Travel Missteps: The Runaway Snowboard

What I’m going to say is going to shock you. I don’t like to ski or snowboard. I know, I live in Colorado know for its amazing ski resorts in the winter, and great hiking/camping in the summer. But I’m not really an outdoorsy type person. I’ll push myself when traveling, but at home…I’d rather do art or curl up with a book. Now part of the reason I don’t do outdoorsy stuff is because I have really bad ankles, of which I have collective sprained hundreds of times. I’m just too injury prone.

Take for example the only time I’ve been snowboarding. Now I grew up skiing (poorly) in Michigan and then Colorado. I could do the “bunny” hills, but got no joy from it. (Instead mostly terror of how to stop properly.) I figured I’d try snowboard because “Hey, stoping seems really easy. You just fall on your butt. I do that all the time skiing anyway, so this will be great!” (Spoiler…it wasn’t!)

So back to my first time snowboarding. I believe it was when we had a Japanese exchange student staying with us named Akiko. I was excited to practice my Japanese and she was excited to go snowboarding. So off we went up to Loveland. It was actually a pretty nice day. Sunny, still a decent amount of snow. I got fitted and rented my first snowboard, and off we went! I don’t recall being good or bad at it. Instead what I remember is at one point falling, and sitting down looking at the blue sky.

And then…disaster struck. I was wearing my mom’s 80’s ski pants. These pants actually had a holster that went around the bottom of your feet so they wouldn’t slide up/down. I had my socks on underneath the pants. Bad idea. Apparently the slipperiness of the 80’s lycra-like pants made the heavy snowboard boots (and snowboard) easily slide off. I watched in horror as my board and boots took of without me, with me chasing them in my socks. (I looked as ridiculous as this situation sounds.)

Eventually I caught up with my board, (after a lot of people laughed and pointed). And put it all back on and tried again. Things went okay for a little while until yet again, I sat down and my board and boots slid off without me. I finally gave up and turned everything in, and instead sat at the lodge enjoying a good book. After that I refused to go skiing or snowboarding, but would still go up to the lodge while my family skied. After I started college I simply flat out refused to go (along with my dad). And so end that type of family activity.