A sight she'd never seen made her jump and say, look a golden-winged ship is passing my way. And it really didn't have to stop, it just kept on going
And so castles made of sand
fall in the sea
eventually
(
.... )
(
.... )
(
.... )
(
.... )
Someone recently asked me why I love snowboarding so much.
An easy answer is that I love going fast, and I love being in the mountains. The intersection of speed and danger is undeniably exciting, especially in such a breathtaking setting.
But that doesn't really precisely describe what it is I love about snowboarding.
It is the floating, really.
The sensation of floating.
It is similar to when you drive a car a little too fast over a rise, and your stomach drops... but different, since the float is entirely under your control on a snowboard.
How to describe it?
I guess it would be akin to trying to describe Jimi's backward-looped guitar solo on Castles Made of Sand. It seems to defy description and even stretch beyond the bounds of the sense, hearing, through which one experinces music.
It is a feeling.
If you pointed the snowboard straight down the fall line of a steep slope, gravity would pull you very, very fast in a straight line down the mountain until a bump or undulation threw you into a messy wipeout.
Most of the time, people don't do this... they turn.
A snowboard has metal edges, and it the board flexes as you turn.
The metal edges dig into the snow and help you to scrub off speed to control your descent down the mountain.
This is why we turn.
There is a hidden, joyful element in these turns, though.
The flex and sidecut of the board cause your turn to be C-shaped.
The hidden element is at the end of the "C," as you transition to the next turn.
When you are at the belly of the C, you feel the strongest pull of gravity, combined with your centrifugal force, and you resist that force with your muscles and bones.
As you transition from turn to turn, there is a moment of weightlessness.
Floating.
That moment is intesified on a steep slope.
That moment gets looooonger with more speed.
If you are making your turns on a steep slope, at speed, and you add
deep powder,
you can achieve nirvana.
The powder reduces the pull of gravity and centrifugal force and extends the floating sensation.
A snowboarder's track on a steep slope looks something like this:
(
.... )
(
.... )
(
.... )
(
.... )
There is magic in those empty spaces between the parentheses.
A magic weightlessness.
But it is weightlessness in motion.
Floating.
Flying, even.
It feels a lot like Jimi's guitar on Castles Made of Sand, when it really just drips through the speakers.
fall in the sea
eventually
(
.... )
(
.... )
(
.... )
(
.... )
Someone recently asked me why I love snowboarding so much.
An easy answer is that I love going fast, and I love being in the mountains. The intersection of speed and danger is undeniably exciting, especially in such a breathtaking setting.
But that doesn't really precisely describe what it is I love about snowboarding.
It is the floating, really.
The sensation of floating.
It is similar to when you drive a car a little too fast over a rise, and your stomach drops... but different, since the float is entirely under your control on a snowboard.
How to describe it?
I guess it would be akin to trying to describe Jimi's backward-looped guitar solo on Castles Made of Sand. It seems to defy description and even stretch beyond the bounds of the sense, hearing, through which one experinces music.
It is a feeling.
If you pointed the snowboard straight down the fall line of a steep slope, gravity would pull you very, very fast in a straight line down the mountain until a bump or undulation threw you into a messy wipeout.
Most of the time, people don't do this... they turn.
A snowboard has metal edges, and it the board flexes as you turn.
The metal edges dig into the snow and help you to scrub off speed to control your descent down the mountain.
This is why we turn.
There is a hidden, joyful element in these turns, though.
The flex and sidecut of the board cause your turn to be C-shaped.
The hidden element is at the end of the "C," as you transition to the next turn.
When you are at the belly of the C, you feel the strongest pull of gravity, combined with your centrifugal force, and you resist that force with your muscles and bones.
As you transition from turn to turn, there is a moment of weightlessness.
Floating.
That moment is intesified on a steep slope.
That moment gets looooonger with more speed.
If you are making your turns on a steep slope, at speed, and you add
deep powder,
you can achieve nirvana.
The powder reduces the pull of gravity and centrifugal force and extends the floating sensation.
A snowboarder's track on a steep slope looks something like this:
(
.... )
(
.... )
(
.... )
(
.... )
There is magic in those empty spaces between the parentheses.
A magic weightlessness.
But it is weightlessness in motion.
Floating.
Flying, even.
It feels a lot like Jimi's guitar on Castles Made of Sand, when it really just drips through the speakers.
posted by Joe at
12:15 PM
5 Comments:
Huh...learn something new every day.
As a non-boarder & non-skier, I enjoyed reading about what it's like. I didn't know about the parentheses and the floating and the non-linear descent. I always imagined it would be like when you take a running start and slide in your socks on a long patch of freshly waxed hardwood floor, only at a steeper angle, in the freezing cold, and without the running start thing...
Nice Hendrix analogy too.
Hey Joe,
A question:
I take it you started out skiing as a kid. It seems snowboarding has taken over as the prefered ride down the slopes. Are peeps with ski's poo pooped on the lifts like old lady's making a left hand turn driving Buicks?
What's the ratio of boards vs ski's?
Just askin.
im
Responses:
P. Thanks a lot... On the feet of an expert, a snowboard or a pair of skis can be a graceful, beautiful thing.
Anonyomous- thanks for the props, dude.
im- There are still more skiers than boarders out on the mountain. If anything, the boarders are still looked down upon by skiers. I skiied for nearly 20 years before I transferred to a snowboard, so I have love for both.
The advent of shaped skis, which are shorter and allow the skier to carve like a boarder, has made skiing popular again. Skiers are tearing it up in terrain parks, and kids are definitely still skiing.
Boarding is just the dominant paradigm here at the Dude Abides...
One(that does notsnowboard)can only imagine what fun you have. I recently watch, on a sports channel 2 hours of both male and female boarders doing everything I did not think was possible..getting hieghts, with jumps that rival mot-cross riders, and using the board like a wing to ride those vast expanses of air...the G-forces must be extreme as well when making those tight turns, and seems one could go a lot further than they do on skis..........hope to see more photos..of you doing same..you da man!!
Obviously you are very good at snowboarding. :-)
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