“See, this is how you put it on,” said my stepfather Rich, “Is this too tight?”.
“No, it feels snug,” I replied. It was my first time skiing and Rich was teaching me how to put on my gear.
“Good because that’s how it is supposed to be,” he replied. We were in the locker room(except for the fact that no one was changing) and we had just gotten our ski boots. The inside of the locker room looked like a warehouse that people would brew beer in. The only difference was that there wasn’t any beer, there was skiing equipment, and there were about two hundred over-sized lockers in the room. Once we all had our boots on(my mom, Rich, and I), we went to go get our skis. Rich was the only one who didn’t get skis because he like to snowboard more than he likes to ski. Next up on the list of getting ready was to get our poles.
I was really excited because I love doing things that I haven’t done before (if they aren’t extremely dangerous). After my mom, Rich, and I got outside, we each got our poles and went to the meeting place for lessons. I was hoping that my instructor would be my friend’s dad because I knew he worked here. “Man,” I said to myself,” this is going to be a fun day”
My mom said we had to aim to get to Ski Liberty a little early so we wouldn’t be late. I was a little annoyed but I knew I would forget about it in a little while after I slept. Once most of the instructors were here, the highest ranking one spoke. “Hi, my name is Erik. I will be some of your guys’ instructors. If you all will turn around, you will see signs that say level 1-7.” Everyone turn so I did too. But I wasn’t really paying attention because I was admiring how big the mountain was. It was magnificent. It was snow covered from top to bottom with superbly tall evergreen trees. But, I was getting impatient.
Not able to keep my mouth shut for any longer, I asked my mom “When will we be able to start skiing?”
“ I don’t know. I only know as much as you do,” she replied “You’ll just have to wait.”
“Now you may all go to your instructors.” the head instructor said. Finally, I thought, I can go skiing!
Once we got to our signs, I found out that I was in luck. My instructor was my friend’s dad! When he got over, it was time to start the lesson. ”Now I know that this is a beginner lesson, but I want to ask, has anyone here ever skied before?” Nick, my instructor asked. Only one person raised their hand. “Good. I can have someone demonstrate some things.” Nick replied. Once he showed us how to “duck waddle”(walk up the hill side ways), he said it was time to learn how to turn.
“Now to turn, you have to make your skis a triangle but without a base. The skis should also be pointing toward the the base of the hill.” he said as he was showing us what to do. “Now when I get to the bottom of the hill, it will be your turn to try.” We only went up about a quarter of the way up because we had to walk up and it would have taken a while to get all the way up. Once it was my turn, I couldn’t do it well enough. We kept practicing it be I still couldn’t do it. He tried to give me more tips, but nothing was working. It was a bit annoying.
“Alright everyone, I think that everyone is ready,” Nick said, “ to go all the way up the hill. I was freaking out. I had no idea how I would get down the hill without falling down. Once we got off the lift, we stopped at the start of the hill. “I know this is your first time skiing for many of you, but I believe that you are ready. Once I start, I want you to make a line and wait five seconds then go, wait five seconds then go and continue doing that until you get to the bottom. Don’t forget to follow my tracks. But if you don’t, you could hit a snow maker, a pole, or even someone else.” I got really worried. If I don’t do what he says, I could end up hurting myself or someone else and I would be responsible for it. Suddenly, the hill looked like it went on forever. It was my turn to go. “It was now or never” I told myself. As I went, I wondered what he would say and if I would hit anyone because I certainly didn’t want to do that and hurt them or me and get in trouble for it.
But when I got to the bottom, I got an unexpected surprise, he said I was turning how a professional would! After that, I had a really good day and I told my mom and Rich everything. They said that they were really proud of me. Just before we left we decided to go down some of the other Greens (the easiest slopes). Overall, I had a really fun day that day. I had nothing to complain about. When we were done with all of the slopes that I could do, we went back to the locker room (which still looked like a warehouse) and returned our gear and went back to our car to go home.
But there was also another surprise, I got to go to the Wegmans for lunch! They have a really awesome lunch buffet. they had sushi, mac n’ cheese, egg rolls, a a lot more. They even had one of the Coke Machines! The machine had SO many different types of Coke. They had regular, vanilla(YUCK!!!), lime, lemon, cherry(YUM!!), grape, and a whole bunch of others. So after we finished lunch, we got back in the car and headed home.