Snowboarding in July - God is good

Last night I went for a lesson at the sno zone at the Braehead Xscape centre. It was pretty good stuff. For those who don't already know, it's an indoor slope with actual snow. The whole area is kept at a temperature of -5. (It feels so hot when you come out.)

I did a 1.5 hour lesson in Freestyle Level 1. Freestyle refers to doing tricks such as jumps and spins rather than simply riding down the hill. Level 1 refers to the fact that it's as basic as they can make it. I figured that since it's not a very big slope anyway, I'm not going to get too much of a thrill from just bombing the hill because it'll be over in 10 seconds.

In the lesson I did the following:

• Nose press


• Tail press


• Ollies


• Nollies


• Flatland spins (both frontside and backside)


• Switch (Fakie) Riding

It was pretty cool stuff. It was encouraging to find that my ollies were actually better than I thought they were. I was able to jump 3 rows of cones and my instructor was finally relieved when I clipped one because I kept clearing everything he put in front of me.

Another part that was really encouraging was when I started to ride switch. I found that once I got over my fear of putting my weight on my right foot (normally the rear foot for me) I was able to link a few turns and swing my back foot round pretty well. I'm still not quite ambidextrous by any means but I'm a lot better than I was.

The flatland spins were a useful introduction to riding fakie. The deal is that as you go down the hill, you keep rotating the board in one direction. This means that for half of the spin your usual front foot is leading and then for the other half, you're leading with your weaker foot. The trick is really to shift your weight from one foot to the other when your board is across the slope.

After the lesson we had half an hour of practice time on the big slope. It's not HUGE but for an indoor venue it's pretty impressive. I did a few runs riding fakie and only fell once. (and I was actually watching someone else fall when it happened)

Today I'm feeling a bit worse for wear. This usually happens the first time you ride in a season. My back's pretty tight and my triceps are a wee bit achey too. I feel it in the back of my neck - possibly from trying to jump and spin. My bum muscles hurt when I walk as well.

All in all, though, it was a grand day out, and I would heartily recomment a spot of freestyle riding to anyone who's getting bored with simply carving down the hill.

While writing this entry, I found an amusing list of snowboarding terminology.