The day before our third snowboarding lesson Vancouver received more than 30 centimetres of snow which when combined with the bright sunshine when we woke up, led to amazing conditions for snowboarding. This was unlike the previous week where it was snowing heavily while we were learning, or the first week where there hadn't been enough snow and the slopes were too icy.
We began our lesson by recapping the things that we had learnt in the prior lesson to warm ourselves up before we learnt anything new. Both Jess and I managed to get down the little hill we were learning on without too many falls so we moved on to the next step along with the rest of the class. The next skill we were to learn was known as toe edge. Unlike heel edge which we learnt the week before and which involved us moving forwards down the hill and using our heels to slow us down, toe edge required us to slide backwards and lean on our toes to slow ourselves down. Much to our delight both Jess and I were superstars at toe edge, mainly due to the fact that we walk on our toes most of the time anyway (not good for posture but apparently good for snowboarding).
The rest of the lesson involved us perfecting our toe edge technique and moving onto attempting baby turns which involved sliding down the hill alternating between heel edge and toe edge. We were so happy with our improvement that we even stayed for an hour after the lesson to continue practicing. We probably would have stayed longer however the magic carpet was not working meaning we had to walk back up the hill every time. After the extra hour we were both exhausted and decided to head back to the café for a free hot chocolate and the amazing view in the photo below.
Our fourth and final lesson began under bright skies with a few clouds around. As there hadn't been as much snow on the mountain during the week, conditions were a bit icy meaning that the slopes were a lot faster as we found out on our first trip down the training hill. Once we had warmed up by going down the hill a few times and practicing our turns, our instructors decided that we were all ready to take on "The Cut" which is one of the beginner or green runs on the mountain. As it was the first time for any of going on a proper snowboarding run and due to the fact that we were surrounded by the general public who weren't in lessons, we went in stages for the first run. About halfway down he run we stopped as a group whilst the instructors showed us the best way to tackle the next part. As we were right at a steep point the photo opportunity was too good to pass up (especially getting the board in the photo).
Once at the bottom we caught the chair lift back to the top of the mountain and went again with the instructors except without stopping for breaks (although we still fell over enough to get some good breaks in). By the time we were at the bottom of the slope for the second time, the last of our allotted 2 hour lessons were over and we were all deemed fit to have passed our introductory snowboarding course.
To celebrate, the 6 of us decided to do the cut one more time before we would meet up and have hot chocolates back at the café. Luckily we had already pre-determined this was our last run as I managed to wipe out spectacularly leading to twisting my knee and a fair deal of pain. However it was nothing that a free hot chocolate and some newly made snowboarding friends couldn't fix.
Once we were off the mountain and arrived back in the car park ready to venture home, we decided a few final photos were in order with the massive statues adorning the carpark. We think one is of a bear but the other one is a bit of a mystery.
Comments