Freedom Philosophy

Some of us watch the olympics and rather than just feel the awe and inspiration of watching top athletes at the top of their careers we think, “hmmmm, betcha I would really enjoy that.” Watching the Nordic skiers battle it out in Feb 2010, I was awed by how fit the athletes were. Then my wife, Asako, saw that look that means two things…that I have new idea and that it is going to cost us money.

Now Nordic skiing for a guy who lives in hot and humid Yokohama, Japan is not exactly the most accessible sport. As a kid I used to either XC ski or play hockey almost every day after school during the winter. Here the options for snow are non-existent but roller skiing would be a definite possibility. I started the quest for the perfect equipment set-up.

The locations where I knew I could ski were the country roads in Nagano where we spend much of the summer, the docks out in Isogo not far from home, and the cycling road out at symbol tower overlooking Tokyo bay. I knew from cycling that none of these locations are particularly smooth. I also knew I wanted skis with some hefty speed control features for the hills in the country and brakes for the people you suddenly encounter living in a city of 9 million.

It didn’t take long reading blog articles and forums to hone in on Jenex’s V2 Roller Skis. They had everything I was looking for including a skate/classic model that would enable me to take the sport in any direction I felt like. 

The other detail to sort out was the boots. The most important thing was to get something for skating that wouldn’t be too hot during the summer months. I came across Alpina’s roller ski skate boot and once I accepted fate about the price tag I ordered up the whole set including Swix poles with the roller ski tip replacements.

After a few sessions in one of the biggest parking lots in the area to bring back what little muscle memory I had from when I was a kid, I was ready to tackle some more open terrain and a bit more of the public eye. I can accept that a guy with ski poles and gear charging down the road is going to get some stares but even well into my mature adulthood, my ego wouldn’t allow me to look like a horse with ice skates on. I practiced up until I was ready then hit the open tarmac.

Now several months into this new hobby I am loving everything they bring to my fitness training. I love the fluid side to side skating motion and the opening extension upward into the glide. I love the challenge to balance. I love double poling with my arms and abs propelling me forward. I love the fact that in well under an hour I can crank through over 1000kcal and feel a quad burn like no other. On days when I am back on the bike, I can feel the power I am picking up with these as cross-training and can audibly hear the curses coming from the guys in my cycling club as they wonder where all the speed is coming from.

This is the conversion rig for the kid trailer that I use to bring my skis out to the docks where pavement is plenty but car parking not so much. Inventions like this are almost reason alone to get into something new. AC

Health, Wellness, & Nutrition, What's Fun, Winter Sports

I am back in session for graduate school focused for the next few months on Health Psychology. One of my goals for this course is to find something that I write on the grad forums that might be of value to a broader audience and post it here. This week none of my assigned responses seemed worth sharing. However, one of the topics that has come up frequently at this point has been how to integrate eastern and western approaches to health and healing.

A key concept related to that is “health as a continuum” that is far more than a two state affair of sickness and health but more a matter of degree. One of my classmates wrote that during her childhood when she was healthy no one ever questioned her level of health as if it were on a continuum. She was “not sick” so that’s what mattered. I wrote this response about taking health for granted.

Photo Taken on a Similar but Different Day than the Story

“For me a big part of exercise is putting myself into situations of calculated risk. A game of soccer has never had the same appeal to me as rockclimbing or a mountain descent on my bike. Every once in a long while I get injured and am usually quite surprised and even dumbfounded a little. I clipped a tree about 3 years ago on my snowboard just as I was setting up to drop off a small cliff. The tree threw me out of the jump and I just dropped like a stone into fortunately deep powder. While I didn’t break anything it really hurt, particularly the arm that caught the tree. I guess what I am getting at is that part of me also operates in a false state of denial. Regardless of our various involvement with risk, I think that an assumption of heath is the norm. After all, just seconds before I fell off that snowy ledge I was carving fluid turns through deep powder with an ear-to-ear grin.”

Counselling Study, Health, Wellness, & Nutrition, Winter Sports

There is unbelievable satisfaction for a teacher when one of your students takes to heart what you’ve been working on and puts it all together for themselves. The whole process is further amplified when that student is your son or daughter. Sometimes the tension is heightened to the point where it doesn’t work to teach your own child. In those cases don’t force it. Give it time and maybe the next time it will go better. Success can be equally magnified as personal passions become family passtimes. This winter break Asako’s years of ski instruction with the Ski Association of Japan and my several winters teaching snowboarding at Bromley Mountain in Vermont have really paid off.

Teaching snowboarding is not something I came by naturally. I learned to snowboard the hard way. A friend gave me my first board in 1984. I was thirteen and just started riding. My start was “classic kid” as I hadn’t learned any of the basics but was already charging a little kicker we had made on a closed local ski hill. I did a lot of falling. A few years later parabolic board technology and the opportunity to ride regularly finally came together for me and I suffered through the later stages of learning to carve properly.

At Bromley I learned to teach an effective sequence for learning to ride. From that I saw the way I learned to snowboard was not the best. It also made me regret the pain I put a friend through when she asked me to teach her to snowboard at Sunday River some years before and I brought her to the top so she could figure it out by the time we got to the bottom. Not a quarter of the way down she was so bruised that she opted to slide the rest of the way down on her side. Needless to say, it wasn’t my shining moment of teaching in the outdoors.

As a few awkward dates are good practice for a natural marriage, experience teaching skiing and snowboarding professionally is great practice for parenting.

Everyone on Board

For what they are worth here are my insights for teaching your child to snowboard.

1) Lay the ground work. Kai has been skiing and skateboarding for 3 years. Both involve different balance skills than snowboarding but they form an excellent foundation for it.

2) Have the right equipment. Spend the money to either rent or buy a board and boots that will work for a person the size and weight of your child. It doesn’t have to be great gear but it has to be good enough to work well.

3) Pick optimal conditions. Go to an area where it is frequently warm – right around freezing and preferrably sunny. Your child will stay with it longer and have fewer obstacles to learning if the weather is reasonably comfortable. Groomed packed powder will also expidite the learning process as a light weight rider with less developed muscle mass will not fair well turning with much fresh to contend with. Children don’t have the momentum to keep moving through much snow and will find those early, less-than-confident turns much easier on hard pack.

4) Pick the right trails. You’ll need 2 types. The first is the beginner hill which you will spend most of a day (maybe two) walking up and down with your child as they learn the basics. It should gentle but steep enough to stay on edge. Make sure it doesn’t pitch to one side or the other. The second hill you’ll need should have a chair lift and be similar to your practice hill. Ideally the chair should end on a nice gentle slope away not a steep drop right away.

5) Give your child the immediate chance to practice by setting aside at least 3 or 4 days where they can learn. If your child is on the faster side of picking it up, they will need 3 days to put it all together. Having an extra day built in will give your child a rest day if they need it and allow you to work with the weather conditions as they support your objective.

6) Keep in mind that the big objective is for you to eventually enjoy riding with your child and if that happens in the first week, great. If it takes longer, that is also fine. My objective is to snowshoe up Mt Asama (visible in the distance of the photo below) when Kai is 12 and snowboard down together. As far as I am concerned that gives us 5 years for him to become proficient. That takes all pressure off and we can just focus on having a good time.

7) Focus only on your kid. As obvious as this appears, wholly dedicate these days to teaching your child. For me this is easier if I can get a few days in where I can shred before having to go into teaching mode. Kai is fast on skis so the few days before he learned to snowboard we went out together with him on skis so I could play.

8.) Keep laughing and fuel the stoke. Snowboarding is all about play. Make jokes and praise the wipeouts your child takes like you would a buddy who just landed a big air. Much of the fun of snowboarding is in the vibe which doesn’t need to die just because you’re supposed to be a responsible parent. You can still be a rebel team and this may pay off when you want to duck ski patrol boundary ropes to rip freshies later on.

During the baby years you might wonder if you haven’t given up previously active days as you sit in the lodge with an infant and swap runs with the person you used to kiss on the chairlift. This year we are finally reaping the benefits of those earlier experiences and sacrifices and the whole family is riding.

Ready for next Steps

Winter Sports Snowboarding Kids