Progression

- Never Stop Dreaming -

As I made my way up to Nozawa Onsen for a second time on Sunday with the same gang less the 2 other Japanese, I was in for more thrills and spills than the week before. Snow was much heavier, road conditions were more severe and I rode even harder. Saturday night after dining at a local Izakaya at Komoro, it started to snow and it did not stop snowing till Sunday night at around 10.

The initial plan was to drive my little blue car up to Nozawa but eventually the 4 of us took another friend's 4WD manual car up instead. The highway conditions were severe with the entire road covered in thick sludge, driving was reduced from the usual 120km cruising to a mere 60km crawling. Eventually we made it to Iiyama where every structure was covered in at least 15 inches of snow. There was just too much snow everywhere and I was just laying in the back seat of the car enjoying the view.

Upon arrival at Nozawa Onsen, I was persuaded to tackle a much harder and steeper run which was deemed fit for the level I am at. As usual, I took a couple of plunges, rolls and flips but eventually after seeing the sky flash 5 or 6 times and having eaten a mouthful of snow, I was ready to fly. In fact I flew so hard, my rusted body couldn't keep up and I was left once again eating snow. It was then I came to realise that I was actually riding pretty well and those falls were the result of my body not being able to keep up. I really wished I had kept my aching body in prestige condition after army...but it's all too late now so I have to start conditioning my "Tofu" body (ring a bell Law?).

Connecting the turns between the toe and heel edges of the board, I gracefully glided down the runs...It had to be one of the most orgasmic experiences in my life...Whooo and not to mention the "outta this world view" from the top. Well, the view was great as overlooking the entire plains and tiny cities below from almost 2000 metres above sea level but in my definition of "great view" with reference to Sunday, what I saw was nothing more than a dense obscure blizzard of white pellets smashing into my face. Unfortunately, I am still unable to haul my camera up the hills so you will just have to imagine it.

After one too many tries down the new run, I switched to the easier run from the previous Sunday to boost my confidence once more. This run became a leisurely and faultless run for me and on 1 particular instance, I took it so hard and with my confidence level floating above my head, I rode the heavy powder. Bad bad bad decision as I was no where near the level of riding powder yet and I badly regretted my naive decision for I spent the next 10 minutes "climbing" out of the mess. You see powder in snowboarding context simply means fresh untouched snow which is almost impossible to ride for an amateur like me. The reason being simply you will sink faster than you can recall your own name and every effort to "climb" out will only make you sink faster...sort of like a quick sand. Eventually, I dug deep enough to free myself from my board, only to struggle to walk in the knee deep snow which is harmlessly portrayed as a mere curb height on the surface. Nonetheless, it was really fun but I would not want to do it anytime soon.

To sum it up, I was really really worn out by Sunday night after pushing myself beyond my physical limitations. Even this morning when I woke up to go to work, I kinda wanted to call it a sick day since I haven’t taken a sick leave since last August but I decided against it in the end.

Snowboarding, I would recommend anyone who wouldn’t mind falling in soft cottony snow to pick it up as it’s pretty easy to learn. But watch those knees for they will hurt real bad initially. The first few trials will determine if you are destined to stay in the sport and of course if you do pull thru the initial learning phase, then you will understand the gracefulness of the sport.