Snowboarding Parte le Deux

Went snowboarding again to Mt St Louis yesterday (Friday). Took the day off work, so I'm gonna work Saturday to make up for it!

Had a FAR more enjoyable experience this time, thanks mainly to preparation on my part:

- Wearing the new knee pads and wrist guards I bought this week is a must -- saved my knees far more times than I remember!
- Got the helmet from the start... no more temporary blackouts as I slam the back of head into the snow
- Didn't bring the camera with me this time!

Yeah, so because of these preparations, I felt a lot more confident about what would happen if I fell over (if I did) .. which in turn made me fall LESS .. weird psychology there.

I also discovered that I'm actually more comfortable with my LEFT foot forward instead of my right foot, which is weird since I'm right-sided for pretty much everything else in life! This actually makes sense though, since when I kite-board back home I tend to get more speed going to the left (also the pics of me surfin in Byron Bay tend to show me with left foot forward).

I was ZOOMING down the hill at some points.. I managed to get myself slip-sliding facing FORWARD too (last time all I could manage was slipping downhill with me ass facing the direction I was going... not pretty).

An instructor also gave me some really helpful tips for free. Said I should almost literally 'point' my arm out in the direction I want to go "and the legs will follow". Also gave me tips like:

- when you're going down hill with left-foot forward and want to switch to right foot .. lean back on right-foot, on the heels... this will cause the board to start slip-sliding horizontally and then use your arms as above to move the board with right-foot forward.

- when you want to stick in one direction then.. put the weight on the FORWARD foot.

He then proceeded to follow me down the hill noting what I was doing wrong. I got a major boost in skills after that and I didn't fall for the rest of the day.. had a lot more control. Great chappie!

Well I'm really getting the hang of this snowboarding lark. Still working on the lingo duuuuude, but like snowboarding, that'll be something I pick up without even realising.

Cowabunga n shizzle.