In 1989 I was in 6th grade and I went snowboarding for the first time on my friend’s 1986 Burton Performer with powder bindings (no back) which he had gotten at a yard sale. The fancy hotel near my house in Colorado owned a little ski resort with 3 runs. This is before ski resorts banned snowboarders... their only rule was that you had to have a leash on your board, like a little surf leash. All manmade snow, this place was notorious for being mostly sheets of ice. It was a painful first try.
I saved my money all year and the next winter I bought the first Burton Craig Kelly from the classified ads in the newspaper. This is before snowboard boots, so everyone wore Sorels. I got some off-brand Sorels called Tundra’s at Walmart. I also got what became my prized possession, a blue tie-dyed-looking Rusty coat from Marshalls. It was epic, but I lost it— and I was devastated. Five years later, my senior year in High School, a girl named Susan handed it to me at school. Her family was moving, and they cleaned a closet in her basement. It had been in there for years after a serious game of 7th grade spin the bottle one night.
My 7th grade year the Hotel Ski resort let us build a half pipe. They piled up a ton of snow and we dug it out by hand. It was more a mini ramp then a half pipe, but it was still amazing. One Saturday I showed up and there was contest going on. There was like 40 snowboarders there... I didn’t even know that many people snowboarded where I lived. I entered, all I could do was a roast-beef, but it was a solid roast beef. To my surprise I made it to the 2nd round and won a bag that had Zinc oxide, snowboard wax and a free lunch at the resort cafeteria. At the time, it was the best day of my life.
By 9th grade Breckenridge had bought the little ski resort, which meant if you had a season pass to the hotel resort, which cost $75, you had a season pass to Breck! But that only lasted one year. After that, we would pool our money for gas and drive 2 hours to get to Summit County so we could bribe the snowboarders that worked the bottom life-line with candy bars. The snowboard park was halfway up the mountain, so once we got up, we never came all the way down.
In 10th grade I bought a Sims Salasnek Board (the one with the skate trucks and wheels on bottom graphic) with money I had saved. My mom gave $3 a day for school lunch, so I just kept putting into a jar in my room, I did that for 2 years before I had enough money. During lunch at school I would go through the lunch line and slide pieces of pizza into my hoodie pocket and put a hostess cherry pie under my beanie.
In 11th grade, prices skyrocketed at Ski resorts, the lift-lines introduced scanners, so my hustle didn’t work anymore. I still snowboard from time to time, but nothing feels quite like The Simpler Times of Snowboarding.
In 1989 I was in 6th grade and I went snowboarding for the first time on my friend’s 1986 Burton Performer with powder bindings (no back) which he had gotten at a yard sale. The fancy hotel near my house in Colorado owned a little ski resort with 3 runs. This is before ski resorts banned snowboarders... their only rule was that you had to have a leash on your board, like a little surf leash. All manmade snow, this place was notorious for being mostly sheets of ice. It was a painful first try.
I saved my money all year and the next winter I bought the first Burton Craig Kelly from the classified ads in the newspaper. This is before snowboard boots, so everyone wore Sorels. I got some off-brand Sorels called Tundra’s at Walmart.
I also got what became my prized possession, a blue tie-dyed-looking Rusty coat from Marshalls. It was epic, but I lost it— and I was devastated. Five years later, my senior year in High School, a girl named Susan handed it to me at school. Her family was moving, and they cleaned a closet in her basement. It had been in there for years after a serious game of 7th grade spin the bottle one night.
My 7th grade year the Hotel Ski resort let us build a half pipe. They piled up a ton of snow and we dug it out by hand. It was more a mini ramp then a half pipe, but it was still amazing. One Saturday I showed up and there was contest going on. There was like 40 snowboarders there... I didn’t even know that many people snowboarded where I lived. I entered, all I could do was a roast-beef, but it was a solid roast beef. To my surprise I made it to the 2nd round and won a bag that had Zinc oxide, snowboard wax and a free lunch at the resort cafeteria. At the time, it was the best day of my life.
By 9th grade Breckenridge had bought the little ski resort, which meant if you had a season pass to the hotel resort, which cost $75, you had a season pass to Breck! But that only lasted one year. After that, we would pool our money for gas and drive 2 hours to get to Summit County so we could bribe the snowboarders that worked the bottom life-line with candy bars. The snowboard park was halfway up the mountain, so once we got up, we never came all the way down.
In 10th grade I bought a Sims Salasnek Board (the one with the skate trucks and wheels on bottom graphic) with money I had saved. My mom gave $3 a day for school lunch, so I just kept putting into a jar in my room, I did that for 2 years before I had enough money. During lunch at school I would go through the lunch line and slide pieces of pizza into my hoodie pocket and put a hostess cherry pie under my beanie.
In 11th grade, prices skyrocketed at Ski resorts, the lift-lines introduced scanners, so my hustle didn’t work anymore. I still snowboard from time to time, but nothing feels quite like The Simpler Times of Snowboarding.
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