Snowboarding leads to no good By Colin Well, ski club had started. Everyone was sprinting to get there stuff to the bus. “GO GO GO!” people were yelling as they were making a mad dash towards the bus. I arrived at the bus with my friends, and we loaded on, claiming our seats. “Are you ready!!” blared through the microphone that Mr. Durant was speaking into. “YEAH!” everyone yelled, except for me. My friend tapped me on the shoulder from a seat behind me. “Well, are you ready?” He asked. This friend was an 8th grader named Jaime. I was in 7th grade, so the extra confidence boost from an 8th grader was cool. “YEAH!” I yell at him, trying to make it seem like I was totally pumped. Which, in a sense I was. I look over to my friend Jonathan who is zoning out with his iPod. He had a huge smile on his face. My other friend Chris was sitting right next to me, feeling pumped, and staring me down. “Man, if you don’t wanna do this, the door is right there.” He said as he pointed to the exit of the bus. “Pssh, are you kidding me, I would miss this for the world”. This was incredibly untrue, but I thought that it would boost my confidence up some more. The bus starts rolling, and I took a deep breath while everybody was hollering. I was nervous out of my mind. I had no idea how to snowboard. The closest thing to snowboarding that I have ever done in my LIFE, was taking a step on a skateboard. That was once. Jonathan promised me that he would teach me some basic steps before my snowboarding lessons. My lessons started at 5:00, and it was 4:00 at the time. We had gotten all our stuff on, and went up the chair lift. Chris came with us, but he skis. “Are you ready?” Jonny looked at me, and he smirked. “Nope, not at all, but it’s gonna be fun!” I said, in a nervous voice. Chris looked at Jonny and whispered something. I will soon learn what Chris said to Jonny, for what he whispered was about to be put into action. The end of the lift was approaching, and I had no idea what to do. “JONNY! WHAT DO I DO!” I yelled towards Jonny. Jonny looked at Chris, and smiled an evil smile. “Just turn your board horizontally against the end of the lift. You’ll slide off nice and smooth.” He smiled, but I didn’t see it.
Snowboarding leads to no good By Colin I angled my board horizontally towards the drop-‐off, and I was super eager. I felt like I was the best snowboarder ever. About to get off the lift, facing my board horizontally, then…the end of the lift came. I put my board down, and immediately the side of my board dug into the ground. I fell flat on my face into the snow. The snow was as cold as a ice against my red face. I was slightly annoyed with the trick that Jonny and Chris had just played on me. “Not funny” I said, smiling “Now, help me up!” Jonny and Chris grabbed my arms and helped me get out of the way of oncoming passengers that were departing from the chair lift. “Alright, now, for real. First, go sit down on the bench next to the top of the slope. Strap into your bindings on your snowboard.” Jonny told me as he pointed to the bench, then looked down at the bindings on my snowboard. I strap down the bindings, and I had no idea what I was doing. I tried to walk, but I fell flat on my face. I realized that there was a snowboard attached to my feet. Jonny and Chris were dying, laughing on the ground. I got up, and was also laughing. I knew that I was acting foolish, but I didn’t know what to do. I was embarrassed I guess. Then my friends Jacquie andEmma came rolling in from the chair lift. They had seen all the falling that I had done. They came rolling in laughing. I could tell that they were there to watch the show of me learning how to snowboard. I unstrapped my bindings, and started walking. “No, Colin, No! You can’t learn walking!” said Chris, while in the middle of laughing. “Jonny nodded his head while laughing hysterically. “Fine, do I have to?” I said. “Yes, now strap on your bindings and we can learn!” said Jonny. “First, go back up to the top of the slope, and strap on your board.” I walked back up to the top of the slope, and sighed as I sat down on the snow to strap in my bindings. I reached forward, and grabbed the strap. I laced it through the loop, and tightened it. I did the same for the other foot. I kept the bindings on, which meant I was officially “snowboarding”, sort of. “Alright, so I’ll help you to stand up now. First, grab my hand.” Jonny said. I stand up with these bindings on my feet, and I could not walk! The bindings were on my feet and strapped in tight. Jacquie, Chris, and Emma were all standing back, awaiting the chaos that was about to rain down on this slope. Chris was already smiling, and ready for the destruction. I grabbed Jonny’s hand, and he pulled on my hand. Jonny slipped on the slick snow, and we both fell down onto our butts.
Snowboarding leads to no good By Colin
butts.
“HA HA HAHAHA!” Everyone hollers as Jonny and I simultaneously fall onto our
Chris helps Jonny and I up as he is still giggling to himself. He pulls me up to quickly, and I am sent stumbling on my board. With my arms flailing, I gained my balance. One problem, there were people ahead of me. I started to panic, for I didn’t know how to stop. My board kept sliding towards the oncoming people, and I started to yell. “JONNY! HOW DO I STOP THIS THING!?!?!?!” I yelled. Jonny was laughing way too hard to even have the thought to help me. Chris, Jacquie and Emma were laughing way too hard, and I started to go into panic mode. My board wouldn’t stop, so my only option was to fall down. I didn’t realize how close I was to the approaching people. I turned around, and I didn’t have enough time to fall down and stop myself. I hit the first person, who happened to be a man in his 60’s. “HEY, WATCH WHERE YOU ARE GOING!”The man in his 60’s yelled at me. I hit the man in his legs and he toppled over. He fell on his butt, and I looked back. He was red in the face. “Sorry!” I yell towards him. There were more obstacles in the way. I turned forward, and two girls who were also beginners were straight ahead. They were completely oblivious to the oncoming boy hurtling towards them. “WATCH OUT!” I yelled towards them. The two girls turned around, and screamed. I couldn’t give them any further warning, and I couldn’t move out of the way, because I was too close to the girls. I hit the first girl, catching her legs and falling onto her butt and back. I grabbed the other girl, trying to stop me from continuing to slide down the slope, and she is sent spinning and she tripped back into the soft snow. “YOU ARE AN IDIOT!” One girl yelled. She threw snow at me, and it hit me right in the face. The other girl stuck up her finger at me, and swore as loud as she could. I looked back at my friends, and they were all laughing their brains out. I realized that this experience was kind of funny, and I started to laugh to. Jonny rode over to me, and he picked me up. “Ha ha, now, how was that for your first time out?” He said to me, and I smacked him in the stomach. He started to laugh. Chris came skiing over and he was laughing so hard a swear he was about to bust a lung.
Snowboarding leads to no good By Colin
“Are you alright? You seemed to have hit many people on your way down.” Chris said still laughing his head off. “Very funny, now…let’s do it again!” I said. We sledded down on our snowboards the rest of the way down the slope. We climbed back on the Chair lift. We saw people going down the slope that were absolutely tearing up the slope. “That’s gonna be me by the end of the day!” I said. “Sure Colin, what ever makes you happy” Jonny said, and that was the end of that terrible experience. At the end, I am proud of myself, and I will never forget it.