I miss being bad at snowboarding.
Not bad in a cute way. Not in a humble sense. I mean properly shit at it. Falling over constantly. Catching edges out of nowhere. Spending half the day on my arse and still going home buzzing.
The photo at the top is actually from my first day on a snowboard. 2009 I think. I’d love to say I remember the exact moment. What I do remember was the pure stoke and being confident I was going to be some sort of snowboarding prodigy. I absolutely was not. I mean, the fit alone is embarrassing enough but check out the narrow stance and how straight my legs are!
That was early on too. Before the repeated slams. Before my wrists had been broken (twice). Before I learned that soft snow can feel very hard.
As you may have gathered, I wasn’t some natural athlete. I didn’t grow up skating. I didn’t have insane balance. But luckily… I did weirdly click with sliding around on snow and ice. I freaking loved it. Obsession is an understatement.
Back then, every tiny bit of progress felt massive. Linking a couple of turns felt unreal. Like I’d cracked some secret code. I didn’t know what “good riding” was supposed to look like, so I didn’t care. I wasn’t comparing myself to anyone. I was just trying to stay upright long enough to enjoy it.
And that’s the bit I miss.
Now I’m a snowboard guide. I teach. I notice things. I know what’s happening under my feet most of the time. I can feel a mistake coming before it fully happens. Which is useful, sure, but it’s not the same kind of fun.
Learning was chatic. It was messy. It was full of those stupid little moments where you stop halfway down the hill grinning like an idiot because something worked and you don’t really know why. You don’t get that forever.
This isn’t about wanting to be worse again. I don’t want the pain or the constant slams back. I just miss how big everything felt when I didn’t know the rules yet and every run felt like an adventure.
If you’ve learned to snowboard, you probably know exactly what I mean. And if you’re still in that phase, honestly, enjoy the hell out of it. You don’t get it twice.
So what’s my point?
It’s not that getting better is bad. I’m glad I can ride the way I do now. I wouldn’t trade it. I like knowing what I’m doing. I like not smashing myself to bits every other run. I like that my wrists are still attached.
But learning was different. It was bigger. Everything hit harder.
When you’re new, the mountain feels massive. A blue run feels like Travis Rice on some Alaskan spine. You’re tired all the time, even though you’ve barely done anything. You stop a lot. You sit in weird places. You spend half the day laughing. It’s freaking awesome.
Somewhere along the line though, without noticing, you stop being amazed by the basics. You stop being stoked that you linked a turn or rode a section clean. You expect things to work. And when they don’t, it’s annoying instead of hilarious.
That shift is subtle. You don’t decide to leave that phase. You just wake up one season and realise it’s gone.
Public Service Announcement
If you’re learning to snowboard right now, you’re in the best bit.
Not because it’s easy. It’s not. A lot of it is shit. You’re sore. You spend way too much time sitting down wondering why your legs feel like that. Some days you leave thinking you’ve learned absolutely nothing.
But then something clicks. A few turns feel easier. You don’t slam. You get to the bottom and realise you weren’t fighting the board the whole way down.
And that feeling is ridiculous.
You don’t even know what you’re doing yet, which is why it’s so good. You’re not chasing style. You’re just figuring it out (badly) one run at a time. You get excited over things that will barely register later on. Linking turns. Tiny jumps. Making it through a section you’ve been side-slipping for weeks.
You sit down halfway because your legs are fucked tired. You watch better riders go past and instead of feeling insecure, you’re just stoked they can do that. You get hyped over dumb little wins and tell them to anyone that will listen.
So don’t rush it. Don’t try to skip ahead. Don’t worry about how it looks or what anyone else is riding. None of that matters yet. Just keep turning up and being a bit crappy at it.
You’ll get better. That part’s unavoidable.
But this bit, when everything feels huge and slightly out of control and way more exciting?
Yeah.
That’s the good stuff.
Enjoy it!
