The Amazing Sleepy Hollow Board Session

Today I strapped on a snowboard for the first time in six years. I swore that I would never do that again after The Injury. I also make Kayla and Dylan swear that they would not allow me on one of those dangerous devices called a snowboard ever again. Some good that did.

An omen?

Diane, for reasons she has not fully yet articulated, has decided to take up snowboarding. Despite my warnings.

I decided it might be fun spending the day together struggling to keep our feet. So, we loaded up the boards and headed over to Sleepy Hollow for the amazing board session. I was hoping we would not get run down by the headless snowboarding horseman.

It all looks innocent enough.

Diane refused to sit on the same chair as me for the 870' ride that gives you an amazing 100 feet of vertical.

Diane gets advice from the expert. I think he's warning her of the grave danger that lies ahead and to sell the board and go back to skiing.

Diane makes another trip up.

OMG, Dylan, this is hard!

My first run down Sleepy Hollow was pretty shaky. Of course, I crashed a few times. After several runs, it started coming back and I was linking my turns again. Despite that success, I still do not have a high level of comfort on a snowboard.

Today reminded my of two key axioms of snowboarding: (1) it's harder than it looks; and (2) it really hurts when you fall. Which we both did. A lot.

I finally got bored with Sleepy Hollow and headed over to Twilight to have a little more adventure. I started with a trip down Peek-A-Boo, a green run. That went fine--I only crashed once and was starting to feel a little more comfortable and gain some confidence. My second run was done Swoosh. That was going fine until I hit the road at the very bottom.

The road is my nemesis. The road and me on a snowboard always seems to end badly. When I first started snowboarding back in the 2004-05 season, I had my first run-in with the road. I was going down Peek-A-Boo which has a long run out on the road at the bottom. Going straight on a snowboard is harder than it looks--if you keep a flat edge, it's probably going to catch and throw you. You can either stand facing the mountain on your toe edge, or ass-end to the mountain on your heel edge.

So, I'm going down the road (this is back in 04-05) and making feeble attempts to link my turns. I'm on my toe edge and catch my back edge. That threw me backwards down the hill where I smacked my head on the snow and hyper-extended my neck. I was a mess for two weeks. I went out and bought a helmet the next day and have been wearing it ever since.

Today I just had to do another helmet check. It definitely works, but it was a hard painful fall on the road. I went down a little further and banged me knees on the next fall. At that point I was reminded of my conclusion six years ago: snowboarding is a dangerous activity for middle-aged people. I don't know if I'll try it again or not. Warren Miller once said "there's four things you can do with a pair of skis: turn right, turn left, go straight, or sell them." Sage advice from the guru. I'm pretty sure the same applies to snowboards.

I went down to the lot and changed into my alpine gear. It seemed safer to go with something I know.

The Ass Family showed up today. They were probably snowboarding.

I caught up with Dylan after a few runs. He was up to the same old tricks.

Remember, ski time is fun time!