Welcome to the Dark Side!
I have finally given snow boarding a go, but don’t tell my physio as she will be very cross with me. I hired a board and decided that lessons were a bit expensive so it was off to the Remarkables to ‘learn by doing’. We started on the baby slope and I quickly found that I could stand, balance and use my heel edge and go quickly in a straight line and ride switch with an 80% chance of stopping before hitting what ever was in my way. Toe Edge was a different story however and I failed to get that right which was annoying!
After and hour I was also bored of the baby slope so jumped on the real lift and went up. Of course you have wear the board on one foot and as those who have skied before will know, lots of boarders fall over at the top. I didn’t though!! I have no idea how I didn’t but it was all fine.
The main slope was fun and I only tumbled over when trying to turn on my toe edge at speed so I thought I would keep trying and did a few of the main runs and was not that slow or that bad until I came flying through a narrow space and found some damn fools who were Nordic skiing, or walking across a piste. I managed to avoid them but was now going very quickly and went over…. I landed on my arms and bumped my head. I am still hurting and it was 3 days ago now! I will be going for another try at boarding this week armed with advise from some boarders I am living with.
Queenstown is still really good fun and it will be a shame to leave next week.
Andy