Of face plants and sore butts

The school offers a whole bunch of fun PE classes every quarter. Every student is required to complete at least 2 quarters of PE classes as a graduation requirement. It's part of the whole 'broad-based education' mantra. I've done soccer, badminton and rock climbing thus far, and having been on the tennis and soccer teams, have more than fulfilled my PE requirements. Still, the great rates the school offered for its skiing class meant I had to sign up! So, for 3 Fridays in February, a bunch of us bused up to Thunder Ridge, a small mountain (more hill, really) about an hour north of Yonkers, for afternoons of icy pain (for me)!

Some of my fellow skiers - Tatiana, Lakshmi and Lydia and I.

I tried skiing the first week, thinking it would be easier. And it sort of is, because it's vaguely similar to rollerblading or ice-skating. But I had a big problem! I couldn't stop! So you are supposed to make a V shape with your skis to stop, but try as I might, I just couldn't! So I would go up the ski lift, and plunge straight down, constantly accelerating because I couldn't stop! Result: Face plant!
Still, the more experienced girls reckoned I did alright, and because they were bored of the beginners' hill (which was a relatively straight and gentle slope), decided to go to the intermediate one and asked me to come along. Big mistake. The whole can't stop deal? Yeah, that's exacerbated by a way steeper incline + twists and turns + dozens of experienced skiers/snowboarders constantly zooming past you. I did it twice. The second time, I gather so much speed down the final slope, and still not being able to stop, I crashed through the plastic net barrier way at the base of the hill. Thank goodness that was a plastic net, and not, say, a concrete wall!

The grace of a rhino, or something.

The next two weeks, I decided to switch to snowboarding. It's a lot more difficult than skiing in that you fall a hella lot more. Seriously, I wished I had some sort of ass padding, because I fell hard 3944394 times (didn't help that the fluffy snow had melted and refrozen to become hard as fuck ice. OUch.). But, I felt like I picked up snowboarding better. Still, I have problems, of course, the main one being that I can only go in one direction - right! So When I attempted that cursed intermediate hill again, it was lights out whenever there was a left turn. LOL. Tatiana and I on the long ski lift ride up the intermediate slope.

Off the ski slope! Our PE class was named 'Twilight Skiing' because, yeah.

Standing pretty on our board! Oh yeah, boarding is a lot of troublesome because each time you get to the bottom, you have to remove one foot from the board to be able to move, because you can't exactly glide along on a board without the aid of gravity.

Hopefully, I'll get another opportunity to snowboard or ski soon! Dream is Europe next year. Wonder how expensive it is. Target: Learn to brake on skis, and turn left and board back facing front!