There are certain events in our lives that making a lasting lifelong change through the good times and the bad. Learning to snowboard at the age of 19 was this monumental moment....
Signing up for lessons as soon as the dry slope opened stoked to learn a sport I had wanted to try for so long from watching it on tv. I had 3 different instructors over 3 blocks of 6 week lessons. I wouldn't say I was a natural at picking it up at all took a lot of hard work and determination through many falls bust knees and legs aching in places I never thought possible, haha.... but when I made that first turn on the big dendix slope which then turned into an accidental flat 360 spin the joy you feel is worth it all. I remember whenever I walked past the slope every time after that I would stare at the spot I did this first linked turn still with the disbelief that I actually did it!!
The early days of learning to ride you are on this upward spiral of continual learning, achieving something new every time you step foot on the board and gaining more confidence. Once the lessons were over I would go down every single week without fail usually on a Thursday or Friday, I would be the only one down there practicing my turns trying to get them linked together nice and smooth, then trying getting some air off the tabletop jump, watching snowboard vids before I went down for inspiration and starting off with trying to grab. It's scary at first but it all starts to get easier with time!!
I was the only girl I ever saw down every week riding, I occasional saw this rad chick down there who was just as stoked to see another girl riding!! Although I was always super happy when a group of the local guys were down there shredding, they had fun were amazing riders and were my inspiration, I would see them do all these tricks on their boards with such style and ease I wanted to be able to do all that one day. The guys included Nicol, Kev, Cassie and many others. Kev got me going off the kicker for the very first time on my 21st birthday. He showed me the line to take in so I was like well I can't let him down by not hitting it so went for it landed on the flat arms up in the air was terrible hahahaha but I kept at it just needing that lil push from someone who believed I could do it!! From then on they would often give me lil tips just to help and I appreciated it so much.
I can be a very quiet shy person, especially back then so although I rode down there every week I did not really speak to anyone they didn't know me they just saw me as this girl who loved snowboarding and would ride until she was too tired to ride anymore or was booted off the slope, haha!! It wasn't until one night I was down riding and an instructor Chris Mahony was out supervising and asked if I'd ever thought on instructing as there was going to be a level 1 instructor course held at the slope that things started to change with my snowboarding and where it would take me. I had dreamt of instructing just like it was my dream to become a professional snowboarder, haha!! Not thinking I was good enough it meant a lot knowing that Chris obviously thought I was or he wouldn't have mentioned it. I signed up for it that night, almost getting scared off by Mal C head of the instructors as he said you know it's not all about flying down the slope flinging yourself off jumps, shows how little he thought of me back then but this just made me want to prove to him and everyone else I could do it as well as to myself.
Mark Bishop was the BASI trainer who I had for the level 1 with Nicol one of the instructors shadowing him. Mal C funnily enough was on the course too even though he was a skier and I had never seen him on a board!! The 5 day course was held over 2 weekends with 2 weeks between. I had a lot to work on but over the 2 weeks I was down pretty much every night between my training for running practicing my turns on the dendix slope staying away from the jumps and freestyle. It was noticed the effort I was putting into it and it all payed off. Everyone respecting me as a rider and impressed with my commitment even shocking them at showing them I do have a voice when it counts on doing my lesson on the final day the last one to do it with everyone watching. I was super stoked on passing it was a huge achievement to me and I started to get to know the people at the slope a bit more and they started to get to know me.
The 35 hours of shadowing then began before I was allowed to work at the slope and get my BASI license as well as doing a first aid course and child protection. When it came to instructing myself of course I was nervous I just had to be confident in what I knew and had learnt. The more lessons I did the more I learnt as to how to adapt to different people and abilities and how to make the lessons as fun as possible while still learning lots as that's when people will learn the best.
With now working at the slope as a casual instructor I got to know everyone who worked there and make new friends, I finally had people I could speak to about snowboarding, ride with, learn from, having not had many friends over the years this made me so happy like I finally belonged somewhere in the lil community of snowboarders and skiers, it felt like family.
I was asked to join a team for a video edit competition so it was me and 5 other guys, for them to want a girl and that girl being me meant the world to me. It felt good to be part of a team of amazing riders, we called ourselves Team Radstorm. I'd still say our edit is the best dry slope edit there's ever been showcasing awesome riding with creative set ups. Following this we started a blog and made lil edits now and again, one taking inspiration from Halldor Helgason teaching Eiki and Torstein Horgmo how to be G on their boards. I posted it on Halldors Facebook page he was so stoked on it he posted it on their blog the following day, the others couldn't believe it we felt like superstars for that week while it got thousands of views, amazing!!!!
Nicol one of the full time instructors/ coaches at slope seen as the best. Well he is sponsored by Boarderline a local board shop in Aberdeen. He must have seen something in me and my riding that he had spoken to Boarderline about putting me on their team. They were holding a DC board demo at the slope one night and I went along to shred and test out some boards. They were giving away some DC goodies and I was stoked when I got pants, jacket, beanie, hoodie, boarderline t-shirt etc, was overwhelmed to get all that just for riding that night and Katie from Boarderline came up to me and said the rep from DC who was up was impressed with my riding too, it's nice too hear things like that, just makes you know that you are doing something right. The next day I got a message from Katie on Facebook inviting me to be on the Boarderline snow team. I was in shock and couldn't believe my eyes to be on a team with some of the best riders in Aberdeen guys I'd looked up to and who had helped me and were my inspiration it just amazed me that this was actually happening and a shop like Boarderline had faith in me and wanted to support me in my snowboarding, so of course I said YES :D My parents were so happy for me too. Of course on seeing Nicol next I thanked him as knew he must have had something to do with it, although funnily enough there was a rumour going round that I was now sponsored by DC, just for the record, not true hahahaha!!!!
When they were looking for a new full time instructor Nicol said I should go for this, I was lifeguarding at the time and having no luck at finding design work but in a way I don't think I was really keen on an office job anyway. Dave Jacobs the manager even ran after me after Nicol had mentioned it to me as seemed like they really wanted me and thought I was the right person for the job. So I applied and went to an interview with Dave and Dionne and got the job. To me this represented that I had proved myself as a good instructor, hard worker and they liked having me around. I also got trained up in the workshop to services skis and boards, feeling privileged that I was the only girl who had been allowed to step foot in the workshop and do this I loved it. After going through some training my test was to wax scrape off wax and buff the bases of 3 or 4 (Can't remember!!) sets of skis in 20 minutes with Malcolm Judd counting it down, I got finished in time and on inspection of them he was happy with what I had done so I was allowed to remain in the workshop I loved working in there :)
Through winning every round of the dry slope series the Lowlander I got a phone call saying I had been picked to receive the overall prize of a trip to Davos Switzerland to go on the very first Synergy Park Tour all I had to pay for was my flight over and food etc once there. I couldn't believe this and was so stoked as had never been away on snow before other than riding the odd day on snow in Scotland. Funnily enough I already had a trip planned to Tignes staying with Ben Kinnear and getting some pre course level 2 training from Simon at Alliance snowboard school which was the week after the park tour was so what was a one week trip planned now turned into 2 weeks :D
I learnt so much over the 2 weeks and was a real eye opener to what's out there in the world of snowboarding. I went away not really being able to ride on snow well at all to having improved but with still a lot to work on, I remember saying to Neil McNair on my last day before heading home that I'd love to do a season and little did I know that same year I'd be heading to Japan for my first season and then follow that on with back to back seasons and no intention of stopping anytime soon!!
To be continued....
No comments:
Post a Comment