'Boarding's here to stay - two of our own try it

When snowboarding burst on the scene, thanks largely to Jake Burton, among others, it was looked down on by skiers, who seemed to think it beneath them.

Burton learned to board on Snuffers, two skis bolted together with reins. In 1982, Burton began manufacturing snowboards. Well, last Sunday, the World Cup aerials were held at Deer Valley, Utah, and if that isn't recognition, it's hard to think of what is.

Today, snowboarders make up nearly half of those enjoying mountain resorts.

Younger snowsporters quickly found snowboarding to be just a step away from skateboarding and quickly adopted it (and the backwards baseball cap), adding aerials and jib racing. Eventually, the Olympic Committee wised up and added it to the Winter Games.

Most of us older skiers who have tried it found it to be fun, perhaps not as difficult in the beginner stage as skiing, but certainly hard on the butt at first.

I'd love to be able to ride in the trees, perhaps learn an edge-grab, but I'll put it off until next year.

This was not so for our cops reporter F.T. Norton and features editor Teri Vance. When they approached me about learning to snowboard, I figured that would be an ideal way to introduce the sport to our GO readers - those who are not already out jibing away happily. So here's F.T.'s and Teri's reports on learning to snowboard, courtesy of Heavenly Mountain Resort's Boulder Base instructor Hamish Drummond, a New Zealander spending the winter teaching at Heavenly. - GO editor Sam Bauman