Well the fear was back a bit on Tuesday, the slope has now had the burnt patch of dendix replaced so we had to move the airbag back over to the far side of the slope. Now this is the side with more bumps, it’s not a mogul field but rather than having 2 “lips†where the slope angle transitions occur it has 4, and the 4th is right where I would normally speed check when I’m dropping in on the kicker. Anyone who has ever tried to speed check on a slope lip will realise that this isn’t a good idea. So after a couple of runs down the slope to try and find a comfortable line in I went for it. After last week I was a lot less fearful of the speed aspect which is a good thing because I was rapidly gaining speed as I rode, bending my knees over each lip so I didn’t get air I got to the last lip, slight scream, going way to fast, no time to speed check, deep breath, hit kicker….I’m alive and in the air…..ah and there goes the airbag…..and can I come down now please! I landed on the last quarter on the bag, this is the furthest I had travelled off the bag and I’m sure that if I’d intended to land there I would have felt great, as it was I was glad to be in one piece. The rest of the evening was spent trying to get my speed right and also my line right so that I was coming into the kicker on my toe edge. I hate riding up a kicker on my heels, it makes me feel twitchy and I always worry I’m about to repeat my big slam where I missed the bag. I didn’t quite get the line right but I certainly felt a lot better than previously. I was mastering the line and fingers crossed next week I’ll feel more settled and the right positioning will suddenly click.
It was a much better session weather-wise as well, a very slight drizzle on and off and the temperature was nice and cool. The slope was running well and even the new dendix was fast and rode without stickiness.
J loved having the bag back on the far side, he likes the bumps much more than I do and he learnt back flips in a night so he’s pretty stoked. I’ve decided to wait till I’m feeling comfortable in the air before I try inverted spins, at this stage in my progression I really don’t need to try something new and scare myself and have to start from the beginning again.
Hi my name is matt and i was just browsing around and found this site. I think the topic of snowboarding indoors is very interesting and i would like to learn more about it. I too am an avid snowbaorder but i usually just stick to real snow. I hope that you have good luck in the future with your snowbaording.