//begin side story
Last year I purchased a Ride snowboard on craigslist, complete with boots and bindings, for $150. If you know a few things about snowboarding and how expensive it can be, you would agree with me that for $150, the deal I got was pretty sweet. However, there was one slight problem. The board was a little too long for me. The boots fit fine, the bindings were in good shape, but the board was slightly longer than I had hoped for. The board measured 162 cm. I learned on a 155 cm, so these extra 7 cm (yes, I know, only 2.7559 inches) messed up everything. Nevertheless, the package was a good deal, so I kept it.
I used the Ride board for a year and decided that I wanted to shift back to a shorter board, where I might feel more comfortable. I looked on craigslist again but couldn't really find anything that would fit me. (See, I want a sweet design on the board too because, let's be honest, snowboarding is at least 90% looks). On my way back from work last week, I stopped by a local snowboard shop to talk to them about rentals. Some friends were going to join me at the mountain and needed to rent and I wanted to see how much they cost. The conversation at the shop turned into talking about the Ride board and how I wanted to get a shorter board because I would feel more comfortable on it. The owner of the shop agreed to take a look at my board and upon doing so, offered a Nitro 156 cm board that I could try out. He said that he'd hold onto my board and if I liked the Nitro board, I could keep it. If I wasn't the biggest fan, he'd swap my bindings back on for me and give me back the Ride board (for the simple price of a 12-pack of New Castle).
So I came back on Friday to pick up my "new" Nitro board and to get rentals for my friends. My bindings were on the Nitro board but before I took it back with me, I found out from another employee that the Nitro board was in fact a girl's board! It didn't look like a girl's board, but now I'm all thinking "Man, I'm going to be the laughingstock of the entire snowboarding community." Lucky for me, this other employee told me that a Neversummer 155 cm board had just been brought in and that it would probably suit me perfectly. I asked him if I could take that one for a test run and he said sure thing. So he swapped off the bindings from the Nitro (girl's) board and put it on the Neversummer (manly) board, sharped the edges, and waxed the bottom. Now I was in business.
I rode the board and it was a lot smoother than my previous Ride board. I felt like I had much more control on this board than I did the Ride board. I wanted to keep it. But I didn't know how much extra the shop would charge me. I told myself I was willing to spend up to $50 because I knew that it was a better board than the Ride I had. I brought back and talked with the guys at the shop and they said that I could keep the Neversummer board for $40. I was pleased. Now I have a new board! Yay!
//end side story
...so after getting a few things arranged, off I went to the mountain. We departed home around 5 in the morning and didn't make it up the lift until slightly close to 10:30. Traffic like crazy. Anyways, that's not what this post is really about. (not that I know what this post is really about anyways...) As I mentioned earlier, it had been raining in these parts for the entire week. I looked at the weather forecast and Saturday was supposed to be the day that it stopped (and this is why we chose to come snowboarding on Saturday).
The rain stopped. The clouds moved away. The sun shone brightly. It was an absolutely beautiful day.
I will need to steal pictures from the only guy on the trip who brought a camera. But even after I get those pictures, I don't think a picture could capture what the view was like from up on top of the mountain. We could see out for what seemed to be hundreds of miles. The sky was a rich deep blue color and the weather was much warmer than I had initially thought it would be. The trees were each covered in a fresh layer of snow from the previous night and everything looked so entirely majestic and serene. I rode up the lift a few times just by myself (no friends :( ) and each time I did, I closed my eyes for a moment thanking God for such a wonderful creation and then opened them to see all that was around me. I was at peace. It felt like all the temporary troubles that I've gone through recently and all the negative things in my life just melted away [perhaps this is worthy of another post, maybe]. God was truly in control and seeing all the beauty around me made me believe that even more. I don't know why, but there's something about sweet-action landscape views that make me weak in the knees. I think maybe it's because there are certain things in life that you imagine, but you never have the chance to see. We've all seen postcards with cool views or pictures from other people's trips, but there's something different about seeing it firsthand. I've heard that a picture is worth a thousand words. If that's the case, I don't even know how many words are in seeing it with you own two eyes. At least two thousand! Or...a billion thousand! And when you see it, you just look... and look... and look. So when I was on top of the mountain riding up by myself, that's what I did. I looked. And it's crazy because at that moment I told myself, "Only my God, the creator of the universe, could design something so spectacular, yet so simple." After all, it was some mountain ranges with a few clouds, some trees, some snow, etc. But the way it all came together, it was glorious. It reminded me that if God can design something so intricate as the earth and have it so beautiful, then surely He must be able to handle all the problems and burdens in my tiny life. I just need to be able to lift them up to Him and trust that He truly is sovereign.
So thanks God, for allowing me to see all that You wanted me to see. Thanks for the wonderful earth that you have created and the marvelous sights you have designed. And thanks most of all, for loving me more than I will ever understand.
I used the Ride board for a year and decided that I wanted to shift back to a shorter board, where I might feel more comfortable. I looked on craigslist again but couldn't really find anything that would fit me. (See, I want a sweet design on the board too because, let's be honest, snowboarding is at least 90% looks). On my way back from work last week, I stopped by a local snowboard shop to talk to them about rentals. Some friends were going to join me at the mountain and needed to rent and I wanted to see how much they cost. The conversation at the shop turned into talking about the Ride board and how I wanted to get a shorter board because I would feel more comfortable on it. The owner of the shop agreed to take a look at my board and upon doing so, offered a Nitro 156 cm board that I could try out. He said that he'd hold onto my board and if I liked the Nitro board, I could keep it. If I wasn't the biggest fan, he'd swap my bindings back on for me and give me back the Ride board (for the simple price of a 12-pack of New Castle).
So I came back on Friday to pick up my "new" Nitro board and to get rentals for my friends. My bindings were on the Nitro board but before I took it back with me, I found out from another employee that the Nitro board was in fact a girl's board! It didn't look like a girl's board, but now I'm all thinking "Man, I'm going to be the laughingstock of the entire snowboarding community." Lucky for me, this other employee told me that a Neversummer 155 cm board had just been brought in and that it would probably suit me perfectly. I asked him if I could take that one for a test run and he said sure thing. So he swapped off the bindings from the Nitro (girl's) board and put it on the Neversummer (manly) board, sharped the edges, and waxed the bottom. Now I was in business.
I rode the board and it was a lot smoother than my previous Ride board. I felt like I had much more control on this board than I did the Ride board. I wanted to keep it. But I didn't know how much extra the shop would charge me. I told myself I was willing to spend up to $50 because I knew that it was a better board than the Ride I had. I brought back and talked with the guys at the shop and they said that I could keep the Neversummer board for $40. I was pleased. Now I have a new board! Yay!
//end side story
...so after getting a few things arranged, off I went to the mountain. We departed home around 5 in the morning and didn't make it up the lift until slightly close to 10:30. Traffic like crazy. Anyways, that's not what this post is really about. (not that I know what this post is really about anyways...) As I mentioned earlier, it had been raining in these parts for the entire week. I looked at the weather forecast and Saturday was supposed to be the day that it stopped (and this is why we chose to come snowboarding on Saturday).
The rain stopped. The clouds moved away. The sun shone brightly. It was an absolutely beautiful day.
I will need to steal pictures from the only guy on the trip who brought a camera. But even after I get those pictures, I don't think a picture could capture what the view was like from up on top of the mountain. We could see out for what seemed to be hundreds of miles. The sky was a rich deep blue color and the weather was much warmer than I had initially thought it would be. The trees were each covered in a fresh layer of snow from the previous night and everything looked so entirely majestic and serene. I rode up the lift a few times just by myself (no friends :( ) and each time I did, I closed my eyes for a moment thanking God for such a wonderful creation and then opened them to see all that was around me. I was at peace. It felt like all the temporary troubles that I've gone through recently and all the negative things in my life just melted away [perhaps this is worthy of another post, maybe]. God was truly in control and seeing all the beauty around me made me believe that even more. I don't know why, but there's something about sweet-action landscape views that make me weak in the knees. I think maybe it's because there are certain things in life that you imagine, but you never have the chance to see. We've all seen postcards with cool views or pictures from other people's trips, but there's something different about seeing it firsthand. I've heard that a picture is worth a thousand words. If that's the case, I don't even know how many words are in seeing it with you own two eyes. At least two thousand! Or...a billion thousand! And when you see it, you just look... and look... and look. So when I was on top of the mountain riding up by myself, that's what I did. I looked. And it's crazy because at that moment I told myself, "Only my God, the creator of the universe, could design something so spectacular, yet so simple." After all, it was some mountain ranges with a few clouds, some trees, some snow, etc. But the way it all came together, it was glorious. It reminded me that if God can design something so intricate as the earth and have it so beautiful, then surely He must be able to handle all the problems and burdens in my tiny life. I just need to be able to lift them up to Him and trust that He truly is sovereign.
So thanks God, for allowing me to see all that You wanted me to see. Thanks for the wonderful earth that you have created and the marvelous sights you have designed. And thanks most of all, for loving me more than I will ever understand.
amen to that!
ReplyDeleteglad to have shared it with all of you.