Remembering my 2020/2021 Season
A look back at all the achievements of the past 100 days of snow.
The 2020/2021 winter season is long gone and I’m really happy with what I’ve achieved during those 100 recorded days on the snow. This article is just a small look back on all of the achievements I managed to get during these days.
Confidence
When snowboarding only three or four weeks a year spread throughout the season it is hard to improve your riding consistently. I’ve had on the past many winter trips abroad to places like Italy, Austria and Andorra but I never had this feeling of constant snowboarding. You stay a month without doing it, then you spend a week in full blast mode, then another month without snowboarding and then another week and so on. It makes it pretty hard to improve yourself when you spend the initial days just recalibrating yourself coming back to the snow.
By being able to live in the resort was a whole new experience for me. Each day really felt like a continuous progression over the last one; each week as a continuation of the progress made on the previous week; each month a stronger month. By the end of the 100 days I spent snowboarding during this last season, I grew up my abilities in such a way that it would be impossible to do by merely snowboarding a few spread weeks each year. I really found my strengths and had the necessary time to overcome my weaknesses. Now, for the next season, I have clear goals in mind on what to practice, what to improve and, of course, all the fun I plan to have.
Speed
I always struggled with speed. The lack of confidence and control always made me fear for my safety, which is normal. You shouldn’t bomb down the mountain without knowing what you’re doing or else you can get really hurt and maybe even hurt others in the process. Going anything near 30km/h or 40km/h looked like warp speed to my eyes and this always led me to get stuck on long flat areas on the resorts I’ve visited.
This season, with the increase in confidence I got, I managed to each day get better and better at controlling my board at high speeds. I had the time to study the terrain, to study myself, to study the others, and to use all this to improve my riding. Now, when the conditions are favourable and the slopes are not busy, I can comfortably ride on speeds over 70km/h, even having some peaks over 100km/h on some runs! It is amazing for me to see the difference in riding from my last days on the 2019/2020 season compared to the middle of my 2020/2021 season.
Airtime
One thing that always mesmerised me on snowboarding videos was seeing people hitting jumps. It all seemed so distant to my abilities, seeing all those people flying through the air with their boards. With my “one week trip” schedule, I never had the courage to try it for real (aside from jumping on airbags) because I was always worried that if I crashed too hard I could just end my snowboard trip earlier than expected. But this was not a problem anymore when living in a resort.
After getting my confidence and speed levels in check, the next steep for me was to go for some tries at the snow park and hit the jumps. I managed to find a nice progression of ramps here, going from little slope bumps, to green jump lines, blue jump lines to reach what I considered the goal of my season: to hit the red jump line at least once. And I did it! More than once! Plenty of times, to be exact. It took me lots of days of crashing, face planting, edge catching, ass smashing to get to it but I made it happen! I never felt so proud of myself as I felt on those final days of the season.
What’s next?
To think that I had less than 100 days combined on my previous 4 seasons since I started snowboarding, these last 100 days were a blast! I definitely can’t wait for the 2021/2022 season to start. I’m looking forward for a season full of new challenges and new discoveries and lots of improvements. This last season I aimed hight and hit it way higher! Let’s see what the new season brings me.
How was your 2020/2021 season? Did you manage to enjoy it and learn something new? Did you improve something you wanted to? Share your experiences in the comments below.
Cheers and have a good ride!
