Snowboarding.

It's my second winter here in Montana and I finally made an attempt to learn how to snowboard. It was a down day / ski day, so no work for us. I, along with four other co-workers, took advantage of the day and made our way to Showdown where I looked to conquer the slopes. Sadly, I did not conquer it. I did, however, put up a fight.

I was planning on hitting the "bunny slopes" which is more of a training area for people learning to ski or snowboard. My friends told me to just head up the mountain and they'd show us how to do it. Well, we did just that. Learning proved much more difficult than expected. I can't even begin to count how many times I fell. It took forever just to figure out how to get off my butt and standing on the board. The other guy who was learning with me said it took us about 3 hours to get to the bottom. It felt much longer than that! I was definitely getting frustrated. Falling wasn't too bad. There were times that I felt like I was about to break something. Some falls were definitely worse than others. With all the falls, I was able to get up much easier. It got somewhat easier as the day went on. There were times when I was going pretty fast straight down. That's when I freaked and hit the snow. I didn't quite figure out how to stop, slow down, turn, or anything like that. So... I dropped myself. As long as I had a good fall I was okay. Thankfully I made it through the day without breaking anything. I was only able to get in two runs since this whole learning thing took forever. The second time wasn't as bad, but it still took a while.

After all was said and done, I was pretty wiped from everything. I got home just wanting to shower and sleep. That didn't happen. I kept watch over Hercules and just waited until the wifey got home. I had such a headache!

And now, the day after... my entire body is stiff and sore! The headache persists, my joints are stiff, and moving is a challenge. I can't really turn my neck without turning my body. I feel like Batman trying to look around. Everything hurts! It even hurts to laugh!

Thinking in retrospect, I had an amazing time! The first half of the day I wasn't cold at all. But once it got late and the sunshine wasn't hitting the mountain, I was starting to feel the cold. I'm pretty sure I'll be hitting the slopes again. I can't wait! Next time, I plan on staying on the board more often than falling and laying in the snow like I did this time.

Most memorable falls:

1. My first fall in which I put my helmet to good use.
   
2. Falling forward and feeling my left arm hit the ground thinking it just bent the wrong way and that my back just tweaked out of alignment in two spots.
3. Falling backwards hitting my right arm in a way that it felt like it popped out of its socket.
4. Falling forward after my board dug into the snow, feeling like my left leg just bent the wrong way.
5. Falling all day long on my wrists plenty of times, feeling like they were going to break.

Can't wait until next time!