It is a little known fact that I invented snowboarding.
During the glorious snow filled winters of the mid to late eighties Adam Simmons and I spent our days flinging ourselves down the hill behind my house on our sledges. I remember mine vividly – a red flatish plastic affair with none of the superfluous steering devices or other unnecessary rubbish to break up it’s magnificently aerodynamic form. The sledge had supposed to be a birthday present, but there had been a heavy snowfall in the weeks preceding my birthday and so I was given it a few weeks early.
I’m relatively sure it was me who had the flash of inspiration that incited both Adam and I to abandon the customary seated mode of sledging and adopt a rather more thrilling standing position. The sport was made even more exhilarating by the need to hastily evacuate at the end in order to avoid running straight into the boggy marsh at the bottom of the field.
Some people have said it was a chap called Sherman Poppen in 1965 who pioneered snowboarding, but I refute this. I for one certainly hadn’t seen any snowboards before Adam and I started standing up on our sledges, and there have been bloody millions of them around since then – so I think you will agree that the evidence is in my favour.
We don’t get snow like we used to these days. Oh sure I know that many of you Americans are up to your nostrils in the stuff, but the last serious bit of snowfall in England I can remember was when I was around 22.
If things continue like this Amy and Evan will never get to experience the joys of days upon days of snow on the ground. And that makes me sad. Not just for me, and not just for them; but for the world. After all, they may have inherited my winter sports creating gene but without the opportunity to discover it there is a chance that it may lay forever dormant.
Thanks for expanding my vocabulary. To me, sledge meant a weighted hammer used to pound on something. Just like George Bernard Shaw said “England and America are two countries separated by a common language.”
We did have that one day of real snow last week though, didn’t we? Or where you blinking at the time and missed it?
I remember real snow too.
Dwayne - I didn’t realize that sledge was a British word. Over here we have the advantage of watching a shed load of American TV and films to keep us up to speed on US vocab. Ye-hah dawg, bitchin’ comment yo! - see, I’m almost fluent
(un)relaxeddad - Unfortunately that one day of real snow didn’t really make it up north. We did have one night of snow, but it was gone by the morning.
That would be hilarious to hear with a British accent!!
Is this like the time Al Gore told us he invented the internet?