Snowboards, Surfboards, Skateboards

How much overlap is there between surfing and snowboarding?

Not much, if you believe an unsigned article in the Delaware Coast Press:

Surfers hone wave-riding skills in sidewalk surfing
May 3, 2006

I sometimes hear novices or beginners say that they want to learn to surf and they relate their skateboard and snowboard experience as somehow being relevant to a quick learning experience. Well, let me tell you something. It's not. Snowboarding and skateboarding are similar, but they aren't really similar to surfing.

Take for instance,the turn. Seeing a snowboarder do a big carve or a skateboarder bomb a hill, you may see turns that are reminiscent of surfing. But really, they are accomplishing completely different things. Snowboarding and downhill skateboarding turns are designed to control your speed. You're actually trying to slow down and carving is the most fun way of doing it. In surfing, however, turning is the means of generating speed, especially if you're riding a three finned board. But even riding single fins you are turning to return to the source of power. If you take off and head straight off on a board you will quickly run out of speed and fall off. Not so on a snowboard or skateboard. So it is imperative that you are constantly turning to stay in the curl to keep up your speed.

Live in Vail, Don't Ski?

If you live in a resort town, you go skiing or snowboarding, right? Not always.

The Vail Daily News finds a few residents of the Vail area who don't ski much--or at all.

Why don't they?

Sometimes it's different outdoors interests:

"The Louisiana native has lived in Colorado for six years, but it was horses, not skiing, that brought him here ...."

For some, it's the inability to shake a bad memory:

"Her last day on skis was when she was 16. It was freezing, she said, and she remembers sliding down the mountain on her rear end."

I suppose that's why, she says "It hasn't been very appealing to me." But one bad experience? That's all it takes for some.

"It just wasn't a very good day," she said.

Finally there's always the fear of getting injured:

"When Werner moved here after college, he worked in a physical therapy office. Exposure to people with ski injuries there turned him off to skiing, he said."

This individual, however, avoids the possibility of ski injuries by ... ice climbing.

Ice climbing?

Now that sounds like something risky.

There are some downsides to not skiing or riding, besides the obvious: "One drawback? He doesn't get to skip out of work for the morning on powder days."

Midwestern Sliding in May

Snowboards in May? In Minnesota? After a fashion, yes.

Minneapolis TV channel 11 (KARE) offers a video report of the event at Welch Village. The trick competition was held over a month after the season ended.

Welch Village has photos as well.

Sailing and Snowboarding

During the summer I'm going to revisit the world of snowboarding--at least on this blog--on an occasional basis. So let's kick things off by mentioning a summertime activity, sailing.

The comparison came to me when I was cruising on my board at Vail. I was on a trail with the friendly snow: not powder, not groomed, not ice, but a nicely firm surface that was suitable for simply playing around. Mixing it up. Going fast. Going slow.

I glided almost effortlessly from one side of the trail to the other. Sometimes I stayed in the middle to spin in a circle as I continued the descent. At other times I "bombed it" for a short distance. But mostly, I took what the terrain gave me, gently riding up and down the small undulations of the trail.

The experience reminded me of sailing at its best. Both are best enjoyed on a sunny day. Both are best enjoyed when both are at shade that invigorates but is hard to describe. In both snowboarding and sailing, the blue is contrasted with white: the snow on the mountain, and the wake on the sea.

In both situations, the sportsman uses his skill and knowledge, an engineered product, the laws of physics, water, and an ever-changing natural environment to bring about physical, emotional, and even spiritual pleasure. In both situations, human will, shaped by "givens" of nature, whether they are wind and wave conditions, or snow conditions and the shape of the terrain.

Now, it may be that I'm overstating the comparison, but I'm not sure. While I have been a passenger on some sailboats, I've never been the captain. I've watched, and done as told. One day's effort at windsurfing left me exhausted, and the opportunity for a repeat has never presented itself.

Speaking of variations of sailing, I have also gone parasailing. Twice. One trip took me 250 feet over the Gulf coast, near Tampa. A second took me 500 feet over Green Bay, off the Door County peninsula. Both events involved some of the elements I have mentioned above: blue skies, water, being shaped by the natural elements.

Yet there was one missing element: lack of control. Stand up on the boat, let the parachute fill with air, and go along for the ride. In snowboarding or in sailing, I had the choice of how to change my direction. On the parasail, I hung on for life and dared not make any changes. It was more of a passive experience. So I would give extra praise for snowboarding.