I liked playing pickleball. It made me sweat. I just didn’t like the competitiveness of it. Pickleball players are also snobby as fuck even within my own circle of friends.

I hadn’t played all winter because I was focusing on skiing and snowboarding. Now that the winter is over, I wanted to get back to playing pickleball. The guys I used to played with honed their skills everyday. They are now on a higher level. Whenever I played with them, they seemed to be forced. They didn’t want to put any efforts into it. They were stuck up and condescending. I stopped coming out.

Instead of helping beginners to improve, they looked down on them. I got bummed out and bored. Maybe Vietnamese people are just too damn competitive. They are not team players. Maybe I should join an American pickleball group to see if it is any difference. Or maybe I should refocus my energy on rollerblading and skateboarding. At the skatepark, people never looked down on beginners. In fact, they encouraged beginners.

The same sentiment goes for skiing and snowboarding. We also helped beginners to learn. When I first learned snowboarding, I was falling on the bunny slopes like crazy. I almost quit, but then a young snowboarder in his 20s came up to me and told me that I was doing great. He told me not to give up. Just his encouragement alone had kept me thriving. Now I even become a snowboard instructor.

Maybe I like sports in which I can progress on my own. From ice skating to rollerblading to skiing to snowboarding, these sports allow me to work on my skills. I don’t have to compete with anyone else. I just need to compete with myself. With pickleball, it is not easy to work on my own. I need 3 more players or at least another person to play against. Also playing for points changes the game. Instead of playing just for fun and to get some exercise, people get really competitive about it and we don’t even play for money or cups.

I am just going to stay out of pickleball.

My 2025-2026 season has officially ended after spending spring break at Stowe. Despite the pouring rain and the melting snow, the conditions at Stowe were still decent. I skied two days and snowboarded three days.

For the entire season, I spent 55 days skiing, snowboarding, coaching, and spending time with my family on the mountains. Each season, I love skiing and snowboarding a bit more than the previous. I enjoyed the fun, the exercise, the social, the experience, but the self progression, the self discipline, and the self motivation keep me coming back season after season.

My goal has been carving on both ski and snowboard. I am about 70% there this season. I will have to wait for the next season to continue my progress. Of course there are many techniques to learn, but I just want to focus on one thing at a time. I will continue to learn and to progress for as long as I can.

It’s a privilege for me and my family to have access to these expensive winter sports for almost free. Of course, I have to work, but I am glad that my skills paid for our passes. Nevertheless, I didn’t get to work much last season, which was fine with me. I didn’t fight for my turn to teach. In fact, I gave up my turn so I could spend time skiing or snowboarding with my family.

While my colleagues worked on their certification, I just worked on my own progression. My lead instructors and trainers encouraged me to get certified, but I didn’t see the benefits. In contrast, I have to pay a $150 membership fee each year to keep my certification active. I am content with being a none-certified instructor for now.

It’s time to put away the equipment. December 2026 will be here before you know it. Until then, let’s grab some rollerblades and skateboards for the spring and summer.

My Lil Xuânshine plays multiple sports. Whether swimming, skiing, or snowboarding, he excels in them. Even if he never competes in any of them, I still support him for as long as he puts his efforts into them.

I must confess. I am a terrible swimmer. I can’t swim from one end of the pool to the other end without taking a break. I tried to learn to swim, but I quickly got bored. I felt as if I were trapped in a pool filled with water. The good thing about swimming is that the weather is not an issue.

On the other hand, skiing and snowboarding depend on the weather, but that’s the beauty of these winter sports. It’s a partnership with Mother Nature. What makes skiing and snowboarding so damn exciting and magical is the pleasure of carving across the snow and leaving your tracks behind.

After discovering the art of carving, I had been focusing on chasing those tracks. It took me a while to understand the techniques of carving on skis, but I picked up carving on snowboard a bit faster. Regardless, I still have a long way to go.

I have always enjoyed watching a flock of birds flying across the sky in an “S” shape. My ultimate goal is to ski and ride down the trails in an “S” shape similar to those flying birds. Carving down the long terrains feels like flying to me. I have yet to perfect my carves, but I am not in a rush either. I still have many seasons to work on toward my goal. Having a goal not only lets me stay focused, but also lets me thrive.

For the first time in my life, I feel as if chasing a dream is possible. I have free access to many mountains in the world. As an instructor at Vail resorts, I am surrounded by expert skiers and snowboarders who can help me achieve my goal. I will get there on my own terms. All I need is my own determination.

This Sunday will be my last day working as an instructor at Whitetail resort for this season. Based on its mountain cam, I might as well just return my uniform on Saturday and go home. There’s nothing left to ski or ride.

This season seems to be super short. Nevertheless, we have taught over 7,000 lessons at Whitetail. That’s an incredible number. I didn’t keep track of how many lessons I had taught, but I spent 49 days on the trails skiing, snowboarding, and teaching. I am not done yet. We will be heading to Stowe for spring break. Let’s hope Stowe will still have snow in the first week of April.

My manager has sent out a form for returning instructors for the next season. Of course, I signed up immediately. This is my second season with Vail resorts and I still am enjoying it. I am thinking of teaching skiing primarily next season. I just want to switch it up. Will see.

As we’re transitioning to spring and summer, I am picking up rollerblading and skateboarding back up. I also want to get back to playing pickleball a bit and continue playing a bit of volleyball too.

I taught a friend’s eight-year-old kid to snowboard three times this season. The first time, he refused to do anything I asked him. His reason was, “I can’t.” He was lacking confidence. I didn’t let him off the hook. I reassured him that he could do it if he followed my instructions.

He didn’t get very far. He made himself fall as soon as the board went straight down. The good thing was he did not give up. The second time, which was a few weeks later, he tried again. He made some progress, but he still made himself fall. I advised him to ride with the board instead of falling to stop himself. The third time, he managed to stay on his board throughout the green run. He couldn’t turn yet, but he enjoyed riding down at his own pace.

Coaching him had taught me about myself. Patience was the key, especially with kids who didn’t have too much confidence in themselves. I didn’t push him, but I had to be firm with him. Too bad the season is over, but he will continue next season.

While I was coaching him on, I switched it up. I normally rode goofy with both of my bindings set forward (positive/positive) so I could carve. Riding regular with a negative-negative setting was quite awkward, but I was making progress. I need to change my bindings to a duck stance to ride regular. I might use Ðạo’s board to learn switch. I got him a used board to learn. He hadn’t made much progress on snowboarding. He still can’t turn yet. He only spent two times this season snowboarding and the rest of the time skiing. That’s cool with me as long as he’s out there skiing.

He didn’t want me to coach him snowboarding. He wanted to learn on his own. I had people who paid high prices for me to teach them, and yet my own kid wouldn’t let me teach him for free. My kids don’t appreciate the privileges they have. Not too many kids can go skiing and riding for free whenever they want. Not too many parents can afford lessons, lift tickets, and rentals. I take care of their gears so that they will have a great experience on the slopes. And yet, they take all of these for granted. They would rather sit in front of their screens than roaming around the big mountains. That’s their choice now. All I can do is provide them the opportunity.

Even though I didn’t need to take my kids to school on Monday due to inclement weather, I woke up early and started to work. That way I could stop working a bit earlier and take my family to Liberty. My sprained ankle was not completely healed yet, but I missed the snow so bad. In addition, I was looking forward to teaching Vương to snowboard.

I was planning on staying at the learning center to teach Đạo and Vương to snowboard. Đạo didn’t want me to teach him. He wanted to learn on his own instead. As for Vương, we started off with the basic snowboard stance. As we started one-foot skating, he fell and hit his thigh into the binding. He cried and quit. We are only five minutes into the lesson. He changed into his skis and vowed never to snowboard again.

Xuân and I on our snowboard and Vương on his skis, we headed to the back side. I took it easy, but snowboarding felt so good. We went on the blues, moguls, and double-blacks. The conditions were surprisingly nice.

Đạo learned to snowboard while my wife skied on the greens. I had no idea where Đán went. We stopped at 6:00 pm and went to a Chinese Buffet. It was a great day with my family.

On Wednesday evening, I sprained my right ankle playing volleyball. My first reaction was, “Oh fuck, I won’t be able to ski or snowboard for a few weeks and the season is almost done.”

I put on some ice. Then my wife applied some Tiger Palm before I went to bed. I couldn’t sleep. On Thursday, I worked from home because I could barely walk. I wrapped my ankle with ice for the entire day. It was helping, but I could still feel the pain (about eight out of ten) and my ankle was swollen.

Before I went to bed on Thursday, I applied some Tiger Palm and popped two Aleve pills. I woke up on Friday and the pain dropped to about two out of ten. I continued to apply ice and popped 1 more Aleve in the afternoon and 1 more in the evening.

By Saturday morning, the pain was one out of ten. The swell had subsided drastically. I probably can go back to snowboarding on Sunday, but I already took off work this weekend. In addition, I want to rest some more before I get back to the slopes.

I am so happy that my foot healed quicker than I had anticipated. Although Aleve sped up the treatment, I only used it when I absolutely needed it and stopped immediately.

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!

On Monday, I taught my friends’ kids from scout to snowboard and they finally got it.

Kenny is a big nine-year-old kid. Last season, his dad asked me to teach him. We started from the beginning on one-foot skating. He said he already knew. He didn’t want to listen to what I was trying to teach him. He wanted to start snowboarding straight away. I let him. We walked up the slope. He strapped on both feet. As soon as he stood up, he fell on his butt. He got up again. The board slid down, he caught an edge, fell on his stomach. He cried and said he hated snowboarding. He unstrapped his board and quit. I felt bad even though I was not getting paid. I failed as an instructor. I should have taken control of the lesson instead I let him choose what he wanted.

Francis is a skinny eight-year-old kid. His mom asked me to teach him how to snowboard. A month ago, I gave him a private lesson. He was a good listener, but lacked confidence. When I asked him to try something, he simply said, “I can’t.” He didn’t want to get on the magic carpet. He was afraid of the chairlift, but I reassured him that he would be fine. I was there by his side. He didn’t get very far, but at least he didn’t hate snowboarding and he gained more confidence.

On Monday, I taught both of them together. As soon as we began, Kenny started with his yes-I-already-how-to-do-this attitude. I said to him firmly, “If you are here to learn, you need to start listening and quit running your mouth.” That was it. He started to listen as we went through the progression. They both could slide-slipping on both their toes and heel. They could make their toes turn and they both said they loved to snowboard. They wanted to do 100 runs. We did 5 and called it a day. They told their mom and dad they wanted to do it again next week.

They were both challenging to teach, but I always took on challenges. I learned that I needed to establish the rules. On the slopes, I was not Uncle Donny, I was Instructor Donny.

Last week, I took Xuân and Vương to Liberty after work and school for an evening of skiing and snowboarding. We went straight to the back side. Vương only skied the blues. Xuân and I would take turns accompanying Vương on the blues or riding the double blacks solo. It worked out well. We always regrouped at the back lift (Strata Quad).

Around 6 pm, I skied down the double-black Upper Ultra and regrouped with Xuân and Vương at the top of the blue Lower Ultra. A teenager skied by and fell. One of his skis popped off. I told Xuân to go help him out. He snowboarded down and grabbed the pop-off ski. As Xuân was standing on his snowboard, another teenager jumped in from the side of the terrain and hit Xuân on his back near his hip. I was horrified. I told the kid, “Dude, you gotta watch where you’re going.” He came over and apologized, “I am sorry, I did not see him.” He asked Xuân, “Are you OK?” Xuân nodded his head. I checked with Xuân again to make sure he was OK. I told the kid, “Take it easy, especially at the blind spots.”

I could not read Xuân. I didn’t know if he didn’t get hurt or if he tried to cover up his pain. I took my boys back to the lodge so I could see if he had a bruise. It was just a bit red. I put ice on the impact area. I didn’t want to go back out to the slopes. We went to a crab house for dinner instead.

I felt horrible about the incident. I wanted to teach Xuân about helping out others and I put him in a dangerous spot. Nowadays, whether I was skiing or snowboarding, I had to look back to the mountain to make sure I was not in anyone’s way. This season, I got hit from the back several times by both skiers and snowboarders. Luckily, I had not been in any serious injuries. Nevertheless, the more I am on the slopes the more chances of me getting hit.