I didn't end up writing about my second bout with snowboarding right away because I had hoped that a suitable picture was available for posting. Unfortunately, none was, so now I'm late and without a picture. Wako-san, Sachie, and I went to Yeti the Saturday before last for another day trip to the slopes, ostensibly the last one of the season. Yeti is actually open until April 1st, but on the 19th the snow was already fairly well melted.

We went in Wako-san's Suzuki Jiminy, which was basically a knock-off Jeep. The ride to Mt. Fuji was fairly uneventful; the fun started when we got to the area and tried to find Yeti. Last time we took the bus, so this time we had to follow the signs. Unfortunately (or not), we followed an erroneous sign—we looked on the way back, and the sign was indeed misdirecting—up a back road. Wako-san was having fun driving around off-road sliding around corners and generally kicking up mud. We kept going for quite a ways, not wanting to turn back, but we ran into an old guy and his grandkid and asked how far it was to a paved road. He said only a kilometer or so, so we kept going. Eventually when we emerged, there was a sign saying "No Entrance". Oops. We thought we'd be able to avoid the 500 yen toll road, but in the end, we had to pay anyway going in the long route.

Sachie had brought her snowboard, but I had to rent all my gear. Wako-san at least had the appropriate wear, only having to rent the implements. He thought about trying snowboarding, but ended up getting fun skis instead. The "snow" sucked: it was more like crushed ice from a slushie! Falling down on powder wasn't so bad, but this stuff stung. I did better this time, being able to stop ok. I could go left, but turning right is just hard. I was able to swerve left, then right, and stop at once, which was my best. My worst was when I was trying to hang a right and the front edge of my board caught the slush and pitched me over: I was facing away from the direction I was going, so I fell backward and slid on my back for a ways. The funniest part was when I went down my head hit the ground and my hat and goggles (which I had up) went flying. There's always a high and low point.

But I had one extra low point. The Yeti peeps resurfaced the snow on three of the four slopes at around 5 PM. Then when I tried the C slope, I found that it was compressed into an ice pack! Falling over hurt like hell because it was almost like pavement. It wasn't so bad before the grade increased and then I started keeling more regularly. The sucky part was watching the pros blast down the D slope super-fast while I was flat on my butt. There were a bunch of people like me, making it down slowly because falling hurt. The issue was becoming afraid of falling, because I instinctively leaned back, skewing my balance and making falling certain. After a particularly painful fall, I got frustrated, took off my board, and walked the remaining third of the slope down. Talk about wounded pride. Still, that wasn't the lowest point. Further, this time I was at least able to get on the lift without having to detach my board...except that last time.

Pushing oneself on the snowboard seems similar to what a skateboarder does. Maybe I'll have to buy one and practice in the off season...? With what spare time, right!