Winter surfing

I had a way kuuul yesterday. I went snowboarding!

It was my first time ever. Just my brother and I surfing the white stuff at Mountain Creek (formerly, Action Park) in northern New Jersey. Although all the slopes are spread over three peaks, we spent our time just at the bottom of Vernon Peak, with a 90 minute snowboarding lesson followed by numerous trips down the beginner slope--short but steep-- trying out our learned skills.

I rented all my equipment there--board, bindings and boots. It cost me $86 with the lesson included. Geez, if I had brought the three kids and Melinda...wow!...that'd be $ times 5 equals $$$$$!

The afternoon/night was perfect. Just under 40 degrees F and no crowd, even with the lesson--just the instructor, my brother and I. And what an awesome teacher the dude was. Because of the low crowd, he diverted from his usual basic lesson by bringing us away from the 'school' slope and onto the much steeper 'beginner' slope (about a 25% grade, I think), taking more time to teach us some advanced techniques.

I certainly was scared sh*tless but the lesson truly paid off. When all was said and done, we covered the 10 steps of snowboarding, from bindings to 'heelside slides' to 'falling leaf' to the 'linked turns'. (Yeah baby, I'm hip on the lingo.) We certainly took our share of hard falls, but my brother and I were pretty proud of how well we progressed.

And now it's the next day and here I am--battered, bruised and sore-- typing away after some heavy net cruising for some snowboard sales online. Yup, I'm already addicted. I gotta get a board. I just have to! After all, I can't let that snowboard lesson go all for naught.

Can't wait for my next downhill run. I'm stoked!