I don’t really remember when the idea came to me, but the idea of switching to a different winter sport must have come to me around the same time that I decided that I needed a career change, or last a change in fields in a way that I would be using my strengths and my degree. If you didn’t know, my degree is in English, so obviously I want to be a writer. That is true, to an extent, I do want to write, but I don’t really want to do just one thing in my career. I do want writing to be at least part of my career, but I also want to be involved with one of the major business in the area.
“But wait Matt, didn’t you write that you want to work with computers?” While it is true that I wrote a blog post about wanting to work with computers, and that makes my overall career intent seem a little silly and incongruent with the fact that I want to work with one of the major companies in the area because there isn’t a single major computer manufacturing and repair facility in the Burlington area, but to that I say “so what?” Is everything I write in an online blog going to be treated with as much scrutiny as a new equation that may allow a rocket to successfully land in the spot that the rocket was launched from? Truthfully, I hope not, but I suppose scrutiny isn’t such a terrible thing when finding minuscule mistakes could save the lives of thousands or in this case simply make me justify my intent.
To return to the initial idea of Winter Sports, originally I began skiing, and I remember on the first day at Smuggler’s Notch in Vermont, my mom had been trying to teach me to snowboard, which I initially chose, and obviously she thought that she would need to teach me to snowboard, so she also strapped on a board and tumbled down the slopes. I was really doing just fine and had I been allowed to progress, I would have been an amazing snowboarder by the time I turned 15. Instead on the second day, she said “if you want to ride the chair lift, you’ll need to ski.” Obviously I took the hint and I began to ski and I really progressed extremely quickly. I won’t say that I was the best because I wasn’t, but there was a time that I couldn’t get much better, but then I saw people riding in the park and hitting some jumps. I saw that park and freestyle was the next step in progression for me.
I began just hitting some small jumps and basic rails moving finally into larger jumps and eventually spins and some scarier rails. At first, the whole concept of spending a few seconds in the air and spinning while grabbing parts of my skis simply felt stupid and really weird, but as I practiced, I got a little better and better, but there was something stopping me that I could see since the obstacle was not physical. Instead, it was the idea of riding switch or backwards and doing flips on skis. I could confront and practice skiing switch by riding trails with mild slopes backwards, but flips weren’t exactly easy to practice.
Flips were easy to start because there were places that offered trampolines and foam pits where I could practice being in the air for a while and I would not need to worry about the landings too much because I would be landing in a pit of 9 inch foam cubes and the pit totaled probably 8 or 9 feet in depth.
Eventually I got sick and lost the ability to really even jump more than a few inches. It was the following Winter (the Winter of 2013) that I began working with adaptive ski and snowboarding to simply get back on snow. I honed my skills and worked on maintaining control while simply having fun. It was at this point that someone told me “you are trying way too hard, skiing should be easy,” which kind of make sense since the sport is one where the rider is following a slope on a slippery surface, so even further, I focused on letting gravity send me down the mountain, and as needed, allow me to slow down.
Fast forward to this year, at some point, I decided that I would work for Burton, which isn’t really a crazy idea. I just felt like it would make sense for me to snowboard, so after renting one and falling a lot, I leased a board from the Alpine Shop, and Cady (the best girlfriend in the world) and I have gone 3 times so far, and I know that she would like to go a few more times this season. If we were to keep up the rate that we have gone to Bolton until the end of the season (provided the resort has at least not terrible conditions), we would probably go another 16 or so times. I’m not going to lie to myself in that I will believe that simply after one season, I’ll be amazing, but beginning here, with a foundation of one full season at least brings me to a very good position once I actually decide to buy a board.
Buying a new board or pair of skis is also something that I will want to and need to do regardless of my choice to keep skiing or switch to boarding simply because I will want to buy a snowboard at some point (if I decide to make the switch) or buy a new pair of skis, boots, a binding because my bindings need to be replaced. They were transplanted from the second pair of skis that I owned (which were used and pretty junky) after about a two or three season of demolishing the skis (At that point, they were probably 6-7 years old). They stayed on my new skis (the Line Afterbang) for 5 seasons (going on the 6th) which makes them about 12ish years old. Also I believe those bindings were men for beginner to intermediate skis and I definitely used those skis and bindings for advanced skiing, which probably didn’t help them.
The skis are totally fine because they are meant for hardcore park skiing and messing around with rocks and stumps, which I definitely did. The problem is that a the physical integrity of a pair skis is weakened as they are drilled in to, and that tends to happen when bindings are mounted to them. That means that this second mounting would probably be more disastrous for them and it may just be safer to buy a new pair of skis altogether. Not to mention that I hardly ever even look at the park any more.
Obviously I haven’t made my decision yet, and I don’t intend to make a decision until at least the end of this season. Making it even less difficult and more beneficial to switch is the fact that the Burton Tent Sale occurs within driving distance (10-15 minutes) each year around the end of August or September. At this sale, there tend to be board sales of around 60% and on top of that full boards and bindings often are sol for around 2 or 300 dollars and that is a steal since a person could easily spend about 400 dollars on a board alone, but then again, I will save final decisions for either August or September.
Though I could also get into dog-sledding (credit to travel north)
Wondrous 