My Snowboarding Fiasco: A college essay on being safe.

Last winter, my family and I took a trip to South Tahoe for a relaxing vacation in a winter wonderland. Unfortunately we did not know that around the holiday season South Tahoe became infested with mass groups of people. Huge men with little snow caps were waddling everywhere hoping to find an empty bar to keep warm. You could hear little children scream every five seconds because their ears were sensitive to the cold air. Mothers walked around with their designer snow boots and five thousand dollar fur coats. These people were clearly…not skiers, even though they looked the part. Fortunately, we did not let the harsh crowds steer us away from our vacation.

We checked into our rental around 10:30 am, and in about three seconds every room was commandeered by a member of my family. My cousin and I had a huge room that had a view of nothing but white – every inch of the outside world was covered with snow. As soon as we at gotten settled into our rooms, we were all out the door and on the slopes. I had never skied in my life or snowboarded for that matter, but I had an idea about how it all worked. So my cousin and I decided to take a snowboarding class together at the Heavenly Ski Resort. All of the instructors there were Australian and had heavy, hoarse accents which made it even easier to understand them. Once our class had ended, I felt that I was ready for the slopes. Granted I was not the best out there, but I was feeling pretty confident that morning. I got to the top of the mountain and just let go – I was flying past people, left and right; swooshing past them. It was such a exhilarating experience that I went back to the top of the mountain.

Although I stood on my snowboard as I flew down the hill, I got the idea where maybe sitting on the board like a sled might be fun. So without haste, I sat on the board and my cousin pushed me down hill. At first I was having a blast; again flying past people – but I soon lost control of the board and began spinning spastically in circles. Every time I tried to stop, I would just gain more speed. I was so worried I would hit something or someone, and lucky me I did. Upon reaching a crowd of people, I slide backwards into someone who was looking elsewhere. It looked as though I had just got a strike in bowling - the other person literally flew into the air and landed back first onto the frozen snow. I on the other hand continued to slide right on through their little pow-wow. At this point, my cousins had spotted me and were running after me to help me stop my run-away board. I finally stopped with the help of an old oak tree that thankfully was in the center of the path.

I learned a lot from this experience. For one thing, I should never assume that I am ready to take on mountains after having a lesson from someone who barely spoke English. And another thing; if I ever loose control of my snowboard, I should just roll or jump right off and let it slide underneath someone without me on top of it. With my new sense of safety, I will be a great asset to your university.