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.

I woke up this morning with over 8 inches of natural snow on the ground. I didn’t have to go anywhere to ride. After shoveling our cars, driveway, and walkway, we headed over to George Mason. I took out my snowboard and rode right on the streets.

The hills at Mason were about blue to easy black terrains. The kids rode on the sledge. I rode on my snowboard over the powdery snow. We rode to the bottom of the hill and walked back up. It was quite an exercise. We had fun.

I don’t get to ride powder much; therefore, it was a wonderful experience. The kids won’t have school tomorrow. We’ll just snowed in and relax.

I headed to Whitetail early so I could catch the eight-o’clock skiing clinic. skiing on freshly groomed snow felt great. The ski instructor was very nice, but he made us ski in a wedge, which I hadn’t done in years. It felt awkward.

At 9:30 am, I stood in line with all snowboard instructors to teach. Four of us didn’t get assigned to teach. The other three instructors were a bit bummed out, but I was not. No teaching meant I could go riding. I worked on my carving on the green terrain. My wife texted me to let me know that little Vương wanted to go skiing. I was happy about that.

At 12:45 pm, I stood in line once again and I still didn’t get assigned to teach, in which I was hoping so that I could go ride with my family. The lead instructor felt bad for me that I had no lessons all day, which meant I didn’t get paid. He asked me to take a clinic on body movement analysis, which I already did. I thanked him, but I preferred to leave.

I spent the rest of the afternoon with Vương, Xuân, and my wife. Ðạo went to the backside. Somehow, my wife let Đán stayed home with grandma to spent his whole day on his PC. That kid needs to get out of the house.

I went back to work today at Whitetail. In the morning, I did my fourth shadow with a fellow instructor. One of his students caught the edge and fell flat on his belly. It took the wind out of him. Learning to snowboard can be miserable.

In the afternoon, I retook the jacket test with the lead instructor for snowboarding. He gave me tips along the way. I brought up catch-the-edge issue and recounted what I witnessed during my shadow. He understood. I shared with him the technique I learned to not catch the edge anymore. He agreed, but told me to make it simple. I was glad about that. I passed the test and now I can teach first-time learners on my own.

At the end of the day, I approached the instructor who encouraged me to become an instructor. She didn’t recognize me, but I soon as I recount the story and how I become an instructor, she gave me a hug. Such a sweet lady.

It has been a long day. I couldn’t sleep much the night before. I am exhausted after a long day at work and four snowboarding runs afterward. I am going to bed early today. Tomorrow I will get up early and do it again.

I accompanied my six- and eight-year-old sons to see Sonic 3. I tried to get out of it, but I couldn’t. Nevertheless, I was glad they both enjoyed the movie. We shared a large cup of fruit punch and two large buckets of popcorns. As expected, I fell asleep for a few minutes even though the film was filled with supersonic moving effects. To be fair, I did not dislike the whole movie. In fact, there was a touching moment when Sonic said to Shadow, “Even though she’s gone, your love will always remain.” It made me think of my mother.

I used to read many books on jazz and many of them were about Miles Davis. I picked up James Kaplan’s 3 Shades of Blue just before the winter break and had been savoring it. I read quite a bit about Miles Davis and John Coltrane, but not much about Bill Evans, and Kaplan has done an excellent job of weaving them together. The majority of the book is still about Davis, but Coltrane and Evans added a significant perspective to the book. It takes a skillful writer to piece the history, the music, and the personality together. Kaplan has done his research and his writing is just excellent. He has done all the hard work. I just enjoyed the fruits of his labor. I wonder what is size of audience for this book. Is it still large or just a small number of jazz lovers like myself? If you are into jazz, this is one of the books to read.

The lead-off recording, “Granadas,” opens with a quiet piano intro from Evan’s. Then the classical orchestra joins in. At the climax of the strings, the jazz rhythm section swings in. It’s a breathtaking jazz-meets-classical beauty from start to finish. I enjoyed listening to the album on the road in the middle of the night when I was the only one awake.

I woke up early this morning and snow was falling heavily; therefore, I didn’t catch the 8:30 am first chair lift. We didn’t get out of the rental house until noon. The kids spent way too much time on their digital devices. It’s a shame that they wanted to spend more time online than on the slopes on a ski trip.

Nevertheless, I snowboarded for about two hours. My wife decided that we should leave right afterward to avoid freezing temperatures on the road. We went back to the rental and packed up.

We didn’t leave the rental house until 6:00 pm. We’ll be on the road all night. That concluded our ski trip for 2024/2025.

Happy New Year!

We didn’t hit the terrain yesterday because it was raining hard all day. We went shopping instead. I bought a new ski jacket and two pairs of Adidas shoes. The kids also made dinner for us. We had fried chicken and ratatouille.

Today, the rain stopped. I headed out early to catch the first chair at 8:30 am. I snowboarded four runs and headed back home around 10:00 am. The older kids didn’t get up yet. I suspected they were on their digital devices until the wee hours. We didn’t get to Attitash until noon. I got tired of trying to get them up early. They cared about their digital devices more than all the money we spent on a ski trip. As long as I got my runs for the day, I didn’t bother trying to get them out early.

I took Vương and his cousin on the black slope. He did well, except for the steep slope. It was all icy. He almost made it to the bottom, but he slipped out, which was fine. He flipped the fuck out. He screamed and cussed at me, “I hate you, motherfucker.” I wondered where he learned it from. YouTube of course. I popped out skis and asked him to strap back on so we could go down, but he continued to cuss me out. I called the patrol and we waited. The patrol asked him to strap in and ski down. Vương did what the patrol told him.

He was done for the day. I went on to ski myself. I hit both Attitash Peak and Bear Peak. The conditions were icy and the slopes had bare cover. I didn’t fall at all. I must admit. I ski better than snowboard. I had better balance.

It was a good day. Tomorrow will be our last day at Attitash.

Hi, my name is Donny Truong. What’s your name? Have you snowboard before? Are you ready to snowboard?

Before we get started, let’s talk about safety first. You have your helmet on, good. Make sure it is buckled up. Make sure you have your gloves so that you won’t cut your fingers on ice or the edge of your board. Check your bindings to make sure they are not loose.

Do you know how to strap in bindings? Let me run through the mechanics quickly. This is the high back. This is the heel strap. This is the toe strap. Put your foot inside your binding, make sure your heel goes all the way back to the high back. Tighten up your heel strap first then your toe strap. Make sure the toe strap wraps around the toe box tightly. This is how you release your toe strap and this is how you release your heel strap.

Let’s put your board down. Make sure you place your board upside down so it doesn’t run away from you.

Falling is part of learning. Let’s make sure that when you fall, fall safely. If you fall forward, get on your knees. If you fall hard, put your arms in front of your chest to protect your body and face. If you fall backward, sit down.

To prevent falling, you need to have a strong, athletic stance. Bend your knees, keep your upper body straight, and look at the direction that you want to go.

Bend your knees forward and press your shins against your boots to put you on your toe edge. Push the back of your leg behind your high back to put you on your heel edge. If you want to go to the right, put pressure on your right foot. If you want to go to the left, put pressure on your left foot. Let’s strap both feet in and practice your stance and edges.

Catching the edge is when the edge of your snowboard digs into the snow and sends face planted or on your back. To prevent catching an edge, you need to create a torsional twist. Use your feet to bend your board. Press down your front foot, then the back foot on your toe turns. Pull up your front foot and back foot on your heel turns. Getting into the rhythm of 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4.

Let’s unstrap one of your feet. Leave in the one that you feel more comfortable. Skating is a way to get around. It is crucial to getting on and off the lift safely. To skate, you must lead with your front foot in the direction that you want to go. Put your back foot behind your board and make small glides. Make sure to keep your back foot close to your front foot. If you spread your legs too far apart, the board will slide away and you’ll do an uncomfortable split. You don’t want to do that. Let’s take some small steps slowly around the circle. Remember, lead with your front foot and look in the direction you want to go.

Now let’s learn how to skate forward so we can get on the magic carpet. To skate straight, lead with your front foot, push gently with your back foot to give yourself some speed, place your back foot next to your back bind, keep your knees bent, and look in the direction you want to travel. If you need to slow down, drag half of your back foot in the snow. If you want to stop, press your heel further into the snow, but do not take your back foot off your board until you come to a complete stop. Let’s practice skating and stopping until you can get on the board with confidence.

Now that you are ready, let’s skate to the magic carpet. Just like what we just did, skate slowly up to the magic carpet. Before you get on the belt, lift up your front foot to point the nose of your board to the center of the belt. Let the belt take your board then hop your back foot and place it next to your back binding. Do not hold on to the railings.

At the top of the carpet, keep your back foot on your board until you come to a complete stop. Once you come to a stop, skate out of the carpet area. Wait for me at the top around the snow gun, but not too close to it. Give some space for others to get off the belt.

Let’s all sit down. Now that we are on the hill, we need to learn how to stop. On your toe edge, dig your edge into the snow and look up the mountain. Releasing the edge will slide you down. Digging in your toe edge again to stop. Keep your knees bent in the athletic stand. Let’s give that a try.

To stand up on your toe edge, flip your board over, close your fingers into a fist, and push your arms to stand up. Keep your toe edge, dig into the snow, and release it slowly. Take your time. If your legs feel tired, get down on your knees.

Now that you can stop on your toe edge, let’s work on your heel edge. This time, dig your heel into the snow like you are sitting on the chair, look toward the direction you are going, release your heel edge to let the board glide down. Dig your heel edge again if you want to stop. Let’s give that a try.

To get up from your heel edge, close your fingers into a fist, place your arms behind your board, and push yourself up. Let’s try this and meet me at the front of the magic carpet. We’ll go back up one more time.

Now that you can stop on your toe and heel edge, let’s go from side to side. Remember when we did our home-base stand, bend your knees, put a bit of pressure on the knee in the direction you want to go, point your arm, and look in that direction. If you need to slow down, dig in your edge.

If you want to go in the other direction, shift your weight, point your arm, and look to the traveling direction. Try to stay in the center to avoid going off the trail. Let’s take our time going side to side and meet me at the bottom, behind the lift.

Let’s go over the steps to get on and off the lift safely. Skate carefully up to the lift. Wait in line for your turn. Keep your front foot up with the board pointing forward, not sideways.

After you are safely loaded onto the lift, pull down the safety bar. Once you get to the top, make sure your board is pointing straight with your strap-in foot leading, place your arm on the chair, stand up, and let the lift push you out. Place your back foot next to your back binding and skate straight down the lift. Don’t try to turn. You can slow down by dragging half of your back foot in the snow. Once you get off the lift safely, let’s meet up at the back where you can find a flat area.

Now that you have successfully ridden the lift, let’s work on your turns. Snowboarding is all about turning. We will begin with the J turns [drawing the J shape on the snow]. First, let your board go straight down for a few seconds, put pressure on your front foot in the direction you want to travel. Get into your heel or toe position depending on where you want to turn. Again, keep your knees bent and look up. Let’s do the J turns and regroup at the bottom near the lift.

Let’s take the lift up. This time, we will connect the turns together into an S shape [draw the S shape into the snow]. Instead of letting your board go straight down to a J shape, let’s start turning early into a curve. At the end of the curve,, turn the opposite direction into an S shape. Let me give you a demo. Again, keep your knees bent, look into the direction you are traveling, put pressure on your front foot to initiate your turn.

Our time is up. Thank you for riding with us. If you are sticking around, keep practicing your stops, J turns, and S turns on these green terrains. Do you have any questions? Again, my name is Donny Truong. I will be here all day. Feel free to stop me if you have any questions. If you would like to take your snowboarding to the next level, come back for another lesson. Thanks once again and enjoy the rest of your day.