I was about to jump off of a ledge shaded by evergreen trees and the absence of sun, and then it happened. I did not notice it, but the shaded area was covered in ice that had not been melted by the morning sun. As I carved in what I suspected would be snow, my board slipped out from under me and I landed hard on my arms and helmet while skidding on a slightly sharp ice-coated region. It cut my arms (luckily not enough to hurt them very bad) and it took me about five minutes to recover, but I never tried going off that four and a half foot ridge again.

I feel very free and powerful when I am snow boarding. It is one of the things that I am almost naturally good at (I wave board, a two wheeled skate board, which helped me a lot) If I could never snowboard again I would be very upset. On the dark green, pine tree covered mountain when I am going down as fast as I can, I feel like I can do anything, like I can do all rails, jumps, and win races. I know I would probably loose most races against experienced boarders in a race and I don’t think I can do rails or harder jumps yet, because I have only been boarding half of a season. Yet the experience of fresh air blowing in my nose and my goggle/neck warmer covered face and the sound of the board scraping against the ice or the quieter sliding sound of carving on fresh snow makes me feel like I have been doing it for a long time.

If it weren’t for my cousin and my mom, I would have never even tried snowboarding. My mom made the decision to move to Colorado, which I thank her for. My cousin has been snow boarding for about four or five years and if he hadn’t been there to go make me try to go off some of the medium sized jumps (about 20-25 feet) and teach me how to ride, then I might have not even had a good querencia to write about. I am anxious for the next ski season to come around and I am looking forward to riding at a new place (Big Bear and Mammoth) in the California winters this year. One day I hope to become sponsored (not as a professional, but as a good snow boarder) and be the best rider that I can be.