I'm more motivated to tell an airboarding story than I am to do my taxes; besides I can efile later tonite. Attached is a 60 second promo we did for Armed Forces Network back in February. We broke every rule the company has regarding airboarding at Smuggs. Things like following too closely - I was riding 10 feet from a very big snowmobile at 35mph. My colleague in the helmet cam was about 8 feet from me. We "poached" a closed trail just because the camera man asked us to. An hour and a half of nonstop runs was boiled into a minute blurb. That was the best promo we made this year. While it looks easy to do, and it is when the snow is good, you should know how I got the job three years ago. I was approached by my boss to see if I wanted to take a look at the program. I was a winter hiking guide in the mornings, done by 1pm, allowing time to do the airboarding in the afternoons. It was in December, the snow was frozen man-made and a "hockey puck" surface. That means it was fast, really fast not much snow to grab for stopping or turning. Airboarding is a sport made for people with mass. I have 128 lbs of mass, not much to influence the sled on a hard surface. Soooooo.... on my very first run, I managed to do all right until I got to the Hibernator dog-leg where things get steep. I dropped in, couldn't stop, barely turned, caught my downhill edge and just like skiing, rolled down-slope.....into the ski patroller and then into his snowmobile. I rang my helmeted-head, but good. I got up, continued down to the next steep section and managed to crash only 3 more times. All the while, my boss watching from the trail bottom. When I dragged my knees to a stop (ground them off would be more accurate), he asked how I liked it. My dazed reply: "it's allot of fun. . .once you know how...". His reply: "Great! the program starts on Monday..." I etched an impressive paint streak on the side of my helmet and so now I have a cover with a purple Mohawk. They call me an instructor, seems they'll hire anyone who will agree. I notice that I am the only female instructor among five men, all with mass. That was my first ride; now I am hooked. It is my favorite way to slide down the hill these days. This year, we taught daily clinics to some interesting folks. It's not a dull game to play. There was the young bride who used the SLOW sign to stop and then dropped her pants for the ski patroller so he could see the bruise on her thigh...."yep, that's a bruise. . . pack it in a bag of snow. . ." as he skwirmed out of the aide room leaving me with the blushing husband and his half clothed wife. I know the dude, he's a house painter in the summer; a doctor he is not. I learned that the men from Bermuda tend to be remedial as we screamed, bellowed for them to "ROLL OFF!!!" I think big Shawn, my fellow instructor, could be heard across all three mountains in his hopeless attempt to keep them on the trail. There were nine tree strikes in that clinic. One rider hit the trees so hard and so fast he tore his down jacket from his body. Feathers everywhere and his meek query: "can you fix my jacket?" But the most inexplicable event was the soriety girl who slid out of her snow pants trying to stop. She would just slide off the back of her sled and drag anchor to stop; this time her pants stopped and she and sled kept going. A colorful thong and no long johns. . . "ok" as I hustled to her. I blocked passers by with my sled and reminded her that Smuggs is the Number one family resort in America and she would need to put her pants back on to get down. There will be no riding pant-less. I was stunned when she said, "I can't put my pants back on; they're full of snow!" Whoa, they didn't have that scenario in the company handbook. "shake out the snow, put 'em on or I'm sure one of the Mountain Ops guys (snowmakers) will delight in bringing you down on a snowmobile. . . that would just be frosty, don't you think? She muddled her pants back on and hustled for the day lodge at the bottom. I'm here to say there is never a dull moment in Airboarding, its more fun than anyone should legally have....enjoy the clip, if you make it to VT, come ride with me sometime. . .
peace ~ ell
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