1.16.2010

To board or not to board.

I would like to start with a brief timeline of my history with snowboarding/skiing. I've loved it all in retrospect, but at times is is an amazing life challenge and yoga has helped.

Winter 1993. First skiing ever, Snow Creek, tough and scary but okay.

1994-2002. Various family trips skiing, great memories of my dear Marchin clan, downhill and cross-country skiing, even hot springs once, never boarded, didn't want to waste "ski" time.

Jan 1999. College road trip to Vail. Decided to check out boarding for the FIRST time. My friend's strap broke, hated icy griddle iron of a hill, switched to another friend's skis for remainder of stay and gave my board to the other guy.

Feb 2006. Board lessons at Snow Creek with Ed, taught by very young person, went okay but rocky.

March 2006. Winter Park, CO, Started out on board, after one crazy morning of falls and eventually physical and mental exhaustion, succumbed to skis once more.

January 2010. Snow Creek once more, skied in the morning, decided to switch over to boarding along with a friend, Ed was on his all day. Actually got the hang of it. I don't have it 100% yet, but in a couple hours, I only had one icky fall, and was starting to carve a little. I'm so excited to try it in Colorado someday and felt the call of the board!!

Oh yes this is cool you ask, but why is this on a yoga blog? Well, it's yoga and life and this has been about a 15 year journey in my life. My yoga exploration began in approximately 2003 and from 2005 on I have been practicing yoga pretty much weekly or more. Is that why I finally cracked the snowboard mystery today, my first time on since yoga began? Maybe, I definitely felt better core strength, smoother ability to twist my upper body, more quad and knee flexibility, and I "found" my center of balance on the board. Oh yeah, and I am NOT goofy, I'm fakie (used my board regular with left foot forward, but my board was set up the other way). Maybe yoga helped me realize that for my body regular is most natural.

Namaste and see you on the corduroy!

Kat

1 comment:

Erin said...

I think that yoga has cultivated your warrior spirit and your vibration has matched that of a boarder. :)

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