A week or so ago I took off some work and took Zoe snowboarding. She has been wanting to go for a couple years and I told her that when she was ten I would take her. So I did. We went up to a small resort up Ogden Canyon called Wolf Mountain. They had a good deal on a lesson and lift ticket. So she took a lesson and I boarded alone for an hour. During her lesson, the instructor was just having her walk up the hill a little and showing her how to strap in and out of her bindings and then coming down the hill 20 feet or so. At the end of the lesson, she was supposed to go up the lift with the instructor and come all the way down the hill (the bunny hill). But she refused. She wouldn't get on the lift. So the instructor gave up trying to get her to go up and handed her off to me. She told me she wasn't going to get on the lift. She was afraid she would fall off from up high in the air. So we went to the lodge and had a piece of pizza and just sat there for a little bit. After awhile, she felt rested again and I told her about the safety bars that you can put down on the lifts to keep you safe. She wasn't exactly convinced, but I told her in the nicest way possible that if she ever wanted to go again, she was going to have to get on a lift. So she relented. And it was fine. Getting off the lift with a snowboard is not very easy, especially for beginners. But I just held onto her tight and kinda held her up until we were out of the way of the lift and it worked out fine. The first time down the hill took us about an hour, but then we went again and again and again and again. And by the end of the day, she was doing really well. Much better than I thought she would. I mostly just held her hands and went down backwards on my toe edge while she went down forward on her heel edge. By the end she was going back and forth across the hill with some comfort on her heel edge. Next time maybe she will be ready to try out her toe edge. Here are some pics.
Zoe and I on the lift.
Taking a break.
Coming down at the end of the day.
It was a great day. Zoe said it was one of her best days ever.
