I couldn’t stop myself from buying a set of ski pants, gloves and a surprisingly affordable Helly Hansen jacket from the outdoor fair in central Oslo during the World Ski Championships. So despite the leftover knee issues from the last ski trip, I needed to make use of my new gear. This time I decided to try snowboarding at nearer ski resort in Kongsberg, which is an hour by bus from Oslo. It’s pretty convenient to just hop on the bus, pay 450 NOK for the round-trip bus ticket which includes the ski pass (the pass that gives you access to use the ski lifts). Having surfed and wake boarded before, I figured it would probably be easier to manage a single snowboard then 2 skis and 2 poles. But for less-than-athletic me, winter sports have an especially steep learning curve! My friends I booked a 1.5 lesson which turned out to be quite useless because it was delivered by this kid (he looked around 15) who couldn’t really say much but, “Ok, go try it,” or “Use the Christmas tree method to get down the slope.” I’m like huh?? I don’t even know how to strap on the damn board! I asked him how to slow my descent down a slope, he said: “Use your foot.” Um, in what way?
My friends were better than me, and I learned more from them when they convinced me to go up to the real slopes and try it out. It was my first time to try the chair lift and I barely made it into the seat holding the board in my hands. I wondered how I would have made it with skis or a snowboard strapped to my feet.
As a super-duper-beginner snowboarder who doesn’t even know how to move on the snow, here’s what I learned on my first day:
- Its best to try getting in and out of a snowboard before hitting the slopes. I spent an embarrassing amount of time trying to figure out how those straps worked.
- Another thing to practice is going from sitting down (on your ass) position to standing up in one move. When you stand up, you should have your heels on the ground, toes slightly in the air. This is the move you make right after you put on your snowboard --- which unfortunately I have trouble doing. It would’ve been more helpful if I could have practiced this at home first (like 20 reps every day!). As it is, I mostly stood up in the reverse manner: flipping over to my stomach and standing up with a push up. Very tiring on the arms and palms.
- On a slope, do not, I repeat, do not fully unstrap your snowboard. That’s how I lost the first snowboard I rented --- I fell into a ditch, took off the snowboard to climb out of the snowbank, and then saw the board slide all the way into the woods and off a cliff. Thankfully the rental people didn’t bitch at all, they even gave me another board to rent. Which I almost lost again when I took it off after another fall.
- Watch how you fall, spread your weight. When falling on your hands, ball them into a fist rather than palms spread. And try to avoid falling on your tailbone. Maybe angle your fall to be flat on your back.
- Check out this helpful video!
So I called this post Board/Walk because I invented a new sport --- slope walking! That’s what I had to do when I lost my board the first time…I walked halfway down the slope. And on the 2nd run, I fell so many times on my tailbone and my head that I couldn’t endure anymore. I took off my board and walked the last 3 steep slopes back to the bottom. Must have looked strange to the rest of the ski/snowboard-ers but hey, I’m an old beginner so give me a break!
