Good story, your friend is an ass :)
I can ski, water ski, wake board, surf and skateboard. I could not snow board the first time I tried. The balance is really unnatural when compared to the other activities I listed above, and I learned that the hard way after wrapping myself around a few trees on the way down and falling a bunch of other times. When I got to the bottom, and went and traded the board in for some skis and had a great rest of the day. It probably didn't help that I was almost 30 when I tried snowboarding that one time. When you're a kid and under 50 lbs, falling doesn't hurt. When you're full grown and more than 3 times that weight, you don't just bounce right back up again.
The balance is really unnatural when compared to the other activities
Yeah I could surf and figured it was kind of the same. I was in my early 20s when this all happened. It's also a big deal what type of snow you're in. The place I first tried had generated snow which was packed down by the time I went in the early evening. Both falling and snowboarding are much easier in fresh thick powder. I've never got very good at it and my current illnesses will likely prevent me from trying anymore.
I didn't get any powder my first time either. It was early morning and only a few degrees below freezing, so the hill was quite icy.
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