Snowboarding vs. Wakeboarding, a lesson in perseverance

This weekend I had the privilege of road tripping-ish down to Jindabyne, 6 hours out of Sydney, to snowboard! YAY! Went with Chooi (her name is pronounced CHEWY haha, and you thought my name was, ehem, unusual) my favourite Malaysian Aussie and Paul, the dead-pan Brazillian dude from me church, and a bunch of Chooi's other friends.

Snowboarding was good fun. The resort was decent, not as pretty as Lake Tahoe in the States (where I went with Cari coupla years ago) but the snow was better. The views were much better in Tahoe than Jindabyne, I felt, but then again, Australia is a different country with its own unique landscape. Didn't take a single picture at Jindabyne, much as I love pictures, as I didn't want to carry my camera around while snowboarding. Paul took some pictures but I'm too lazy to get them from him haha.

Snowboarding is physically exhausting!! I kid you not!! Especially if you're as unfit and inflexible as I am!! After two days of boarding I feel like I've been stuffed in a human sized washing machine, cold washed, spun round, yanked out and wrung dry. Can't remember the last time I was physically this spent.

If I were to choose between snowboarding and wakeboarding, at this point, I'd pick wakeboarding. Probably because I'm better at it. But also because you feel more in control as you have the handle bar to hold on to and a lot of the hard work is done by the boat.

Snowboarding/skiing's a chore as you have to painstakingly line up for the ski lift, dangerously manoeuvre yourself off the ski lift trying not to fall, will your body and board to glide to a suitable start off point, plonk yourself on the snow to secure your free boot to the board, maintain your balance while trying to stand, "bounce" the board forward to pick up speed, then, and only then, are you able to snowboard down the slope. And if, you're on a beginner slope, like I was, the run will be annoyingly short. Before you know it, you'd be at the bottom of the slope, done with the run, having to start the arduous process all over again. Once I got better at it I tried to maximize my run by moving to the far left and far right of the slope (as opposed to going straight down) just so I could stay on the run a little longer. Heh. Clever eh? :P

Of course, when you do that, you don't go as fast, but you fall less too me thinks.

By the end of the first day I was utterly pushed to my physical limit. On the second day, I had to force myself to stop boarding at midday, though my mind and will were rearing to go on. My left hand was getting a tad mangled from falling heavily on it and preserving my left hand is rather important. Heh. Can't play me piano without a left hand. Can't do a whole lot of other stuff either.

Next season, if I get the chance to go again, I'm going to train before going. Haha. How I do not know, but some form of physical endurance just to last a bit longer in the snow. That way I can board for a few more days and perhaps master some tricks. Haha.

Now though, is the time for me to gingerly tuck my maimed body into bed, content with the two days I had in the snow and grateful to God for the chance to enjoy his creation.