In my post about my first snowboarding lesson, I was on a complete high. I felt so good about the lesson and was excited about the next lesson. Christine and I bought our own jacket and pants so we didn’t have to pay the £8 rent on our following lessons and we couldn’t wait to get back on the slopes.

We did have a bit of a wobble. The second lesson was a disaster. We had a different instructor and he kept stopping us both half way down the slope and trying to make us change our stance. How he was telling us to stand felt really unnatural. He said I should feel as if I’m going to fall backwards and when I did it, I fell backwards! He also kept trying to bend my knees and hips into uncomfortable possessions.

I spent more time stood halfway down the slope being told to tense my legs and relax them and feeling confused than I did going up and down the slope! My legs were burning in pain but he said that’s how it should feel!

I felt like I just wanted a chance to go down and get the feel for it myself. But we both kept getting stopped.

Needless to say, we didn’t achieve the checkpoints to move to the third lesson.

We left feeling frustrated and like we didn’t have the time to find our balance going forward on our heel edge. We wanted our instructor from the first class back!

 

A week later, which was DUN DUN DUN, Friday the 13th, we booked in for the second lesson again.

I didn’t feel as excited this time as the previous lesson put me off. I started to doubt myself and fear that I wouldn’t be able to do it.

We had a different instructor this time and it was a much better experience.

He explained everything in a easy to understand way and after a few difficult runs, I started to get it. I started to feel in control. I started to feel comfortable. Also – IT DIDN’T BURN.

Another thing I loved about this instructor, is that he would let us go down and then give me feedback with what I needed to do to improve so I could work on it, rather than stop me and try to physically mould me into awkward positions.

At the start of the lesson, I found it difficult to get started and shuffle to the edge of the hill, but by the end of the lesson it wasn’t a concern at all because I knew I could control the board with my feet. It just felt natural.

I know I’m stronger at turning on my left side than my right side, but it’s something I’ll need to work on. I also need to make sure I don’t start to bend forward. BACK STRAIGHT, CORINNE.

Half way through the lesson, he said we had pretty much nailed it and started teaching us some of the things we’ll be learning in the third lesson. So we spent half the lesson going down on our heel edge facing down the slope (forwards) and the other half going down on our toe edge (backwards) and doing some foot steering and turning.

It felt great and I felt like I got the feel for it. I certainly would have liked to have a few more goes, but I know have that excitement for it again!

Here’s what we had to achieve to complete the second lesson:

• I can side slip on my heel edge.
• I can make diagonal side slip on my toe and heel edge.
• I can consistently side skip on my toe and heel edge.

You can do double lessons, where rather than doing one lesson in an hour, you have a three hour lesson and do two. We’re going to try and do that next time and do lesson 3 and 4 together. We’re hoping to go in 2 weeks.

Lesson three is:

• I’ve had an introduction to foot steering.
• I can make turns from my toe edge.
• I can make turns from my heel edge.

Here’s to hoping we get this instructor again!