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TRAVEL BLOG ENTRY
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“After a few tries I got it and managed to make an "S" in the slope.” |
On Tuesday Jen, Ken and I took the day off work and went snowboarding at Bear.
At first I really wasn't sure how I was going to do. I hadn't slept very well the night before. I had gotten in from the Dropkick Murphy's concert in Allentown about 1:30 and only gotten to bed about 2:30 a.m. I was pretty tired from jumping around all night but I wanted to go. Jen and Ken had been in Philly last night at the Three Days Grace concert so they were pretty tired too. I thought it was going to be an interesting day.
We started the day with our last lesson at noon. It was only Jen and I in the group.
Our instructor's name was Andy. We told him we had been out riding about 8 times and that we were comfortable controlling the board and fine with heel side turns and stops but that we needed work on our toeside turns, linking turns and getting off the lift without falling.
He took us up the bunny slope and watched us ride a little. Then he taught us a good trick to turn the board. He told us to always look out over the nose of the board and to point your arm in the direction you wanted to go and crouch down. That seemed to work pretty well. Then he taught us to point your arm downhill to start to initiate the turn to the other edge.
Jen picked it up really quickly. I had more trouble. I tend to overthink things and freak myself out. After a few tries I got it and managed to make an "S" in the slope. I'm still a bit shaky on my toeside but with more practice I'll get it eventually. I'd like to do it on a slope with snow instead of slush and see how I do. The slush kept getting caught on the top of my board and really slowing me down.
We went to the top of the bunny slope and worked on traversing a few times. Then Andy took us up on the chair lift to the top of the beginner's slope and he taught us how to get off the lift without falling. He told us to stand up right when the board hits the start of the downhill slope of the ramp, otherwise you fall. It worked, we all got off the lift without falling on our faces. We then started down the beginner's slope traversing the mountain. Once we got down it was the end of our lesson.
Andy advised me to get my bindings checked out, he said the front binding had more lean on it than the back binding. He told me to go into the tune shop and get it fixed. I had the same guy who fixed my broken binding on Sunday night. He asked if I got ahold of Pinnacle for the replacement. The guy realigned my bindings so they had the same amount of lean on them.
After that was finished we decided to go to my car and get the lunch we brought with us. It was really hot, like almost 70 degrees and we were all sweating and terribly thirsty. We got our lunches of subs from Sheetz and ate outside on the deck of the lodge.
After we finished eating we went up on the high speed quad chair lift to the top of the mountain. We decided since it was still day time it wouldn't be icy and we'd try the bigger beginner's slope again. I managed to get off the lift without falling by doing what Andy told us to do but Ken knocked Jen over. We strapped in and started down the mountain.
It went much better than Sunday night. No major wipeouts, no broken bindings but I kept getting caught in the flats....man does that suck. Jumping up and down like an idiot trying to free your board from the slush just looks stupid! We managed to make it down the mountain with only a few spills. I seem to attract skiiers, they just love to cut infront of me!
After we got the to bottom Jen decided to go back up. I was starting to feel sick in the stomach from the heat so I sat the run out while Jen and Ken went back up. After they came back down Ken went into the lodge. Jen went onto the small beginner's slope while I just chilled.
Ken came back out and he and Jen went back up to the top of the mountain. I went over to the small beginner's slope to work on traversing, I didn't feel like fighting my way out of the flats. I got 2 runs in by the time Jen and Ken came down the mountain.
I sat on the side of slope near the bottom of the mountain to wait for them. The lifty's started playing a Dropkick Murphy's CD...I guess they were at the concert last night too. It was cool. I went and got us all drinks because it got much hotter. By the time I came out Jen and Ken were at the bottom of the mountain.
We did a few more runs and then called it a day, we were all tired and too hot to go on much longer. We got about 4-5 hours of snowboarding in for the day.
previous travel blog entry
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