I am not an expert by any means. My snowboarding life did not start until I reached the young age of thirty-six. Kelly K., a good friend of mine from my college, and happens to have a national level three snowboard instructor status and works at Bogus Basin in Boise, ID. she obliged my request for some private lessons. Kelly has known me for quite a few years and was very aware of my past athletic endeavors and miss adventures so she put me on the fast track of the learning curve. I spent my first day hitting the basics, flat ground work and the basic sliding and skating action of the toe and heel edge, after a day of pushing and pulling my self off of the snow I was very exhausted so when Kelly said we were going up the quad I respectfully declined using the excuse that my muscles were not doing what I was asking them to.

The next day on the hill I did not fully believe Kelly’s expert advise, from the day before so I chose to run the Beginner hill one or two more times for my warm up. I was practicing a toe side traverses and at the advise of Kelly I started alternating toe edge to heel edge to my surprise I was linking turns and not just shakily linking turns but linking them with the effectiveness of my trusty old skate from high school, it was right then that the potential of this sport was realized to me. Skate boarding was mode of transportation to me while in high school I was not one to do kick flips and all that I was in to distance, cruising, long arcing turn’s and board slides to slow down and stop. The thrill of movement at a fast pace on an unforgiving surface was lost to me a little while after I attained my drivers license, my skate was inadvertently sold to the junk yard when it was locked in the trunk of one of my many broken cars

“Wow the quad’s are allot faster and cushier than the old doubles” were the first words the came to me as we were being pushed back in our seats according to the laws of gravity and momentum. This was not my first experience riding a large chairlift I had done some summer mountain biking in the past, so chairlifts were not a huge issue with me. At the top of the run after successfully disembarking and strapping in I was a little apprehensive not because of the steepness of the run but of the length, it was a least ten times as long as the beginner hill. I made it all the way linking turns with out crashing once although the run was a blast it took about 45 minutes and my legs were effectively gelatin. It was at that point that Kelly said “You’ve got it now all you need to do is practice.” I felt a little concerned and befuddled I did not think that the sport that I had been watching on T.V. could be that easy to pick up. After asking Kelly if she was sure she said that I picked it up faster than most and that it must be related to her awesome teaching ability, haha, but seriously that I was just picking it up and practice was the best thing for me to do before taking my next lesson set.

It’s been three years and thanks to the ridiculously low season pass prices of Bogus Basin I have had one for all of them. My riding ability has tremendously increased due to that fact and that I only live 18 miles from the resort so I have been able to go up forty to sixty times per season. Most of my time on the hill is now spent bailing off side chutes and exploring glades and saving the groomers for the icy days. We happened to have a great 2008 snow season so there were not that many icy days. The unwritten rule of thumb for me and the group of riders that I hang with was to not hit the groomers except to traverse to glade shots. We received a great end of season storm and I did not have to be at work until 2:00 so I rallied a couple of friends and we hit the hill. It was a Tuesday and there was anywhere from six to eight inches of fresh powder on the whole hill so we decided to hit the backside up first off. The back side of our hill doesn’t have night skiing so it was shut down at 4:30 so there was going to be first tracks abound. On the second half of the first run I over judged my ability and lost my situational awareness, a long story short, as if in a slow motion I watched my knee impact the tree and heard the sickening “Crunch” of my ACL. I was broken my season was finished!

The loving woman who I have been with and am lucky to call my girlfriend, Teresa, decided to take up snow boarding this year so for her support and to aid in my post injury boredom I decided to go up the hill with her and do some lounge skiing and rejoice in the great season we have had. After hoisting more than a few drinks I realized that it was heavily dumping and that I have not seen my girl friend in a couple of hours, I was a little worried because she usually only did a run or two then rested. When she finally came into the lodge she was totally covered in snow with one of the biggest smiles I have ever seen on her face she said “baby I sorry I haven’t came in and hung out with you but the snow is just getting better and better”.

To my astonishment I have passed the passion on, my girl friend was now addicted!