Snowboarding - Try It You'll Like it...
By BJ Baker

My ski bum days were spent in Steamboat a resort that at the time did not allow snowboards and the snowboard ban was even one of the reasons I choose Steamboat. I didn’t want to be bothered by snowboarders and anything I didn’t consider pure to the sport I loved. Like those early mono skis -- What was that?
As I started teaching my kids to ski, my kids had to try to the sport I had, so long tried to ignore. I was almost even offended at the thought of my offspring sliding down the hill on a snowboard, but as a parent you’ve got to learn to pick you’re battles and snowboarding wasn’t going to be one of them.

Ironically at Steamboat in 1999 was the first time I tried snowboarding. A friend who was an old school skateboarder and a good skier had warned me that it wasn’t easy. I rented the board for a half day and I caught up with my son after his 3 hour private and headed up the chair to mid-mountain just after lunch. I have always been self thought on skis and I figured I could work this snowboard out on my own as well.

The terrain we choose that afternoon was significantly harder than the terrain he had been skiing all morning and he was ready to give up in frustration by the time we made it to the bottom of the Basher race area. Luckily we met up with my wife and daughter and he went down with them while I took a few more attempts at snowboarding. The time I spent in the Basher Race area on the snowboard was exasperating. Being a rank beginner at snowboarding is a very humbling experience for someone who has been skiing for over 30 years and in the end that year I didn’t really care for it at all.

The next year the family spent time in Telluride and you can actually see the pictures of my wife walking the board down the hill after giving up. I didn’t bother to get on the board that year.

The real break-through came last year at Winter Park, thanks to my 10 year daughter. She made me promise that I would spend time with her snowboarding. Just my luck Winter Park is not the best place to learn to snowboard if you’re not in top physical shape. There are tons of flat spots and saddles that lend themselves to a lot of walking for a beginner.

The real change of heart came on water before I hit the Colorado slopes last year with my daughter. Wakeboarding had taught me the basic body control techniques of the snow board. The movements were really foreign to me at first, hip control that seemed better used on the dance floor, but as I learned to wakeboard I pretty much quit skiing on water.

Basically I made a decision that day in Winter Park that I would snowboard and I was going to learn. After my daughter met up with her grandmother my wife and I headed down the nearest intermediate terrain. In a true switch my wife was becoming impatient waiting on me and wanted to get back to the group to see how my son was doing in his snowboard endeavors in the terrain park.

We parted ways, I told her I was heading back to the hotel, but as she poled ahead to the lift line back up the mountain I looked ahead to find myself several hundred yards from the condo and a few hundred feet below it. The best way out was up, so I got back on the lift with determination in mind to figure it out. I didn't master the sport that day in Winter Park, but given some good terrain and no family distractions I had fun figuring it out and linking up some great turns. You never find me sitting on my rear end waiting to get some big air in the half pipe, but some day you may see me swooshing past you in that all familiar and distinct snowboard sound as you’re plotting your next latte at the top of the lift.

Why give snowboarding a try? Because as George Mallory said when asked why he wanted to climb Mt. Everest, "because it is there". Challenge yourself, learn something new, its easy to feel good about logging a few thousand vertical feet every time you good step in the skis, but the true adventurer strives to do what will challenge the sole. So since I don't have a spare $70,000 lying around to climb Everest I'll strap on a snow board and challenge myself in other ways and I encourage others to give the snowboard a try.