That’s where I come in, now he asked me to teach people, just how he taught me. The resort is doing so well for itself that we were bound to add an additional instructor to help our current one.
I just didn’t think it would be me.
My second round of jumps goes well, so, on the third time I go for some flips, my signature trick being the Switch Backside Double Cork 1260 where I land one after the other like clockwork. It’s where I ride with my non-dominant foot forward, spin three and a half times and do a double cork. I might make it look easy after a couple years of practice, but it is definitely tricky.
There’s still a trick I have yet to nail: The Cab Quad Cork 1800 Mute Grab. It’s where I do a switch frontside spin with four off-axis flips while grabbing my toe edge between my feet with my front hand. This trick would put me into some new territory level wise, which is why I’m desperate to land it.
After quite a few runs down, I call it a night. I need to go home and rest because tomorrow is my day off and I plan to shred this mountain. I’m going to get up early so that I can come right when the park opens, so I need all the rest I can get. A lot of people think snowboarding is easy and doesn’t make you break a sweat, but those people are wrong. Snowboarding is so athletically demanding that even I go home sore most daysbut my body’s used to it.
While snowboarding, I’m constantly bending my knees, remaining in a squatting position while I ride. When it’s really cold, the layers will get hot from all the moving around. Plus, if or when I fall, it takes effort to get back up and even more effort when I’m wearing so many layers. Since I’m training to go pro, I have to do extra squatting and bending while making the jumps.
Snowboarding is far from easy.
I’m back in my car and turn the key to let it warm up. It’s freezing in here, so I have to wait about five minutes before I candrive it. My blue, 2017 Subaru is getting old, but she’s hanging in there. I put my board on the roof rack and wait the remaining time. It’s dark out already which can be bad to drive during winter, since it snows nonstop and the roads are icy. But it’s only November, it hasn’t been snowing too heavily yet, just a little. The last time it snowed was the week prior, so they already had time to clean all the roads.
Once the car is warm enough, I shift the gear to ‘reverse’ and pull out of the parking lot. I hear my tires roll over the salt and gravel. Fifteen minutes later, I’m home. I currently live on the opposite side of town, making it the farthest point from the resort. I really want to move closer, but I need to save up some more money. I don’t make much an hour and still have to pay for rent and food… and other things, but I’m happy and that’s honestly all I care about. I’d rather live like this than with lots of money and hate my life.
Walking into my two bedroom apartment, I see my roommate, Derek, sitting on the couch playing video games. It looks like he’s playing Call of Duty and is trying his best to kill a player from the opposite team, but is severely losing… so nothing new.
“Fuck off!” I hear him yell at the screen. His score is pulled up, along with a loser banner flashing in his face. He rips his headphones off his head and throws the controller right smack in the middle of the TV screen, shattering it to pieces.
Great, another thing we have to save money for now, a new TV. Looks like that house closer to the resort is going to have to wait even longer now.
“Oh hey bro, sorry, didn’t see you there,” Derek says.
“Still suck at COD?” I ask, trying hard not to laugh in his face.
“Oh fuck off, it wasn’t me, that boy is a little twerp. He’s a lying cheater,” he says lying through his teeth.
“Yeah, okay,” I say sarcastically just to give him shit.
Derek is my best friend, roommate and coworker all rolled up into one. We’re usually always together except when I’m getting myextra riding time in after work. He usually likes to come straight home after work, when I like to get my riding time in. He does come and ride with me when we have the same day off, though.
I open the fridge to see what we have and just as I suspected, nothing. My stomach growls. I should have grabbed food at the resort, but I forgot. I guess another peanut butter and jelly sandwich it is. I grab the half empty grape jelly from the fridge.
“You catch any good flips?” Derek asks me. He knows how much I train and how important becoming a pro is to me.
I wipe my hand across my nose. “Yeah, a couple here and there. Nothing too crazy,” I tell him.
I grab the crunchy peanut butter from the cabinet along with the sliced bread. I get to cooking… or preparing, I guess. I’m a horrible cook, but Derek is actually really good. At least whenever he has the ingredients, which is only when our friend Xander works at the grocery store.
Derek and I have a friend named Xander who works full-time at this small, local grocery store in Silver Lake calledFresh All Around. He was part of our crew in more ways than one. After long shifts behind the register, he’d link up with me at the slopes to hit the mountains for some late-day laps, squeezing out every last bit of daylight before the runs closed. But it wasn’t just about snowboarding—there was a kind of unspoken system between us. Derek and I would swing by the store and load up on food, timing it just right so we’d end up at Xander’s register. He knew we were always broke, so he’d slide a bunch of our stuff through without ringing it up. It wasn’t charity—it was community. He always got his cut too; coming through later to chill, eat and be part of whatever we had going on. That was just the rhythm we lived by—watching out for each other, sharing what we had and always finding time to ride.
Derek wants to own his own restaurant. He currently works at the resort as a chef and makes the best burgers in town. It’s nice when he works and gets to bring food home, those are the days wefeast like kings. But the rest of the time, our diets are strictly peanut butter and jelly.
I look back at Derek who’s still sitting on the couch, “Want one?” I ask him.
“I’m good, man, I already ate. Thanks though,” he replies.
Both of my slices are covered in spread and I put the knife in the sink to wash later tonight. I put away the peanut butter and jelly and sit on the couch next to Derek. Immediately, I’m more relaxed.
“Boss pulled me in his office today and told me he wants me to become an instructor,” I say.
“That’s great news!” he exclaims, patting me on the back.
“Yeah, I’m excited. More riding time, that’s for sure,” I tell him. What I don’t tell him is that I’m nervous as fuck and I feel like I’m not ready to do this.
“Hell yea!” he says and after that, my mind wanders into oblivion. I think about all the ways this can go wrong instead of right. I hate when my mind does this. It’s my father’s fault. He never made me feel good enough and now I’m an overthinking pessimist because of him.
