Fabulous Fun... Snowboarding For Women (or Men!)
By Lauren Traub Teton, Thu Dec 8th

Fabulous Fun... for Women (or men!) Why don’t morewomen over the age of 30 take up snowboarding? It is FabulousFun! Perhaps you haven’t tried it because you have heard thatyou will fall down a lot when learning. True. But it is possibleto learn without pain. Pain and injury avoidance techniques forsnowboarding are invaluable but not well known. If you know how,you can avoid the two biggest mistakes that first timesnowboarders make. A positive experience your first few timesout will make you more likely to stick out the hard times untilyou learn enough to really have fun!

“There’s no reason that adults shouldn’t snowboard and have asmuch fun as kids” says self-proclaimed Snowboard EvangelistLauren Traub Teton who admits to being “in her 40s”. “I havebeen riding a snowboard for four years, and am having the mostfun of my life!”

She feels that the only thing stopping “oldsters” (in theirmid-30s and up) from embracing in a big way are theinevitable hard falls experienced during the short steeplearning curve. She says “there are easy ways to avoid the pain.They are just not well known.”

The reason “snowboard pain avoidance” is not more widelydiscussed has to do with the history of snowboarding. To somesnowboarders, pain and injury are cool. This is obvious if youthe read the hundreds of war stories on snowboard websites.

This viewpoint has its roots in the fact that isstylistically a descendant of skateboarding and embraces some ofthe same traditions. For example, doing a grab, where the riderreaches down and grabs the board while airborne, is more of anecessity in skating than in snowboarding, because theskateboard is not attached to the feet. But grabs have morphedinto a popular trick and a way to show style in snowboardingtoo.

The other tradition that has carried over from skating is thetradition of pain. In skateboarding, injury from accidentalimpact with the hard ground is a common occurrence and gives askater bragging rights (as well as bruises and breaks.). A lotof skaters are also snowboarders, and so the tradition ofabsorbing pain as part of “paying dues” remains.

Another factor keeping some adults away from may bethe reputation for wildness on the slopes that snowboardershave. That probably comes from the fact that when the equipmentwas

first invented, it was technologically primitive, withlittle ability to steer or stop. That’s how got itsimage as an extreme sport and snowboarders got their reputationas outlaws of the snow. Now snowboards have evolvedtechnologically into precision devices that can turn and stopeasily, when operated under control.

With older snowboarders hitting the slopes, the culture ofinjury and pain has outlived it’s origins. Adults don’t equateinjuries with status. People who start riding as adults want tostay upright and uninjured. Some skiers switch over because itseems like more fun and less stress on the knees. Again, thegoal is to stay whole!

I learned by trial, error and luck how to avoid injury. In fact,a fine young gentleman working at the guest services desk onWhistler Mountain (B.C.) offered to let me borrow hisRollerblade wrist guards and knee pads, one day when I waslearning, and I was hooked on safety and comfort from thatmoment.

Don’t make the two biggest mistakes new snowboarders often makewhen you do decide to take up this wonderful sport. To be safe,comfortable, and happy, you MUST

1. Take a lesson given by a professional your first time out.and 2. You MUST wear padding, on your knees, butt, and wrists.

Come now, why try to reinvent the wheel? If you want to learn tosnowboard, then a snowboard lesson with a trained instructorwill teach you IMPORTANT basic skills that you willuse every day for the rest of your riding life.

So learn them right, right from the start. Forget about teachingyourself how to get on and off a lift safely on a board. This iswhat teachers are for.

And the padding is a must because falling is an inevitable partof the learning process. You WILL fall at first. But if you arepadded properly, you will not have to hurt yourself. And don’tchuck the padding once you have mastered the basics. You willneed it when you progress to jumping and tricks!

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About the author:For Lauren Traub Teton, is the only sport she hasever been successful at. She loves to ride the halfpipe, race,and jump (a little!). She writes the popular free “SnowboardSzine” newsletter. Sign up at http://www.SnowboardSecrets.comsite and receive “16 Secrets for Successful Snowboarding.”Register your boards against theft athttp://www.SnowboardRegistry.com.