March 27th, this is the date the Mission Ridge Park closed this year. I really had a good time there. I came to Canada in August 2013. I have gone through for winters here in Regina. The former three winters I was just staying at home after school. I did not go anywhere because it was terrible outside. I hate snow, wind, and freezing cold. I changed my attitude during this few months learning how to snowboard.
Although I’m still not so good at it, it is now one of my hobby and skill. I can skate with snowboard; I can get up immediately when I fell down; I know how to heel slide and toe slide when snowboarding; I know I should use my upper body especially my wrist to change direction and keep balance; I know I could stop with my heel or toe digging into the snow… Unfortunately, I still did not figure out how not to fall down in “C” posture. Next winter I need practice edge control. Short-term goal: hope I can move to blue run next winter, and black, maybe. Also, learn how to ski as well. Long-term: Banff. I heard from my friend that Banff would let we know what real skiing and snowboarding mean. Thanks Google and YouTube, they helped a lot. I found a bunch of articles and videos teaching how to snowboard. Those reading explain snowboarding in words; videos show me how to do it. I appreciate my experience of learning snowboarding with the help of Internet. In the future, I’m going to teach students how to learn a new skill by Google, YouTube, and other tools. Thanks for reading!
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You may probably think I'm weird when you look up my title." What? Are you kidding? You are not happy with Spring coming?!" I got a complex feeling about winter since I learned how to snowboard. Honestly, I don’t like winter, and you know how terrible Regina winter is. I was the one who want to scream when I see the temperature reached to almost 10’C. But not anymore, because I can only snowboard in winter! Now spring is coming! Less and less time left:(
Anyway, just have fun while I can have fun. This week my friend (Alex) and I did not drive to the Mission Ridge Park directly, we went to a lake not so far from Mission Ridge. The whether was so nice. We were so relaxed. I felt I was free. I free myself from exams, essays, papers… It felt so good! I sew people stand on the lake. You know, we can stand on the ice and don’t have to worry about fall into water. Then we drive around to check out the small town. It was 2pm when we arrive to the Mission Ridge Park. We bought the half-day ticket. When I walk into the rental room, I felt like I was home, haha. There were lot people waiting for stuffs to help them finding their equipment. I got my pink helmet, size 7.5 boots, and right forward snowboard by myself; I knew where they are… This time I did not practice first under the mountain. I took the lift and reach to the mountaintop. I was not afraid anymore. People would grow. I decided not to worry about practicing snowboarding skills, think about how to not fall down in “C” posture. I just wanted listen to my body. Let it go and let it fall. I cleared my mind; just enjoyed playing snowboard. So happy and so relaxed. Alex tried the Black run, the hardest one. He said it felt crazy but so good: “I feel like I have nothing to be afraid now”. I promised to myself: next winter I will go hit the blue run and hopefully black run as well. The mission of this week is to learn edge control . “You’ll start off learning to snowboard on your heel edge. This means digging your heel into the snow with your body facing downhill. Start easing your weight off your heel edge and begin to press down with your toes. The board will start to move downhill. To stop, press the weight back into your heels.” Like the direction said, I started to practice in the beginner field. If you watched my previous video, the one I was snowboarding. You could see that I could control my heel edge nicely with my body facing downhill. But which you can’t see because I didn’t record are my “falls”. The reason I felt down was, I would lose my balance every time when I was in this position. The picture shows down there. Yes, I would fall when my body was like letter “C”. And then, my butt was feeling like broken. I don’t know why, why my balance off every single time with this “C” position? That was one of the major causes me fell down. I kept practicing avoid balance off when my body turn into “C” position. I failed. I’m done. I mean, my butt was done :( This week I was working on how to Skate in flat area. Skating and it the first skills we should learn on snow. I didn’t, but now I know. That’s why besides YouTube, I should read articles as well. Thanks Google. Step 1—Stance First stand in an athletic snowboard stance. The proper snowboard stance is: feet about shoulder width apart, back straight with shoulders square, hands at your sides and ankles, knees and hips slightly flexed. Step 2—Practice the movement by tracing a line in the snow Plant your front foot in the snow and keep your knee nice and bent. If you are regular, this will be your left foot. If you’re goofy, your right foot will be forward. Now use the heel of your back foot to trace a line in the snow. The line should be between 16 and 20 inches long (about as long as your stance is wide). When you’ve got that down, trace a line behind you with your toe. Buckle your front foot into your binding and trace the same line while strapped into your board. Remember, you only need to trace a short distance. Step 3—Skate To get moving, apply the same motion you used tracing, but this time dig your back foot into the snow. Get traction and you’ll start to move forward. If you are having trouble, focus on moving your back foot a short distance, too much will cause you to be off balance. I found a flat area around the beginner field; started practice how to skate on my snowboard. I took out my phone and reread though the 3 steps I found on the web again. Okay, first of all, Stance. “Feet about shoulder width apart, back straight with shoulders square, hands at your sides and ankles, knees and hips slightly flexed.” All right, next, tracing line in the snow. I’m the goofy, so I set my right foot forward. I started to use my left foot to trace a line in the snow. The movement just made me feel, weird, LOL. May be because I wear the snowboard. I was a little scared because I was afraid to lose balance. After practicing, I felt better. Then I trace line with my toe, that felt much better! Next, step 3, skate. I started to move faster and see how long I could go. Finally, I got it! Yes! After done my skating mission, I went to the mountain again. Yes, second time. My friends forced me. Just kidding. They said: “you would learn more from falling down.” This time I felt more comfort than the first time. I was not that nervous because I know my way now, I know where I go. Remember the last time I was extremely exhausted? This time, although, fall over lots, I was not so tired! And I got more courage in me and kept practicing balance my body and avoided falling down. This time, I snowboarded faster than last time! Good job, Cat! |
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March 2017
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