At the beginning of my snowboarding career I found myself in a tough position. Not completely terrible, yet nowhere near proficient it was difficult to find people to go with. My sister one day found herself without a companion for the mountain and was kind enough to take me with her. I knew she wasn't all that excited as she would have to wait for me half the day, but she tried to hide it and I ignored it so I could go without feeling too guilty.
On our very first run we got off the gondola and headed down the mountain and were trying to cut over to some runs, so we were using the cat track. Being on a snowboard, I knew I had to maintain a certain speed or I would end up hopping or hiking to our desired run. I was ahead of my sister and saw a girl who had fallen right in the middle of the cat track and I thought to myself, "Oh sad. She must be a beginner." While pondering her situation I came up to pass her on the left and hit a small, softball size little bump in the snow that sent me flying. I did one or two somersaults and ended up sprawled on the cat track with my face in the snow, stunned.
My sister came up beside me laughing and said, "You ready for some black diamonds?" I figured I would end up in the snow anyway, having started out so wonderfully, and agreed to go wherever she took me.
