kids growing up in the PacNW should be exposed to skiing and winter sports, so to warm Malcolm up to this idea I took him to MiniMountain, an indoor ski-training facility across the lake in Bellevue. Physically, he’s a cautious and somewhat awkward kid, so I wanted to give him a gentle introduction to being on skis – something he’s not done before today – in a relaxed environment, so that the first time I take him to the slopes he’s not too freaked out by snow/cold/kids/speed/steep hills/falling/etc. to the point where he doesn’t enjoy it.
The “mountains” at minimountain are just continuous-rolling giant carpet sheets, really, that can be accelerated or stopped by the teenage instructors there that work with the kids. Traditional skis and snowboards seem to work rather well on them though. We watched kids for a while so that he could see other kids near his age mastering the skis and having fun with the instructors.
As expected, he was super-awkward and nervous at first. He clung to the arms and sweatshirt of the teenage girl who instructed him and was petrified of falling. But she was very good in going slowly and gently with him, letting him build up confidence little by little, to the point where he could stand by himself on the skis while moving, and then very slowly adding more “tricks” to his repertoire until they were playing games like ‘tag’ and ‘red light/green light’ on the slope.
They also have a nice trick there where they tie a string through holes in the front of the skis to keep their toes pointed in, a good idea for beginners. That definitely makes it a bit easier for them.
I wish I had a camera to capture his face: the petrified look of fear when he started, and the absolute glee when he made it down the hill on his own for the first time. He just beamed this huge smile. It was adorable.
The lessons are supposed to be 20 minutes long but we stayed for sixty and let him build up confidence, learning how to fall (he finally did fall after 40 mins) and get up again, etc. It was hard work for my somewhat geeky little boy. I want him to know the joy of physical things, and to conquer fears, and this was a good start for the season. Small steps first.
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