Dave’s Essay

As I sat on the chair lift on the way up the mountain, I looked down and stared at the short twin-tipped skis my older brother called skiboards that were hanging on my feet. I have always looked up to my brother as a role model, and I was sure he’d never lead me in the wrong direction. We got off the chair lift and I followed him through the swift beautiful glimmering snow over to the first slope of the day. As we started our descent down the ski hill I knew in an instant that I loved what I was doing. The freedom that came from the fact that I wasn’t holding ski poles felt incredible. The fact that I could just get around by simply skating like on an ice rink seemed to make getting from here to there effortless. Most of all the fact that these skiboards were twin tipped so that I could turn around and ski backwards with ease was the most freedom I had felt since my mom took me out of my crib.

As I matured I found out a lot about the sport I was getting into. Some guys decided that they wanted the freedom of being able to ride and land tricks fakie, or backwards. They came up with a skiboard, a shortened version of a ski with both ends bent up for safe riding forward or backward. They then decided to start making bigger jumps and started to use rails on the ski hills. They influenced freestyle skiing and snowboarding to be in the X-games and even Olympics today.

My brother Adam started to take me skiboarding with him every once in a while, and I started to see the kinds of tricks he could do. The way he flew though the air twisting and turning like an acrobat on a trampoline and then gracefully bringing his trick to a finish, landing on the snow as if he had to land on broken glass absolutely amazed me. As I watched in awe of the things he was doing, I knew I wanted to do every trick I saw. As a matter of fact, I wanted to become better than Adam; to create new and unique tricks that no one had seen before.

Over that summer I started learning tricks on my trampoline and became familiar with how they felt so I could attempt them off the ski jumps. By the time I thought I was good enough to start doing all these tricks I was learning I was about 15 years old. It was the first day I was going to the ski hill that season and it was the first time I was going to meet my brother’s sponsor, Greco. That morning I ate a big breakfast because to eat on the ski hill costs more than a feast for your family, got dressed and got in the car. When we got to the mountain we got our tickets and went to find Greco. The first time I met him I thought he was one of those mid aged nerds, with the glasses and the stiff stance that he used when he skiboarded. He wore a backpack when he was with us on the hill that carried all his cameras and equipment in it. We started to skiboard a little bit and I got to know him a lot better. We started talking about how good Adam was on the way up the ski lift and I started to get cocky. “I bet I could do any of the tricks that he does,” I told him sarcastically. “Well lets see it,” He urged me knowing I had potential. “I want to see a back flip the next run down the terrain park,” Right when he said that my stomach started churning like butter on an Amish farm. The pressure started to build up until I finally told him I would try. As I skied off the lift Greco told me he was going to go down next to the jump to film it. And as I waited there for him to give me the signal I started to sweat. I could suddenly feel the air on my body and started to feel cold. But the pressure was on and I knew I had to try. Greco gave me the signal and I started to move as fast as I could, it seemed to take an eternity to get to the jump. Then in an instant it was right in front of me. I threw my body back and before I could even think about what happened, I was on the ground. I looked up and realized I was on my back. “Are you alright?” I heard as Greco skied up next to me, but before I could respond he told me to get up and try it again. The second time around I stopped and waited for Greco to get ready, and I thought about doing the trick on the trampoline. It came to me perfectly and I knew I was ready to try again. When Greco gave the signal I started to move again. Something was different this time though. It seamed like my vision had blocked everything out except my path to the jump. I hit the jump and remember watching the ground go by as I brought my head around and saw my landing and just like that, I was on my feet again. I knew right then skiboarding was going to be something I would live for.

I have recently started taking trips to places to meet up with other skiboarders like me. We will all coordinate a place to stay and a mountain to go to. And the places I have stayed are the places where I have met with some of my best friends through skiboarding. When we aren’t skiboarding you can believe we are all packed into a small motel room drinking and smoking, watching videos of previous trips or telling stories. After I get back from skiboarding all day, I look over at the door to the motel room that everyone has settled into. You can tell which one it is, it’s the one with the smoke venting from the cracks of the doors. I open the door to the room and this moist smell of body odor and smoke hits my nose, and that smell has stuck with me till this day. Every time I smell it I can relate back to the times I have spent hot-boxing and drinking with all my friends in those motel rooms. Normally we will stay up till around four o’ clock in the morning partying and eating fast food. If any culture can make a good time out of a motel room, some pot and liquor, and some fast food, its skiboarders.

Many skiers and snowboarders don’t like skiboarders for some reason and disrespect us on and off the ski hill. I have been cursed at and disrespected by skiers and snowboarders right to my face. The special thing about skiboarders is that we respect their opinion and try not to respond verbally. But when they see the tricks that pro skiboarders such as me are capable of, they do sometimes change their opinion. Sometimes In general public I wear clothes that support or promote skiboarding and people will come up and argue with me about how stupid my sport is. I usually don’t respond because I feel bad for them. I feel bad because they will never know the freedom that I have been able to experience through the sport of skiboarding.