Snowboarding With My Xuânshine (Day 42)

I taught Xuân to snowboard two seasons ago, yesterday I had to keep up with him. He had improved so much. I was impressed with the effortlessness he maneuvered his way around the big moguls. Riding with him made me stay young and active.

These days, Đạo and Ðán only wanted to ski or ride solo. Xuân and I often accompanied Vương on the greens and blues. Xuân and I rarely had a chance to ride together. We can both ski and snowboard and we can go almost any trails on the mountains.

In retrospect, Xuân has come a long way in winter sports. I found a video of him taking his first private lesson at the age of four. The instructor put him on his skis and let him slide down a few feet. He fell down and they went in for hot chocolate. That was it. He didn’t get to ride the magic carpet.

He obviously didn’t learn much. Even though I knew nothing about skiing at the time, I was disappointed. With the lift ticket, equipment rental, and private instructor, learning to ski was expensive and it was not worthwhile. Now as an instructor, my goal is to get the students on the chairlift safely so they can experience the joy of skiing or snowboarding.

Anyway, now Xuân can ski and ride equally well, but he prefers snowboarding more. I encouraged him to join the ski team, but he didn’t want to. Of course, I didn’t force him. As long as we get to ride together as father and son, I am happy with that. The next best thing to snowboarding is snowboarding with my Xuânshine!