I thought of Little Boy as a snowboarder many years before he ever actually snowboarded. But his first time on a snowboard was just a few weeks ago, when he finally got to shred the gnar in fresh pow pow, and has been begging for cool, expensive snowboards and gear ever since.
LB has grown reasonably accomplished on alpine skis for a kid who hits the slopes only ~10x a year, albeit with annual weeklong stints in French ski school since he was three. As I’ve observed him in other sports like soccer and basketball, and recreational activities like roller blading and tooling around on his rip stick (a device like a skate board with two vertical wheels), it is obvious that LB’s body is gifted with agility, fluidity, and kinesthetic grace, and he possesses a smooth explosiveness that emanates from his core. He likes to ski, he’s a good skier… but I have suspected for many years that he would love to snowboard, and will be a great snowboarder.
We hadn’t taken him snowboarding previously because icy-snow New England is kinda a horrific place to learn snowboarding, and using his skis is easier than renting equipment… not mention his sheer reluctance to try snowboarding. But recently we had the opportunity to go skiing in fresh powder — the best conditions to learn snowboarding, and he dug it. He liked it so much, he agreed to go with me to Mount Sunapee today for another day of snowboarding; absolutely no complaining about the long trip, cold conditions, and lack of screen time that such a day trip necessitates.
Mt Sunapee, St Patrick’s Day 2019
(LB is certainly not a cross country skier. We drag him cross-country skiing one or two times a year, which is a good frequency because his young brain seems to forget how much he professes to hate it.)
Because LB is left-footed, he is “goofy,” meaning he snowboards with his dominant left foot in the back for steering. This term for left-footed snowboarding apparently comes from surfing; a half a century ago, Disney released a cartoon showing the Goofy character surfing with his left foot at the back of the surf board. And the term “goofy” is still in use on snowboarding rental equipment forms!
