We had a gathering (not quite a party) at the house last night, and a girl I was talking to mentioned that she was bored with snowboarding. I suggested that might be because she had achieved her snowboarding goals, or had reached a plateau and
wasn’t getting better. A goal can be a great motivator, and when you’re learning something new, a goal (even a small one) can give context to your attempts.

I haven’t really had specific goals so far this year. I don’t think I went out at all in the last two years, which means that xmas week was the first time that I’ve been snowboarding in three seasons. I might have spent 30 days on the snow before that, but that’s definitely not full days — the last season I spent up here, I had bad boot problems and tended to only ride for a  half day.

What are my goals for this year?

I dunno. Have fun? I want to take a lesson, possibly this weekend or next week. I want to take the 3-day park and pipe workshop next month. I want to ride more of the mountain — the blacks and the steeps.

Part of the problem is that I don’t know how long it will take to get good at riding. How long til I’m riding blacks  comfortably? Should I take a lesson to learn some advanced techniques before hitting them? It’s foolish to think I’d be doing double-corks before the end of the season. What wouldn’t it be foolish to think? Threes? Fives? Sevens? Flips? Blacks, double-blacks, chutes?

I think the only realistic plan is to have long-range goals (without a time schedule attached). I tried searching for a good timeline for learning various snowboarding skills, but had no luck. Since most people aren’t riding five days a week, and most people just ride on the weekends a few times each season, my experience is way outside the norm. I found no good guide for how many days of riding each step of advancement will take.

What I did find is a number of people that claimed that, once you’re linking turns, you can move from greens to blacks very quickly. I know that’s different with skiers, since advanced (black-diamond and double-diamond) ski turns are very different than what you learn on the green slopes. Snowboarders, evidently, learn to carve turns … and then go down blacks.

I’m already carving turns. In fact, I was carving turns before this year, but I started on the blue-green trails mostly cuz of boot issues. (More on that in a couple days.) I’ve already focused on gaining comfort going down steeper terrain. I guess I ride blacks tomorrow?

So: My plan for this year comes in two stages. First, ride blue-blacks comfortably then ride blacks comfortably. Second, work on tackling harder terrain while simultaneously moving over to the park and pipe. It seems that I have the skills (except maybe for jump-turns) to ride the blacks, just not yet the confidence.

Also, I plan to keep improving fitness, so I can stay out longer, and to lose weight (for the same reason). Plus, having to bend over my belly makes it harder to reach my bindings.

Tomorrow, my plan is to ski across the mountain, from Canyon to Mill to Main to 12, and ride the blues all day. On Friday, I might stick to Canyon lodge, which tends to be less busy than Main in general and especially on the weekends.