Personal Narrative-Changing Experience Of Snowboarding

Snowboarding is one of the most enjoyed international pastimes. It presents you with this feeling of freedom and raw power as the cold air hits your face while you carve down the almost vertical mountain face dropping over steep clips and carving trough trees. These are just a few reasons why so many people internationally flock to the mountains to partake in this sport. Snowboarding provides people an escape from there comfort zone by pushing them to take on risks they would never have thought off before.

Speed! That’s all I think about as I head down the slope. The wind blasts in my face as I race down. Suddenly, I swerve out of control; I freak out. My skis fall off and I’m stuck on a snowy hill looking down at a steep slope. Fortunately, my dad skis down and stopped a few a feet away from me. Panicking, I sat down and begin to worry. Yet, my dad eventually straightens me out and shows me how to get back up, we continue skiing.

The first time I’ve ever gone snowboarding at a resort was a lifechanging experience for me. It was the time when I decided that this sport is going to be what I’m going to do, I’ve always wanted to go snowboarding before. I love everything about this sport/hobby. I’ve always loved snowboarding but I’ve never actually pursued it because nobody would help me pursue the sport. Snowboarding inspires me to be better, do better, and live better.

When I was 15, that was my 3rd year of snowboarding, my ramp freestyle element went wrong. Just this one jump became the biggest challenge in my life.

Falling over and over onto the dense sleet surface, with snow penetrating what’s left keeping you warm; your initial experience of snowboarding. Similar to other learning experiences, but perhaps not as harsh. Learning is a journey filled with challenges and sometimes failures. What determines the outcome is whether you can persevere and receive the everlasting reward of success. Learning is what you make of it, may it be learning to snowboard or applying it into the classroom setting. It will be an enriching skill you will be able to apply universally.

Throughout time, the progression and evolution of snowboarding has increased greatly. It has gone from non existence in the late 1970’s, to one of the most watched action sports in a matter of thirty-five years. The upward takeoff and popularity of snowboarding relies on two people, Jake Burton and Shaun White. Jake Burton back in 1977 had the vision for what snowboarding would be, but Shaun White had what it took to manifest that vision. Evidence has shown that time brings change in sports, history has repeated itself with snowboarding, this history reflects the time & changes that has occurred in America.

Snow skiing. The first day learning to ski is rough for almost anyone you ask. The day before my first ski trip, I could not help but wonder. Was I going to fall on my butt? Would I fall flat on my face? Would I make a fool out of myself? These were all questions that I knew I would soon get answers to. I had built up such intense feelings of nervousness and excitement that I could hardly tell the difference. All I wanted was to make it out alive.

After about a half hour of walking down the mountain I sat on my snowboard to take a break. When I stood up the board slid out from under me and started making it’s way down the mountain without me. In turn, I was forced to chase it, as it caused other snowboarders and skiers to dodge and avoid my board and me. The people who caught my board were in there twenties and did not have any sympathy for the situation and laughed at me for being scared to fall off the mountain. If I ever try snowboarding again, I will know not to take off the snowboard while on the mountain and that’s how I learned my

This spring break I went to the Poconos in Pennsylvania, I did a lot of fun stuff, but what excited me the most was skiing, skiing was the most difficult thing I have done in a long time, we went to the Shawnee ski resort, and over there we rented out some skiing gear and went skiing, the first time I tried moving I fell right after, once I figured out how to move, I went up the beginners mountain and threw myself down for the first time, I was very scared when I first skiied down the beginners mountain, I did not fall, after a couple of times of skiing down I thought I was ready for the experts course. After I decided I was ready, I went to the chairlift, and the lift escalated real quick before I knew it I was about 50 feet above the ground

I recently went to North Carolina snowboarding for the first time with my family a couple of weekends ago. After gaining a love for the sport I decided that I wanted to invest in my own snowboard for future trips. This was an expensive purchase that I did not know much about, so it required extensive decisions making when deciding which brand as well as what board, bindings, and boots would fit my skill level the best. The decision-making started when I recognized the amount of enjoyment I had for snowboarding, that them stimulated a want. After that I started doing external information searches on the different types of boards. I learned that I needed an all mountain board that fitted my height and weight. From there I read reviews from

I had only two groups ahead of me and then it was my turn to take the lift. As the others ahead got on, I examined the way they mounted the seat. As each seat took off, they would walk up behind it as another seat, without stopping, would scoop them up from behind. Now it was my turn. When the group ahead of me got carried away, I moved up quickly so the seat coming from behind me wouldn’t knock me down. As I watched the seat draw near I noticed there were no seatbelts! How stupid of me. Of course there wouldn’t be seatbelts. Once you finally get to the top, you have to get off quickly otherwise you’ll miss your chance and the lift will take you back down. It was too late now, the seat was right behind me. As it grabbed me from behind, I could feel my board and legs begin to drag across the floor. When I lost contact with the earth, I clung to the side railing as tightly as I could. Every second that passed took me higher and higher. The cable suspending my seat bounced up and down as more passengers were added to the weight of the lift. I looked down and realized I was already about twenty feet in the air. The gravity pulling down on the snowboard attached to my foot felt as if a demon, whose name was Acrophobia, was dragging me down to the depths of

It wasn’t until my sophomore year of high school when I was no longer playing hockey that I saw a real opportunity to pursue snowboarding. Our school had recently created a snowboarding team (formally known as “Boardercross”) that had experienced much success in their limit sample size. During that season, two of the members ranked in the top ten riders in the country. The idea of riding out to the local ski hills with my classmates several days a week and snowboarding for hours on end was just too tempting to turn down.

Let’s go back to a cold winter day at Shawnee Peak in Bridgeton, Maine. I was discussing my dilemma of what to do for the upcoming sports season with my ski coach. I have been playing softball for the past 12 years, but this year something felt different…I wasn’t interested. The past season was quite rough, getting to the point where I was seriously thinking about quitting the team. I knew I didn’t want to go back to that, but I needed something else to occupy my time. While talking to my ski coach he mentioned playing lacrosse because it was the first year being offered at my school. I quickly responded with “but I don’t want to have to run!”. He assured me that if I was the goalie there would be minimal running. My coach also added that it

After spending two years in a tropical climate, coming home to a dry and cold climate seems cruel. Especially when I have to walk from my apartment to my various classes. But, once again my view on snow has changed once again when my friend invited me to go snowboarding with him. It was the first time that I went snowboarding. I was feeling confident. because I know how to skateboard and I thought I would be able to transition my skills fairly easily. We set out to my roommates house to pick up his cousin and the snow gear for me. From there we went to the resort; once we got all our gear one we walked to the bunny hill lift. It looked simple enough, all you had to do was hold on to a rope that would pull you and the board up the hill. So I was partly strapped in my board ready to grab on the rope. Once I grabbed on the force pulling me forward surprised me, I bent this way and that eventually falling down. This happened two more times until I gave up and walked the rest of the way up the hill. I like to say the bunny hill went better, but it didn’t. I soon realized that my skills as a skateboarder did not transition well. I fell many times and there were no signs of me getting better. After we ran the bunny hill a few times my roommate took me to the intermediate sloop. From the bottom of the hill I looked up at the steep slope and I thought I was going to die if I went down that hill. Getting on the lift was not as difficult as I thought, I jusr sat down and slid my board off the hill. The anticipation was building going up the hill, because the lift kept stopping, making the ride even longer. I started out really well, Sliding down the hill is a ziz-zag formation. Then I made my first big mistake. I was feeling a little more confident in my skills and decided to go a little faster. Once I decided to do this my snowboard went over a patch of ice. The board slipped out from under my and I rolled und

If you prefer outdoor workouts, winter can be a difficult time of the year. By the time you get home from work, it's dark outside and you must resign yourself to running or walking on slushy streets. However, there is an alternative way to get a better workout away from roads and traffic. If you have nearby parks, public lands, or trail systems that you normally hike in the warmer months, you can also enjoy them in the winter with a pair of snowshoes and a headlamp. If you live in an urban area, there's a good chance that it has a number of small cross-country ski centers open at night that also allow snowshoeing.