Boarding Tryouts
This evening was spent at the artificial ski slope at Silkworth Sports Complex in Sunderland. It was supposed to be tryouts for the DUSSC, but didn’t seem that organised: Upon arrival I purchased a membership card (for £5) that meant I got a discount — except that it only applied to skiers. Thankfully the staff also thought I was a skier and charged me the cheaper skiers’ price for entry! Reg managed to pay for both the membership card, only to then be told that he didn’t need it, but was going to have to pay full boarding price…
After getting my hired gear (all mine is at home and I’m lazy), We eventually ventured out onto the slope and had a couple of runs. My first runs were rather pathetic — the honeycomb surface actually seemed to give the board grip, rather than sliding smoothly! Once I finally got into it and had adjusted to a very strange posture that meant I stayed off the deck, I was told that I needed gloves to ride on the slope. No matter, they told me when I said I didn’t have any (another thing we weren’t told about), we have some spare in the hire centre. In fact it was a bin of about seven odd gloves, each a different size, and none matching. I ended up with a one-size-fits-most Magic Glove on one hand, and a kid’s goalie glove on the other. Great…
After only a few more runs, when to be fair I was feeling more comfortable on the surface, it was time to get back. I did very little, showed hardly anything to anyone, and yet still they ask everyone to turn up for the race there on Saturday…
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