Snowboarding Isn’t Just For Kids Anymore

by: Lauren Traub Teton

Pain and injury avoidance techniques for snowboarding are invaluable but not well known. If you know how, you can avoid the two biggest mistakes that first time snowboarders make. A positive experience your first few times out will make you more likely to stick out the hard times until you learn enough to really have fun!
“There’s no reason that adults shouldn’t snowboard and have as much fun as kids” says self-proclaimed Snowboard Evangelist Lauren Traub Teton who admits to being “in her 40s”. “I have been riding a snowboard for four years, and am having the most fun of my life!”
She feels that the only thing stopping “oldsters” (in their mid-30s and up) from embracing snowboarding in a big way are the inevitable hard falls experienced during the short steep learning curve. She says “there are easy ways to avoid the pain. They are just not well known.”
The reason “snowboard pain avoidance” is not more widely discussed has to do with the history of snowboarding. To some snowboarders, pain and injury are cool. This is obvious if you the read the hundreds of war stories on snowboard websites.
This viewpoint has its roots in the fact that snowboarding is stylistically a descendant of skateboarding and embraces some of the same traditions. For example, doing a grab, where the rider reaches down and grabs the board while airborne, is more of a necessity in skating than in snowboarding, because the skateboard is not attached to the feet. But grabs have morphed into a popular trick and a way to show style in snowboarding too.
The other tradition that has carried over from skating is the tradition of pain. In skateboarding, injury from accidental impact with the hard ground is a common occurrence and gives a skater bragging rights (as well as bruises and breaks.). A lot of skaters are also snowboarders, and so the tradition of absorbing pain as part of “paying dues” remains.
Another factor keeping some adults away from snowboarding may be the reputation for wildness on the slopes that snowboarders have. That probably comes from the fact that when the equipment was first invented, it was technologically primitive, with little ability to steer or stop. That’s how snowboarding got its image as an extreme sport and snowboarders got their reputation as outlaws of the snow. Now snowboards have evolved technologically into precision devices that can turn and stop easily, when operated under control.
With older snowboarders hitting the slopes, the culture of injury and pain has outlived it’s origins. Adults don’t equate injuries with status. People who start riding as adults want to stay upright and uninjured. Some skiers switch over because it seems like more fun and less stress on the knees. Again, the goal is to stay whole!
I learned by trial, error and luck how to avoid injury. In fact, a fine young gentleman working at the guest services desk on Whistler Mountain (B.C.) offered to let me borrow his Rollerblade wrist guards and knee pads, one day when I was learning, and I was hooked on safety and comfort from that moment.
Don’t make the two biggest mistakes new snowboarders often make when you do decide to take up this wonderful sport. To be safe, comfortable, and happy, you MUST
1. Take a lesson given by a professional your first time out.
and
2. You MUST wear padding, on your knees, butt, and wrists.
Come now, why try to reinvent the wheel? If you want to learn to snowboard, then a snowboard lesson with a trained instructor will teach you IMPORTANT basic snowboarding skills that you will use every day for the rest of your riding life.
So learn them right, right from the start. Forget about teaching yourself how to get on and off a lift safely on a board. This is what teachers are for.
And the padding is a must because falling is an inevitable part of the learning process. You WILL fall at first. But if you are padded properly, you will not have to hurt yourself. And don’t chuck the padding once you have mastered the basics. You will need it when you progress to jumping and tricks!

About The Author
For Lauren Traub Teton, snowboarding is the only sport she has ever been successful at. She loves to ride the halfpipe, race, and jump (a little!). She writes the popular free “Snowboard Szine” newsletter. Sign up for it on her site http://www.SnowboardSecrets.com SnowboardSecrets@aol.com

Commonsense Approach to Domestic Violence

by: Regena English

Domestic violence the catch phrase for the past ten years. People use the words as if they represent an incurable disease rather than what it really is, deplorable human behaviors. It doesn't matter how many times Oprah, Sally, or Montel talk about domestic violence it is still happening to many of their audience members and viewers, why?
In this society we have a bad habit of excusing women of being responsible for themselves, thus leaving them as victims to the madness of their abusers. It's imperative women understand their bodies and minds are to be treated with respect and honor, and it is within their power to enforce treatment befitting a human being.
Enforce? Yes, if they're in an environment that is unhappy due to beatings and cruel criticisms it's their duty to move to safer ground, a place where negative words and actions are not levied against them. Women need to know, if a man or woman loves them enough to fill a mustard seed they would never give them a black eye,bruise ribs, shoot or cut them, nor would they ever open their mouths to utter degrading terms directed at them. Love should never humiliate or beat you silly.
For the past decade talk shows have filled the airways with sad stories of living with violently insane persons but they left out a significant part, the part of the woman. Men and women both sit on talk shows claiming they can't control their behavior, they blame their parents and babysitters for abusing them, they blame the parish priest for molesting them, they blame society for not removing them from an abusive household as children, they blame the gun manufacturer, they blame their loved ones for upsetting them and the list goes on. When will the blaming to justify their abuse stop?
It'll stop when women (and men) stop making excuses for why their "love ones" hit, kick, bite, and degrade them. It'll stop when women walk away the first time a man (or woman) assault them, instead of, enduring twenty years pretending he or she's going to magically change.
Recently I saw a talk show discussing domestic violence and I was deeply sadden by the guest speaker's summation of domestic violence. There was a theme emerging, the only person to blame is the perpetrator, after all they're mentally ill. Not once did she point out how victims aren't victims until they surrender their power, which gave the impression she was saying the victims aren't responsibility for themselves.
I'm not saying they (as in the victim) can control anyone but themselves, no I'm saying there's always something the "victim" can do to legitimately protect themselves from further harm. Are these options perfect? The answer is no, but, at least the "victim" would be attempting to do something rather than throwing their hands in the air and accepting the harsh treatment as facts of life.
After watching the show I soon discovered other women who were also put off by the so-called abuse expert's explanations and comments. Like me they were left with a sour taste in their mouth on how women are encouraged to remain passive and not pro-active to the first signs of abuse. There's power in saying and meaning, no I will not permit you to hit me ever, but somehow it seems these experts are trying to preserve victimhood.
Three women confided in me their reasons for being disappointed with the show's guest.
"I lived with abuse for fifteen years. Every weekend I wore a black eye. One day I woke up and thought to myself, I don't hit him so why should I let him hit me. That's when the light came on, I should be treated the way I treat him. I took responsibility for my allowing this man to hit me. I decided he wouldn't hit me anymore and got out. Who cares how mentally ill he is, I have to be sane for me and see where my power lies." VPalmer
"Expert huh? Women will always be victimized if they never see by not reacting with action, as in getting out, when abuse first starts they're enabling the abuser. Why is it so hard to just say that instead of all that beating around the bush." anonymous
"I'm disgusted. Women can count on future generations being abused because there's no encouragement for them to feel strong and in charge of themselves." Lee
It's time we, as human beings, take responsibility for our futures the way God intended and stop handing over our power to decide our own fates to uncaring and abusive people. REMEMBER this, someone giving you a black eye is not a sign they love you, it's a sign they have issues that has nothing to do with you and it's time for you to get away from them.

About The Author
Regena English, the editor of The Leather Spinsters Newsletter and Leather Spinsters on the Web Ezine publications for happily unmarried careerwomen. She is also the author of a controversial ebook entitled Leather Spinsters and Their Degrees of Asexuality. http://www.leatherspinsters.com