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Well, I made the decision to give it another shot. I felt after the last time, that perhaps I didn’t give it a fair chance due to my negative attitude going into it. I wanted to go up again, just Tate and I so I could focus and not be looking at how well everyone else compared to me. We had planned on going back in December but with family in town, didn’t get a chance to. Sierra had a “Learn to Ride” special going this week for where you get a 2 hr lesson, rentals and lift ticket all for $25. I decided this was the time to try again. This time, we invited Anna to go with us and Tom came too.

Even though Anna was did much better than me last time, she opted to take the “1^st timers” class with me. There were seven other students in the class with us. We took a buss to the top of the mountain and started our lesson. It started out the same way as my last lesson a few years ago, with hopping on the board and shooting down a small hill although this time, he told us how to stop. I fell my first two time. Next was to learn to turn. I did much better. At this point, I had surpassed what I learned in my last lesson. Next skill was to strap on both feet and learn to stand up. That didn’t go so well. I still can’t get up frontways. I have to flip over on my tummy and get up with my back facing down and then turn around to face front ways. Even that took several times with the instructor’s help. Next up was to sort of scoot your way down the mountain frontways. This went pretty well. Next was the falling leave, which is learning to go back and forth from side to side while scooting. I did pretty well, and only stopped a few times just to rest. Doing this skill is a lot of work for your thighs as your knees are bent and legs tight as you control the board. The entire class made it to the bottom of the bunny hill and with 15 minutes we all decided to learn to ride the lift.

Anna and I, along with another girl hopped on without incident. Getting off, on the other hand, was not so easy. We all fell as we got off and were in the way of the next people getting off. We crawled out of the way as fast as we could. I made it down the bunny hill again (scooting and doing the falling leaf) with out falling other than to stop to rest. This helped me tremendously as I could learn how to control the board and stop when I needed to. I was also able to control it so that I could move out of the way of others stopped on the hill.

Once I got down the hill, I had decided that I was exhausted and my legs were so tired that I was DONE for the day. The park was due to close in a few minutes anyway. But Anna was already at the lift calling for me to hurry up. I told her I was done but she persisted. “Only one more time!” Tate had also said at one point to keep going until closing since we didn’t know when we would be up again. So I did. I put my board back on and got on the lift. Again, it was Anna and I and another girl. I think I would have made it off the lift and out of the way this time had the other girl not fallen and pushed Anna and I down. I crawled out of the way again, strapped on my board and headed down the mountain. There were still quite a few people in the way so navigating past them was difficult, I fell a few times. Tate was with me at this point and I was so tired, my legs were killing me and I just wanted to go home. This was the point that I wanted to cry, take the board off and walk down the hill. But I didn’t. I got up and made my way down. Of course, I made a stop half way down to give my legs a break but at that point, my butt was so sore from falling on it, I needed help stopping and then sitting down softly. I rested a few minutes then got back up and finished getting down.

Anna was there with me the whole time, although usually a ways ahead of me. Since she had already had a day of practice, she got the hang of it quicker than me and could go a little faster. Tate and Tom went off and played on the mountain but came by to watch and take some pictures a few times. Tate also spent some time with me on my last run down although I forgot to have him take pictures.

All in all, I felt pretty good about the day I definitely didn’t HATE it like I did the last time. I wouldn’t go so far to say that it was FUN, but I would say I’m getting closer to fun. I think I will buy the 3 lesson pack and give it a couple more tries to see if I can progress and actually have FUN doing it. Today, my body aches. My legs, butt and arms are all sore. I have bruises on my knees from having to use them to get up off the ground as well as falling forward on them. I will be getting me some wrist guards to help with the falls. I don’t want to break a wrist or two.

Here are the pictures from the day. Tate only took pictures while we were learning to turn so there are only a few. PHOTOS

Tate, on the other hand continues to progress. He and Tom are playing in the terrain park and learning to jump on boxes as well as mounds of snow. They both have bought butt and thigh pads to protect themselves from the multiple falls. Last week they even went down a Black Diamond hill (those are the hardest).