My experiments with Snow Boarding

Before I explained my experiment with snow boarding I need to tell all something about myself. Even though I am not someone who would try anything thats new on the block ,I do seek to have fun doing mild to moderate risk involving activities. I do love sports. Wait a minute I did not complete the sentence yet. I love ALL sports in a 60 inch HD tv on ESPN channel. I dont have to know the rules. I dont have to support any team. If there is a lot of shouting and cheering involved I am on board.


I recently went snow boarding and had so many glimpses of wisdom. Coming from a country that is ALWAYS hot, snow has been something I really enjoy. So when friends said lets go snow boarding I just said yes. I love snow so how difficult would it be to slide on a board on something I really love? BOY I WAS WRONG! I am someone that googles everything. If google had to announce an award for someone that googled EVERY thing under the sun, the winner would be me. However I made an exception this time about not setting any kind of expectation and reminded myself to " go with the flow" - an expression I dearly love.So I did not know anything about it.


The first thing that made my mind say " You should think about opting out of this" is the shoe that we were given. I was told that kind of shoe actually protects us from injuries. As much as it was true, it was very hard to believe so because the shoes were awfully tight and very heavy making it absolutely impossible to walk!Then came an instructor ( we had signed up for an introductory class) who was 14 years old. I expected someone older to be my instructor. The word instructor seemed so BIG to describe the person that arrived to say we had to begin the class in 5 minutes. That was another time my mind said " This may be for someone that has always been on snow. May be someone young and energetic.You can opt out right now"  I ignored my mind's chatter and shushed her ( yes my mind is a she DUH! She also has a name he he. Go on conclude that I am a confirmed cuckoo!) and said I am a fun loving, physically active person I want to do this. Then came strapping my leg on the board. My recent gaining of weight, the mommy tummy and the fat snow pants did not help at ALL! Ultimately the 14 year old had to do the strapping for me. The kid that was hired to teach snow boarding was good at doing it. But he apparently did not know the ONE THING that he should talk about first. It was HOW TO FALL. He started off with asking us to strap one leg first. The first fall I ever took happened to be the wrong one. I fell and twisted my knee so badly that I could not continue the rest of it. What was supposed to be a nice change of pace from my usual weekends of walking around the mall proved to be painful and not so enjoyable!

Pain always brings us back to center. Makes us think about things we never ever thought about! So here are my glimpeses of wisdom.Any sport especially ones involving snow needs to be done with great caution so, if your mind says opt of it you get out, watch how others do and may be get into it later! Pain is no fun especially a mom who has a kid to take care of at home should avoid everything that would result in pain and affect mobility. Snow sports like skiing, snow boarding has a lot to do with balance so if we are over weight we may have falls and there is greater possibility of getting hurt. A little less weight on my body would have helped! ( There is one more reason to work out!) Snow sports require practice just like anything else. So it is always advisable to get a good instructor probably get a private lesson or 2  and practice a lot. Instead of blaming oneself it always helps to have a positive attitude and try dealing with the pain so we dont become all the more sedantary!

In conclusion I may not snow board again but it did remind me to be more cautious in future. I thank myself for not letting this kill my love for sports. Yes I did watch super bowl yesterday on a HD TV, having my swollen feet up and enjoying a nice dinner handed to me on a plate! I LOVE SPORTS.

Xoxo
Srividya