Upon hiring me for the instructor position, the manager invited me to the Instructors Training Course. The first order of business at the ITC was introducing ourselves. Most instructors had been either skiing or snowboarding for at least 10 seasons. I only snowboarded for 2 seasons.

I had the least experience, but I could ride comfortably on any terrain from the greens to the blues to the double blacks. Some people think I have a natural talent, but I don’t. I only have the passion and the determination. I had to work hard at it.

My second son has a natural talent. I have always been so envious of him. In December, 2021, he and I took a semi-private snowboarding lesson together for the first time. I fell, got up, and fell some more. My feet were uncomfortable. My body was exhausted. I bruised my thumb on the magic carpet. I went back to skiing. My son went on and excelled in snowboarding. He could ride down the double black terrains in his second season. These days, he can zoom down the double black with ease.

After giving up snowboarding, my skiing soared. I could ski anywhere on the mountains. Nevertheless, I felt somewhat of a failure. I couldn’t accept the fact that I could not snowboard. The next season, December 2022, I decided to give snowboarding another shot. I made myself a challenge. Age was not an excuse to back down.

I took another group lesson, but the class was only me and another beginner learner. I was catching the edge like crazy. I could not make it down the lift without falling. I skated on one foot and almost twisted my ankle, but I did not give up. I kept at it for two weeks. I watched countless tutorials on YouTube and learned how not to catch an edge. I progressed to the blue and black terrains. I still fell on the double black terrains and I didn’t conquer them until season 2.

The Epic Pass motivated me to ski and snowboard as much as I could. I loved both sports; therefore, I didn’t give up skiing. As I was getting excited about snowboarding, my son was getting bored. He was gifted, but he didn’t want to learn new skills. On the other hand, my goal was to learn how to carve. Something about leaving a thin line on the trail fascinated me. I kept working toward my goal. This year, I am starting to get it. I encouraged my son to learn with me, but he refused. I am sure he could pick it up in no time if he wanted.

I keep telling him how good he is and I wish I could have his skills. With his talent and my hard work, I would go far. Then again, when something comes easy, you take it for granted. In contrast, you treasure it when you work hard to earn it. I am happy to be where I am today, but I will continue to grow.

Check out my snowboarding shorts on YouTube.

When I started getting into jazz, I spent time listening to George Gershwin’s songs through jazz singers such as Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, and of course Billie Holiday. I got familiar with his lyrics through their singing. Yesterday, I came across Oscar Peterson Plays the George Gershwin Song Book and I was hooked. Oscar Peterson (piano), Ray Brown (double bass), and Ed Thigpen (drums) played these tunes with such delight. They swing on “They All Laughed” and get down to the blues on “Oh Lady Be Good.” I have been listening to the albums on my way to the ski resorts and back.

Ali Wong is back on the stage after her divorce in 2022. Most of the materials from her latest special is about dating and fucking. No crime in that. Male comedians talk about sex all the time with graphical, vulgar details. Don’t hate the player; hate the game. Then again, I am not interested in her subject matters. I am more intrigued with her writing. I could tell she has all of her jokes written out in her head. She delivers them line by line and in complete sentences. She definitely puts in the work. Good for her. Get them millions.

Despite getting up early and driving to Whitetail on time, I missed the morning ski clinic. I was a minute late, but I forgot my pass. The lifties didn’t let me on even though I was wearing my uniform.

For the morning lineup, I was assigned to teach a beginner lesson. A nine-year-old girl was waiting with her mom. I asked her if she needed to use the bathroom before we got started. I needed to use the bathroom myself. When I came back, she was with about 7 or 8 more students. I also saw another instructor take over my spot. I was cool about it. I could just go riding.

The group headed out to the learning center. As I was about to punch out my time, 2 girls came out from the rental. I was asked once again to take on. Then the dads told me that 2 more will be joining the group. Then 4 more came out. Then 5 more came out. Suddenly I had 16 students altogether with ages ranging from 9 to adult.

I asked another instructor to help me out, but he had to check in with the supervisor. He took away the 5 adults from me. I still had 2 moms who wanted to stay with their kids. I had 11 students left and we were about 15 minutes behind schedule. Fortunately, I had another shadowing instructor helping me out.

The lesson went better than I had expected. We made it through the entire curriculum. Students were able to do some J turns and began to do S turns.

In the afternoon, I didn’t have any lessons so I went riding solo. The crowd was not as bad as yesterday, but it was still busy. I went home around 2:30 pm.
Despite getting up early and driving to Whitetail on time, I missed the morning ski clinic. I was a minute late, but I forgot my pass. The lifties didn’t let me on even though I was wearing my uniform.

For the morning lineup, I was assigned to teach a beginner lesson. A nine-year-old girl was waiting with her mom. I asked her if she needed to use the bathroom before we got started. I needed to use the bathroom myself. When I came back, she was with about 7 or 8 more students. I also saw another instructor take over my spot. I was cool about it. I could just go riding.

The group headed out to the learning center. As I was about to punch out my time, 2 girls came out from the rental. I was asked once again to take on. Then the dads told me that 2 more will be joining the group. Then 4 more came out. Then 5 more came out. Suddenly I had 16 students altogether with ages ranging from 9 to adult.

I asked another instructor to help me out, but he had to check in with the supervisor. He took away the 5 adults from me. I still had 2 moms who wanted to stay with their kids. I had 11 students left and we were about 15 minutes behind schedule. Fortunately, I had another shadowing instructor helping me out.

The lesson went better than I had expected. We made it through the entire curriculum. Students were able to do some J turns and began to do S turns.

In the afternoon, I didn’t have any lessons so I went riding solo. The crowd was not as bad as yesterday, but it was still busy. I went home around 2:30 pm.

The entire family went to Whitetail today. The crowd was chaos. I bought Đạo a new pair of Atomic Maverick 86 C Skis ​+ M 10 GW Ski Bindings 2025. With the employee discount, I paid $415, which was 40% off original price. He loved the skis.

I checked in at 12:45 pm and one of the lead instructor assigned me to Kid Mountain Camp (KMC). I taught a class for the first time. Luckily, I only had two students: a 9 and a 10 years old brother and sister. They did well for their first time learning. Of course they fell, but they were able to do J-turns at the end.

Today, Xuân began the Whitetrailers program for snowboarding. He was placed in level 2. I made the request to bump him up to 4. They ended up placing him in level 5. He is snowboarding really well.

After my class and his program, we made two runs together. It was still crowded and starting to get cold. We decided to go home. The kids requested Sushi Bomb. We ate until 9 pm and got home around 10:45 pm.

I made $60 today before tax and spent $700 on equipment and food. My wife was right when she said, “You spent more than you worked.”

Starting tomorrow, I will be working seven days a week at two different jobs for the rest of the winter. One pays the bills; the other pays the lifts.

When I took on the instructor position, I didn’t know one of the perks was that my whole family got to access all of the ski resorts almost for free. I was glad that I ran into another employee who not only told me about the perks, but also gave me the refunds for all of our seasonal passes.

Another part of the job I enjoy is the employee connection. It didn’t matter which resort I went to, the employees took care of me if I needed something. I was part of the larger network of employees. We all worked under a big cooperation, but we looked out for one another.

I was going to give teaching a try for one season, but the perks and the employee connection will keep me coming back next season if they still want me to return.

Of course, I miss my colleagues at my other job as well. Can’t wait to see them on Monday.

I finally subscribed to Netflix so I could watch season 2 of Squid Game. I was a fan of season 1 and season 2 lives stood strong. I hope I am not giving anything away, but season 2 is not finished. We will see season 3 in the future. I hope it won’t be too long. I was glad that there were only 7 episodes in season 2. I don’t want a TV series to drag on for too long. I kind of wanting to rewatch Mad Men, but I don’t want to spend that much of my time for it. I still enjoy reading, skiing, snowboarding, blogging, and so on.

The conditions at Liberty was too good yesterday, I had to come back this morning. The kids still had the day off, but they didn’t want to go again. I went solo.

I arrived at Liberty around 9:30 am. I was surprised that the parking lot was filling out. It turned out that government workers were taking the day off to honor Jimmy Carter. Rest in peace, President Carter.

I started out skiing. I went straight to the backside and warmed up on the blue trail. Then I hit the double black and blue trails. I could carve on the blue terrains, but not the double-black terrains.

At noon time, I had lunch and switched over to snowboarding. I did the double-black terrains as well, but couldn’t carve much on the blue terrains. Around 2 pm, I called it the day.

I will take a break tomorrow to get my car check out. I’ll be back to work at Whitetail on Saturday and Sunday. Next Monday, I’ll be back to my regular job. Five weeks had gone by so quick.

I was not planning on skiing or snowboarding today, but the kids were still staying home because of the snow. I didn’t think the kids would join me, but they all did. I was super stoked about it.

As they are growing older, they have their own interests. They would rather spend time on their digital devices than skiing and snowboarding. Trying to get them together isn’t easy these days. I didn’t want to waste the opportunity.

We hadn’t been to Liberty this season; therefore, we headed there. The conditions were great. The double-black-diamond terrains were all opened. Đạo, Đán, and Xuân head to the backside for the blue and black terrains. I chilled with Vương on the green trails. We did two runs and went back to the lodge to meet up the crew for lunch.

After lunch, Xuân switched to snowboarding to join us. I took Vương to the blue terrains and he did fine. I am glad that Vương can now join us in the back side. I didn’t practice carving on my snowboard much. It was a fun day. I want to get back to Liberty tomorrow to practice my carvings.

This morning, I was in bed binging season two of Squid Game and a friend called asking me to go to Whitetail. I complied. I wanted my kids to go, but Xuân and Vương were too tired from sledding yesterday. Of course, Đán wanted to stay home to play video games. He wondered why I didn’t get him anything related to computer and video games. Đạo didn’t want to go at first because Đán was not coming, but he decided to join me, which made me really happy.

A friend asked me to teach his son snowboarding. I complied. His son is eight years old and the kid is on the heavy size. I knew it would be a challenge to teach him how to snowboard, but I didn’t expect a different kind of challenge. He refused to learn at the bottom of the hill. He didn’t want to learn to skate. He told me he could already turn and stop. He wanted to go to the top of the hill to snowboard down. The learning area was somewhat flat so agree to go to the top. I helped him strap in both feet so he could show me what he could do. He fell as soon as he stood up on the board. After three falls, he gave up. I asked him to go back to the bottom so we could start fresh, but he refused. His dad told me, “You see why I couldn’t teach him anything.”

I ended up working my own carvings on my snowboard. I am making progressions. Seeing the clean line I left behind when I carved wass just satisfying. I just needed to stop trying to touch the snow and focused on balancing my posture. I want to spend more time on the trail to practice my carving.