The only thing my youngest son wanted for his birthday last week was a snowboard. He learned to ski when we lived in Utah, starting his first official lesson on his fourth birthday (you had to be four, and he lucked out, that his birthday fell on the day the mountain opened). He saw his three big brothers and sister out there and he didn’t want to miss out on the fun.
His first season ended with him being comfortable on blue slopes. By his second season he was tackling black slopes, and some black diamonds that he and daddy were not allowed to tell me about, for the risk of a heart attack on my part. There’s just something wrong about seeing your tiny five year old dropping off a ledge and heading down a mountain side. I, to this day, still can’t watch the videos he took of those days.
Sam loves to ski, but all along he knew he was an imposter-er. Because from the moment he saw his first ‘boarder’, he knew he was on the wrong equipment. He is truly a snowboarded at heart. His renegade personality, his inability to ski ‘just’ a straight line, when every slope and mogel on the hill is a call to get big air. But dad still had to be his supervisor on the mountain, so Sam had to stick to skiing until he was old enough to take the hill on his own.
This is his year. Last year, when we lived in NY, with its patchy snow, he had a snowboarding lesson, then rented a few times, just to get the hang of it. He loved it, just as he knew he would. So now that we’re in Colorado, with its fluffy, consistent snow, and Sam is finally old enough to go alone on some runs, his whole birthday list consisted of one item – a snowboard!
We were out shopping early in the week, digging through the hundreds of cool boards that are out there, and we came across this gem. I had no idea there was a line of Burton snowboards with the Star Wars theme. After digging around online, I found the whole series. In a word – amazing.
I’m not sure which board Sam will end up with. He loves him some Star Wars. But maybe he’ll go for the crazy graphics or the abstract art, or something related to the Shaun White label. I’m just thrilled that on his list of possibilities, are these really cool Star Wars boards. Way to go, Burton!
Shouldn’t they be snowtroopers?!