Being from Louisiana, snow is something that happens in the mountains - in places far, far away. While at times in the past I've thought of snowboarding, but I've never really ever considered going snowboarding until December 1999 (months after I have moved from Louisiana to Washington). At the time, both me and my roommate at the time Paul were working as contractors for different product groups at Microsoft. One of Paul's co-workers, Rob (another contractor), asked if we wanted to go try snowboarding (with him and his roommate) at Summit at Snoqualmie. We said sure. After getting the right clothing, we met Rob at his apartment and we all drove together to Snoqualmie. This first time for me was a real challenge as first I needed to learn how to stay upright on the board and then later - how to stop. This first time made me very sore and the only memory that really sticks out is at one point I was flying down the green run with no control when I hit a bump. The snowboard did a 180 and suddenly I was facing up the mountain instead of down. I hit another bump and after my head hit the snow I watched my feet come over my head and land behind me. The next time I went snowboarding, in January 2000, the four of us went to Crystal Mountain. I must say that Crystal is awesome (though the first time made for a long day). Crystal has a series a lifts that allow you to go higher and higher up the mountain - taking a lift to reach another lift. After getting off the 2nd lift, Paul and I decided to go down (picking the 'green' trails as Crystal's trails split every so often). From this point, I'm guessing the run is around 1 or 2 miles and that first time I took me 'forever' to go down. Later in the day, I was beginning to get better and able to go down the runs with a little more speed and control. The next two times I went snowboarding in 2000 were both at Summit at Snoqualmie and the last time I went I fell on an icy patch getting off the lift and injured my left shoulder. It was a lot of pain for a few weeks and is still a little limiting to me as I never did any reabilitation to build it back up. For the 2000-2001 snow season, I got a season pass to Summit at Snoqualmie and went about 8 times (mostly with my friend Izzy from Microsoft) and once to Crystal Mountain - where I had a much better time - though I did get run over once in front of ski patrol by a skier! The worst thing that happened to me during this season was a crash at Summit Central where I ended up in so much pain I thought I had broken my left wrist. X-rays revealed it was fine and that it was just severely sprained. For the 2001-2002 season, I only went snowboarding a few times - twice at Snoqualmie and once at Stevens Pass. At Stevens Pass, they didn't have great snow conditions and at one point my board slipped and I slammed into the ground - really hard packed snow. Once again I was in a lot of pain. My friend Izzy asked if I needed to go to the hospital, but I said it was just a sprain - this time to the right wrist. A week in a brace and it was fine. Since the last time I went snowboarding in early 2002 I have not gone snowboarding at all and have either done bowling (with my friend Greg - who has since moved back to the Atlanta, GA region) or concentrated on cycling (something I've really focused more and more on since January 2005 to try and get a little bit stronger and faster - especially after taking up bike racing in July 2005).