Snowboarding

Jacob looked down over the mountain as the ski lift slowly lifted up the steep cliff face that he would soon be making his way down. This was his least favorite part about snowboarding. Sure, it was a nice view, but seeing the other people already making their way down, and the slow pace of it all made him feel skitchy. He wanted to be carving. He wanted to be zipping down the mountain, weaving back and forth between the trees, feeling the icy wind rushing around his face with nothing to keep him safe but the board beneath his feet and his own skill. It was an exhilirating ride - it never lasted long enough.

He had been snowboarding every season since he was ten. It had taken a long time before he had been able to move up to the black diamond level, and he'd never wanted to go back. He'd tried a time or two, mostly with friends who weren't quite as high leveled as he was, but it just didn't give him the same thrill that he got riding down a black diamond - or better yet, a double black diamond. Knowing that if he made a mistake he could end up off trail and out in the middle of nowhere alone, or that a fall could send him tumbling down hundreds of feet over ice and rock, and yet having the control and the skill to make it safely back down to base. He'd yet to find anything that gave him that same feeling.

The other problem with the ski lift was that his foot was getting tired. He had to keep the board on one foot so that he could safely ride off when he got to the top, but that meant having an extra 12 pounds hanging off of that one foot, and the fact that it was lopsided and dangling below him certainly wasn't helping. He tried on occasion to prop the other end of the board up on his free foot, but to be honest, it didn't help all that much. Sure, it made it feel a little lighter, but the way he had to position it was painful on his ankle, and it really just meant that he had extra weight on both feet instead of just one.

Sliding off the seat when he reached the top and sitting in the snow, looking down over the mountain as he bound his free foot into its position on his board, though. Knowing what he was about to do. Getting the pre-game adrenaline running through his blood.

That ski lift ride was worth it every time.