A week ago last Sunday, I got on a train headed for the lovely town of Liptovsky Mikulaš. I love trains. Really, we ought to get them in America. They're so much more convenient than planes, and they're a lot nicer. It would definitely make getting home from college for break easier, that's for sure. Not the point. At any rate, I went to Liptovsky Mikulaš for the Rotary District 2240 Ski Camp at Chata Bjorneson, a small hotel on the Jasná ski resort. It was fun... although my lack of hand-eye coordination and physical fitness made for a lot of hand holding in the learning how to snowboard department. Having been both skiing and snowboarding, I have decided to do a comparison of the two:
Category: Equipment
Snowboarding- board, board boots, and ski pants REQUIRED, gloves and helmet are useful.
Skiing: 2 skis, 2 ski poles, and ski boots REQUIRED, ski pants, gloves, and helmet are useful
Winner: Snowboarding. Hands down
Category: Ease of Learning
Snowboarding: Reeeeeally hard. You will fall down. A lot.
Skiing: The basics aren't too bad, but you'll be inclined to
murder your skis. Often.
Winner: probably skiing, purely because it's less painful.
Category: Ease of Recovery from a Fall
Snowboarding: Once you learn how to stand up on your own, it's not too hard to get over a snowboard wipeout. On the downside,
your tailbone will hurt after a few days for very long time (mine did for almost a week!)
Skiing: Oh, God, I hated trying toget back up! It's pretty tricky to get back up on your skis, and if that wasn't bad enough, you have to collect all your a bits and pieces (i.e. ski poles, čiapka, ect.) once you do!
Winner: Debatable.
Category: Ease of Equipment Management
Snowboarding: Definitely easier to manage. No question. One board is infinitely better than two skis and two ski poles. Not to mention the fact that snowboard boots are a lot more comfortable than ski boots...
Skiing: Bloody nightmare. End of discussion.
Winner: Snowboarding
Category: Getting on a basic Ski Lift
Snowboarding: Getting on ski lifts is an exercise in torture, especially if you start with your left foot instead of the more lift friendly right foot.
Skiing: Very nice. Very easy. One of the most fun parts about skiing.
Winner: Skiing
My final conclusion was that, while snowboarding was an exercise in falling down, and getting on the lifts was evil, I liked it better than skiing. Maybe it's because I liked the fact that there was less junk that I had to carry around, or maybe it was because my instructor,a guy named Mikhail, for the most part, was a better teacher than my host father, and didn't constantly tell me to 'keep your feet in triangle!'. Don't know why. Snowboarding was more fun, though. All the same, I reached an even more logical conclusion, which won't shock most of you at all: I don't think I'm meant to be a practitioner of winter sports, as I am horrible at all of the ones that I've tried.
It was great getting to see everyone who came, although, I felt a little out of it, as my two best friends in the program (Misae and Koi) had decided not to come. I hung out with some of my other friends, including Paul, Paige, Leah, and Kelli the girl who is responsible for providing the dye that I used to go brunette, and did the actual dying of said hair. It was nice to see all three of the Czech students (well, they're not really Czech, but you know what I mean) who came, and I think we successfully traumatized all the other residents of Chata Bjorneson. We always do that, somehow....
The next post, which I shall strive to get up on Wednesday, will focus on Easter here in Slovakia. Speaking of which, I hope everyone had a good one!
And that's all there is. There isn't anymore.
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