Now that was a surprise!

So for years Amanda had been talking about going snowboarding, which I had never done before and finally a few years back we went for the first time. I was sure that I was never going to catch on, and I would suck pretty badly. I was decent at skateboarding when I was a kid, but I didn't really know if it would translate to the snow version at all. To my surprise, it helped and hindered at the same time. But I would like to argue that it leaned more toward helping.

We went for a 3 day trip, and this is how I spent much of the first day. Sitting in the snow, recovering from the 1000s of falls and rolls that I experienced going down flat on my face.

So we went to REI, and bought a shit ton of equipment. I had no idea what I was going to need, so I pretty much depended completely on @afturner. We must have spent well over $1000 bucks before we were done. This is certain not a sport for broke people. I now understand why all those 80s movies had jackass skiers with sweaters tied around their necks teasing all the poor kids. Well, I was certain one of those poor kids.

I'm not saying I am rich by any means, but I was making a decent amount of money by the time we decided to go snowboarding. So we did a bit of a splurge.

The first day we arrived at Big Bear, a great little town here in California, I was super excited to get over to the slopes and give all the new equipment a try. We got up bright and early, then headed over. I can still remember my first time up the ski lift. It took me about 45 minutes to get down the hill, as I fell so many times. I banged the crap out of my head, and legs were so worn out and tired. I was just not getting it.

By the end of the day, I felt like I had just gotten the crap beat out of me by Mike Tyson. I was about 80% sure that I had made a huge mistake thinking that I could even do this. I went to be pretty dejected, convinced that the next 2 days were going to be absolute hell.

Another Day, Another Attempt

I woke up the next day, still early, but not quite as cheerful and ready to go as the previous morning. I was in serious pain. Every muscle in my body was begging me not to do it again!

You see, the day before, a guy was trying to help me out by explaining that I needed to always lean the board toward the top of the hill, otherwise the edge would catch the snow and send me flying. I understood it on an intellectual level, but experientially, my body had no clue. Every time I thought I was getting the hang of it... BANG! face first into the snow. To make matters worse, it was pretty compact and did not feel very nice landing on.

Several Hours Later.....

As I was going over excuses in my head to explain to Amanda that I needed to go home, all of a sudden something clicked. I can't quite explain it, but it was as if my body was suddenly taken over by someone who was able to snowboard. I'm not saying that I became some kind of a bad ass, but literally it was as if a switch flipped in my head, and it all made sense to me.

After arriving back to the top of the slope, following many, many horrible runs, I just starting sliding down, navigating back and forth, turning around backwards, sideways, forward; basically any which way that I wanted. I was super elated! I couldn't believe it. I knew how to snowboard without falling down! It kind of feels like some kind of reverse snowboarding. I don't know how to explain it, but once you get it, you just get it.

All that being said, I got super excited and rushed back up to the top with my new-found confidence. Of course that's when the funniest thing happened that I wish to God that someone had recorded.

I clearly had gotten too big for my pants and recklessly launched myself down the hill at full speed. As expected, I completely lost control and accidentally leaned forward sending myself flying. I felt like I was airborne for at least 5 seconds, and did about 3 flips in the air. I was flailing around like a fool just praying that I would be spared a gruesome death for my hubris.

Then I literally bounced off of the ground, and went flying again, as the slope got even steeper. I did a couple more flips.... THEN... Magically landed on my board and perfectly sled to a complete stop.

I 'totally' meant to do that.

I looked around and there was a bunch of people cheering and clapping. Somehow my crazy tumble looked like I had done it on purpose, and looked awesome to the people standing around. I was beet red and completely embarrassed. But I just kind of waved and moved on. So after that I kind of chilled the hell out and enjoyed the rest of my time in Big Bear. It's been a couple of years since I went snowboarding, but I'll never forget the amazing time that I had. I sure hope I get the opportunity to do it again! It may not be anytime soon now that I have @little-ricky, though.