Boarding

My God was snowboarding hard work! I've been unfit for years, and after every ski holiday I say I will get myself fit for next year but bloody hell did I feel it this year. Every muscle seemed to ache at some point over the week, much more than when skiing.

Getting my board was a little confusing. I had no idea about being Regular or Goofy (favouring the left or right leg as lead leg) so I was made to push myself across the room on a skateboard on each leg (I was deemed Goofy), given my board and sent out ;)

I took the advice of those who recommended bum and hip pads. After day one I also hit the ski store and bought knee and wrist pads as well. I fell a lot, but with the pads it wasn't too bad, apart from one painful downhill where I fell three times, and ended up jarring my shoulder.

Most of the time we were on the beginners slope... sitting in the snow, doing a quick run down and taking the god awful rope drag lift back up to the top to start again. The drag back up on the rope lift was one of the worst bits. I seemed to spend most of the week sitting in snow!

I could finally manage to get down the hill OK. And even managed to win a slalom race against one of the other boarders. I also managed to do some jumps without maiming myself!

On the last day we tackled a proper run, and this was where my fitness let me down and I just couldn't cope with it yet. I also got freaked out as it was quite busy and I didn't trust myself not to plough into everyone. I kept falling as my legs got too tired... I lost count of the number of times I fell, or slid down on my arse.

The final day I switched back to skis, and did the same run three times and only fell once when I hit a patch of ice. It was so much easier on skis, and less hard work on my legs. I also felt much more in control and could place myself exactly where I wanted to be.

I was proud of lasting the full 5 days of board school though. Some of our group had dropped out by lunch on day 1 and gone back to skis. From a group of 10 we ended up with just three of us on the last day!

I'd like to try it again, it did look like fun when it all worked. So this year I am definitely going to try to work on my leg strength and general CVS fitness so I can cope with the boarding a little more. Hired boots were also very painful and most of the time my right foot was totally numb - so I may look into getting my own boots.

Then we'll have another go at board school.... and if I still don't get it then I'll go back to two planks of wood instead of one big one.

Gone Skiing

Gone Skiing for a week. Will be back next weekend. Have a good week while I'm throwing myself down mountains in a frantic attempt to learn to snowboard!

Brrr

Ok, so I know I was praying for snow for when I go skiing next week. But I wanted it over there, not over here! Brrr.

((actually, it is snowing over there as well, looks like all of Europe is finally getting a bit of Winter))

Pray for Snow

So it's about three weeks until I go skiing and the mountains of Andorra are still rather lacking in the snow department. There's been little fresh snow all winter and the slopes are mainly covered in artificial stuff. Meanwhile resorts in the US have far too much snow.Global warming has a lot to answer for.

I'm hoping for a decent dump of snow in the next couple of weeks but its not looking likely. There's a hope of some soon according to the weather reports, but they've been promising it for a while and it's not arrived yet.

It shouldn't be too bad since we're both doing a beginners course in snowboarding and will be sticking to the simpler slopes that are being maintained with artificial snow - but I'm going to be falling over a lot and would rather have soft, deep powder than a small amout of ice to crash into!

Is there a snow dance, like there's a rain dance?