Skiing

This past weekend we went skiing with my daughter's Girl Scout troop.  It was the first time skiing for both my girls, ages 8 and 10.  My husband had skied before in high school and college.  I grew up skiing with my parents just about every winter from age 5 - 16.  However I had not been skiing since sometime around 1996.  I wasn't sure if I remembered how, or even if I could still do it. 

After renting our boots, skis and helmets (what? when did they start wearing helmets?), we lugged everything onto the slopes.  We started with a small group lesson.  Our instructor went over the basics, like the snowplow.  Only he called it, "pizza".  To go slower, he yelled, "make a big pizza!"  It was effective.  My older daughter, Olivia, was pretty scared to start.  Whenever she would start moving, she would scream.  My younger daughter, Sarah, is a daredevil.  She rode every roller coaster at Carowinds and Disneyworld, so I thought she would love this.  After getting her skis on and falling down a few times, she proclaimed that she was "done and never doing this again."  In contrast Olivia kept at it (and kept screaming), but eventually managed the bunny slope a few times. 

I sat with Sarah in the lodge for awhile, and then went out on my own when my husband and Olivia came in for lunch.  All those years of skiing came back to me, like riding a bike.  I went down every slope.  With very short lift lines, I just kept going.  It was a great day for skiing with the sun shining, clear skies, no wind, freshly made snow and very little ice.  There was just one thing that was different from every other time I'd every skied, and that was snowboarding.

Where the heck did these snowboarders come from?  Why wasn't skiing good enough for them?  And they were all sooo young.  Suddenly I realized I was just about the oldest person on these slopes.  Really young kids, as young as 4, were zipping around on both skiis and snowboards.  I rode up the lift with a teenage snowboarder, who gave me some idea on how this whole thing worked.  I told him that last time I skied, there was no such thing as a snowboard.  He looked at me like I was 95 years old. 

My Dad used to give my sister and me lessons and pointers on skiing. Snowplow! Hold your poles to the side on the lift! Go side to side!  Sit down if you're going too fast!   I remember he also used to say, if you're not falling, you're not learning.  I did not push my limits, and I did not fall.  But that's ok, there's always next time.  And maybe I'll try that snowboarding thing.