They shoot snowboarders, don't they?

It's been several years since I did any kind of skiing, over a decade in fact. So it was good to try some snowboarding and hit the slopes at the weekend. And hit the slopes I did. Several times. Very hard. But more on the injuries later...

To give a bit of background the company who looks after holiday visa people like us were arranging a trip to Mount Seymour for an introductory lesson and a day snowboarding. Greg got very excited about this and coerced me into signing up. Well we would have if I'd have got down there in time. In my defence they changed the deadline. Anyway we were able to arrange it ourselves so a few days later we were booked in for a 10 o'clock lesson. This meant getting up early.

Those of you who know me best will know I am not a morning person. Regardless of the plan for that day; going to the moon, playing football with movie stars, eating at Pizza Express (we're talking crème de la crème); I will not want to get up to do it. So it was with, shall we say, some reluctance that I got up at 6.30 on Saturday morning and donned the quite ridiculous level of clothing required to fall on my arse all day up a mountain. I arrived at Greg's place suitably grumpy and full of suggestions to pack it in and go back to bed.

Thanks to the early morning roads and Vancouver's frankly excellent public transport system we were 1000 metres higher and only $7 poorer less than 2 hours later. I, of course, moaned the whole way there. Seriously, how Greg didn't manage to smash my face in I'll never know. The views from the peak were fantastic, which I guess leads nicely into the photos.

Downtown Vancouver from the top of Mount Seymour. You can make out one of the stadiums and what I'm guessing is Cambie Bridge.

Surveying the vista. I like this one because firstly I'm not on the snowboard and secondly you can't see my face.

Greg man. I don't think he likes the ski suit he bought but I thought it was alright. We also had major concerns about the bottoms not being able to fit in the boots. These concerns turned out to be complete rubbish.

Hmm. The words 'Bambi on ice' spring to mind. If it looks like I'm not moving, it's because I'm not.

This photo is mainly for me so I can use it as a point of reference. Something actually was worth getting up that early for. Someone write down the date and time.

We both picked up the basics fairly quickly and did OK for our first time, at least I think so. We had the obvious falls but all in all it was pretty good, we both enjoyed it until our battered and beaten bodies couldn't take getting on that bloody rope to get to the top of the slope again. So much so I think I might be heading back this weekend.

Good times. Props to Greg for bringing, losing and subsequently finding his camera. I imagine we would have more photos but it's a bit like taking your camera to a football match, it's just not done.

Injury list

- Bruised coccyx

- Pain in both arms

- 2 bruised knees

- Left wrist doesn't quite work

Happy with that list, could have been a lot worse. Although that bruised coccyx is a real pain in the ass. Ha ha ha! No sorry, that one was bad. Even for me.