Cold Shoulder

(kids on snowboards... in a game)

I went snowboarding recently! I was invited to go by a friend and the simple invitation made me ponder why it is I haven't gone before.

* The obvious reason is that it's just not convenient to go to ski mountains where I live in Australia --> but you know what? It's not that convenient to come to Japan for a year either.

* It's cold at the snow --> It's also hot in the sun but I still go to the beach.

Then I realised it may be due to the fact that everyone is better than me and I didn't want to humiliate myself and/or burden someone else with looking after me. But then it's not like I was prepared to go by myself so really it was a useless loop. Much like my thought processes on the issue.

So when I got this invitation to go I thought why not? These people are willing to help me out and the opportunity may never come again so I plucked up my courage, accepted the invitation and soon found myself in a car going up some windy roads in some obscenely snowed over environments. The level of snow over the houses, cars and trees was comical for me. I had never seen this much snow before and while I looked out at the scenery I tried to absorb as much information as possible before I got out on the ice.

I rented everything and the cost for the board, boots and the clothing (because I don't actually own anything waterproof) only ended up being 4800yen which isn't bad at all! We got on the ice and instead of practicing or anything we went straight up on the lifts and my 'tutorial' was on a stupidly steep hill at the beginning of the beginners course.

Needless to say I fell over in all matter of directions. The hardest part for me was even standing up on the board! As I mentioned before the hill was really steep so as soon as I would try to stand up the board would begin moving and I would just fall back down again. Frustrating. But I kept going because that's what people in my situation do and soon enough I was up on the board and working my way down the hill.

I won't lie. That first run took a long time. But the runs after that got progressively faster and faster until I could work my way down quite easily. I even bet one of the teachers down and fell over less!. The way I was snowboarding didn't really feel right though - it wasn't what I had seen on tv or on Snowboard Kids 2 (arguably the best snowboarding game for the Nintendo 64). So I enquired with one of the more skilled people that came to the mountain with us. He explained that what I was doing is what they teach the beginners and that I still need to learn another style and with practice I'll have a smoother rhythm and look more like the cartoonified children on ridiculously themed snowboards that I'm used to from Snowboard Kids 2.

So after a long day of boarding I got home and despite stretching and having a hot bath I woke up with some pretty nasty joint aches. But that is to be expected and they'll go away soon enough. Well worth it I think. Next I want to try skiing! Although it's such an unattractive word to type I may not blog about that.