Back when I first started snowboarding it was a change from skiing, a new challenge which is what I was after at the time. Every year it was an excuse to escape the city and go enjoy the peace and beauty of the mountains and hang out with a bunch of mates for a weekend or a week at a time. For many years it carried on this way but now it means so much more having done 2 seasons overseas.
Snowboarding has pretty much become a driving point with where I'm at in my life, it's been a reason to go to work mon-fri knowing that the end goal is there, to get up the hill. Snowboarding pretty much means the world to me, more than what I can probably say in a few words here - theres a certain smile I have on my face when I'm on a hill strapped in ready to go snowboarding, some of you have no doubt seen it and I'm sure it's the same for many others.
It brings likeminded people together and creates friendships which will last for life. It's not all about who can throw a huge trick in the park or who can drop the biggest cornice or cliff - don't get me wrong doing both can be fun, but snowboarding is simply about having fun, enjoying and being yourself. See someone just after they've linked their first turns after persevering over those first couple of days with a bruised ass from catching one too many heel edges or someone nailing a fresh powder line after getting up early and waiting for hours and they are over the moon. Nothing you could say to them would bring them down from where they're at.
Snowboarding is basically the best 'partner' you can have in life, it'll make you smile, laugh uncontrollably, pick you up when you're down and also does an awesome job of killing the worst of hangovers. You put in as much as you want and you get what you put in back from it tenfold.
Thats pretty much all I can think of right now, so yeah go get out there.. have a shred, feel like a little kid all over again.
