Moving to Canada one of the main things we wanted to achieve was learning how to snowboard so that we could appreciate the beauty of the many different mountains around the country. So once we moved to North Vancouver, we signed up for a snowboard package at nearby Grouse Mountain which committed us to four 2 hour sessions over consecutive Saturdays.
Our first lesson was scheduled to start at 9:30 on Saturday the 11th of February. Not wanting to be late we left the house at 10 minutes to 7 to catch the bus which would take us on the 15 minute journey to the base of Grouse Mountain. We then had to join the massive collection of people looking to catch the gondola to the top of the mountain including a large contingent of ski school children who ranged from the ages of 4 to about 12. Once we arrived at the top of the mountain we were greeted by bright sunshine and a blue sky (or as our Canadian friends like to call it a "bluebird". At this stage it was about 7:30 and we still had 2 hours to kill so coffee was in order.
Once we had finished our cups of coffee and enjoyed the warmth of the ski lodge café, we made our way to the hut where we were to pick up our rental snowboards and boots. Being extremely early we had plenty of time to figure out how to put our snowboard boots on and make sure we weren't going to fall out of them. From there we moved outside and waited for the rest of the class and the instructor to turn up.
Once the rest of the class showed up and we met our instructor, the first thing we learned was how to strap ourselves into the bindings on the snowboard. In theory this is an easy task however the first few times we strapped in took quite a lot longer than expected. Our first snowboarding task once strapped in was to push ourselves in a straight line down a small hill and turn our bodies at the end to smoothly stop ourselves. Unfortunately this ended in disaster with most of the class on their first run going downhill very well before wiping out in exceptional fashion as soon as they tried to turn.
When we had all figured out how to at least make it down the small hill, we moved on to the bigger training hill which had the "magic carpet" running alongside it (a motorized strip to take you from the bottom to the top). Here we spent the rest of the lesson learning how to use our heel edge to slowly make our way down. Jess was pretty good at this. I however was not and spent a large portion of this part of the lesson finding inventive ways to fall on my bottom.
As part of our snowboarding package we were entitled to a free hot chocolate and biscuit at the end of the lesson which was very appealing after spending 2 hours falling on our bottoms. When we artrived at the café, all the inside tables were busy so we drank our hot chocolates outside in the snow with a beautiful view of the city and the surrounding area.
Lesson two brought much different weather from the first lesson. In the 24 hours previous to Grouse Mountain opening for the day, the mountain had received 27cms of snow and it continued to snow quite heavily for the entirety of the lesson. This made conditions exceptionally difficult for snowboarding as large piles of snow would built up in front of the board, effectively halting any forward momentum you would get.
Lesson number two was spent perfecting going down the hill on our heel edge and then moving on to moving side to side and stopping as we went down the hill using our heel edge to prevent us from sliding out of control. Once again Jess was miles ahead in picking up the essentials and putting them into practice. I was much slower and became quite frustrated toward the mid point of the lesson when I fell on my behind for about the 100th time. However by the end of the lesson everything had fallen into place and I had managed to nail down the basics of what we were learning. Due to the cold weather and the amount of snow that fell during our lesson, our free hot chocolate was much appreciated (especially by Jess who's hair froze)
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