There are other downhill skier types needing mention. You may see, for example, pole-poking dawdlers or bowling-ball-headed kids. Beginners. Bunnies. Lately, snowboarders have been making a mark for themselves, perhaps a mark against themselves as well.
An
interesting lot, boarders. Youthful and
boisterous, boarders thrash and bash down the slopes. Sometimes, you might think they hit the hill
just to make a lot of noise. And by their
own admission, more or less, most snowboarders are trying to inject a bit of
animal instinct back into the winter herd.
Snowboarding
is not just a skill, it’s an attitude.
Strapping yourself to that single wide board requires a lot of faith in
your ability fall well. Once you’re
cinched down, you become the equivalent of a human trophy on a very slippery
base. Snowboarders listen to music that
sounds like heavy equipment being operated at improperly high speeds. They are the sort of people who volunteer for
sleep deprivation studies. Ironically,
snowboarders, according to most ski area operators, represent the best hope for
consistent business in the future, given the current decline in the number of
skiers.
Once
you’ve assembled all these folks and given them a shove downhill, you’re in for
quite a show, something akin to what you might see if you stuffed your head
into one of those big popcorn makers you see at movie theaters.
Sweet
chaos.
—Mitchell
Hegman
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