow on her bottom

-limit how much you ski/snowboard in a day.  Day 1 I did about 2 hours and that was enough.  Day 2  I went out in the morning and the evening (5-6 hours total) and then on day 3 I was so sore.  I didn't even snowboard on day 3 I was so tired.
-try to buy lift passes that are non-consecutive off of ebay or craiglist.  Ours were restricted by date to the weekend, but on the first day no one scanned mine and on the third day I didn't snowboard.  If I had gotten a non-consecutive pass I could have sold those unused days
-if going to snowshoe, consider renting a condo with a kitchenette and cooking.  We did this at the suggestion of our group and I'm so glad I listened to them.  At the restaurants, a burrito was $24.  It would have been crazy to eat out every meal.
-make sure wherever you stay you can get back there from the slopes easily.  If you are having a rough day you just want to go back to the room and not wait for the group!
-give your partner/lover/friend some time on the slopes without you slowing them down

I think next time I want to try skiing instead of snowboarding, but I'm not sure which I would recommend to others.  My friend tried skiing for the first time and she says next time she wants to snowboard!  It's definitely a very different type of vacation then what I'm used to.  I would go again, but definitely still take things easy and maybe incorporate a spa day to help it feel more like a vacation. :-)

This is probably me on fall #82.  Kind of funny how there are no pictures or videos of me upright!

Have a greet weekend!  

Snowboarding at Snowshoe

Last weekend we traveled with Aaron's fraternity family to Snowshoe, West Virginia.  Aaron enjoys winter sports and has experience in both skiing and snowboarding; he prefers snowboarding.  I have no experience whatsoever.  Aaron encouraged me to try snowboarding, so I secured some rental equipment and off we went.  I consider myself somewhat athletic so I wasn't too intimidated.  Ha.

Snowboarding was tough.  In my 2 days, I never really mastered turning.  Unfortunately turning is a huge part of slowing down - to slow down on the board, usually you need to turn and place yourself perpendicular to the mountain (chest facing the bottom).  Since I wasn't good at slowing or stopping, I basically fell every time my speed made me nervous.  So on a green (beginner) trail that was about 1000 yards long, I fell about every 10-20 yards.  It was tumultuous.  It was testing.  Little kids, age 3 and up were skiing by me.  Some extremely rude people were making comments - "not a good place to stop" - whatever jerk, get off the beginner trail if you're such a hot shot!  With a few tears of frustration, I made it down the mountain.  Oh, snowboarding.  Today I will share some pics, tomorrow I will post some tips I wish people had told me for beginning snowboarders.

Aaron took all of the photos with his phone.  I took my camera, but I was way too tired to shoot very much.  

Almost the whole crew - Heather made the smart decision to stay in! 

Love these gifs Google Photos automatically makes 

More coming tomorrow!! It's funny, while in Snowshoe we got a record 26 inch snowfall.  Upon returning to Raleigh, there was a light snowfall on Tuesday followed by 4 inches Wednesday night.  Yet somehow the few inches in Raleigh are so much more terrifying! Yesterday everything shut down and some friends and I convened together to stay warm, watch movies and funny videos.  Still definitely my favorite way to spend snow days!