Third time in three weeks

And I have done it again. For the third time in a row, I have gone snowboarding this week-end. The good news is that this time, I went with someone of my own level, and I was able to push myself a little.
The first week I went, Ronald, an Australian I met, came with me. Since there were only the two is us, I felt obliged to stick with him. But he had grossely overstated his ability, or there had been some kind of misunderstanding. His idea of an intermediate skiier didn't correlate with mine. As a a result, I waited for him more than I actually snowboarded. He estimated his fall count to 50. By the end of the day, I had only tackled a couple of mogul runs.
The second time I went, I took a deutsch friend: Renske. One to add to my address book: a charming girl, with a sense of humour, and an open personality. Away from home, I have mentioned before, fellow countrymen become instant family. Other internationals, ones in the same mess, become fast friends. They know; we know together. That second time skiing, we went with another new friend. An American I met in a group. A guy I called on Friday, and who said: stuff all this work I have to do, we're going. And so the three of us went. The guy wasn't bad, but he was more interested in jumps that in boulders and trees. Still together, we raced down the mountain. We had to wait a little for Renske, who had admitted she wasn't very good, and who was truly trying to get better. By the end of the day, she was going down moguls! Still I was waiting.
Yesterday was different. I went with three others. I got a call on Thursday: "Albert, we are going snowboarding on Saturday: do you want to come?" I said yes, and off we were. The driver was a guy from LA, driving all the way up to see the girl who invited me. A bad situation it seemed at the offset. Thrust in to act as a buffer of sorts. It shows you how much I want to go snowboarding; I take dodgy rides. In fact it wasn't like that. Although the guy probably likes the girl, he is hiding it well and is very friendly. We took some other girl: a young and innocent freshman. She and I sat in the back of the car; all my Australian friends, if you feel lonely, come to the United States. You will be hot property; a silly accent makes me dark and mysterious. Exotic (laugh on Mathilde). I was nice to the girl. It happened that she was a bad snowboarder and that on the first run, she caught an edge on a flat and slammed her head on the ground.
On falls: falls are painful when:
1) You go slow
2) You hit a tree
3) You get hit by someone else when you are going slow and they are going fast
Hence, you can undertand why beginners get into more pain that advanced riders: they are afraid to go fast, when it is easier to fall and hurt oneself at low speeds (like on a bike).
Since she was falling a lot, Jimmy (the other guy) and I went off to test out our machoness. We raced down the groomed section, and we took on the moguls and the boulders. Moguls are bumps; going down them is like doing a set of squats. We did that all morning; when we needed a rest, we tested out how fast we could go.
To do that, pick a steep slope, preferably groomed. Point your snowboard straight down, bend your knees, and go. Speed is thrilling; I know that I probably won't fall, but I am very afraid of it nonetheless. Doubts creep in; when I change edge, for example. But my body and board haven't betrayed me; faithfully they keep me alive. I mentioned that falling at high speeds does not hurt; sliding into trees at high speeds does. There is always a constant blur of them on either side of the slopes. The speed becomes a thrill when I focus on what could go wrong.
Eventually we met the girls. They were at the top of the mountain in the first aid hut. The freshman girl had kept on hitting her head on the ground and had a mild concussion. She got towed down the mountain behind a snowmobile.
Talking to Jimmy, we found that we both had had concussions snowboarding; I can't remember my first jump ever, and he had a similar experience. Page (that's her name) has joined our ranks.

Enough about snowboarding...