Today is our last day in Conway, New Hampshire. A week of skiing has just flown by. Between Attitash and Wildcat Skiing Resorts, my body is sore, but in a good way. I really enjoyed skiing. Similar to ice skating and rollerblading, skiing needs practice to improve. Even though I couldn’t make it on the blue terrain, I had reached my goal for the week. I am getting a hang of parallel skiing and hockey stops. I am working toward short turns.

Đán has done really well with snowboarding even though he only had two hours of semi-private lessons. I wanted to sign up for more lessons for him, but both resorts didn’t have enough coaches. He figured his way around the board on the green terrain.

Đạo stuck to skiing and he enjoyed accompanying his brother on the green terrain. I wanted him to learn the parallel with me, but he still preferred plowing down. As long as he was having fun, I didn’t mind.

Xuân only started skiing this week. He had two hours of private lessons. When his cousin, Hân, took his private lessons, Xuân followed along and the instructor taught them both. The next day, they took a group lesson together. They enjoyed each other’s company.

Vương didn’t want to ski all week until I took him on the magic carpet today. Then he wanted to ski. He had such a good posture and he didn’t fall at all. I am glad that he is warming up to this sport.

We’re going to get the most out of our Epic passes. I can’t wait to hit more ski mountains in the next few winter months.

I had eight hours of sleep last night. My mind felt great, but my body ached a bit. After three days of snowboarding and skiing, my body showed its age. I signed up for Xuân and Hân all-day group lessons. They enjoyed the green terrain with their instructor.

Đạo and Đán went on their own and I continued to work on my parallel on the green terrain. Then I decided to take the challenge on the blue terrain. I took the lift up and realized I might have made a mistake, but it was too late to back down. I figured I could plow my way down if it got worse.

I paralleled my way down a bit until I reached the first steep slope. I tried to plow my way down, but it was too fast and my skis popped off. I collected my skis and put them over the mountain side. I walked toward the next slope to take a peek. There was no way I could make it down in one piece. I called the patrol to come and to get me. The patrol asked my name and age to make sure I was not injured. Then he gave me a ride down on a toboggan.

He switched between deep plow, left side and right-side brakes. It was quite incredible to observe. I definitely need to work more on my parallel and alternate hockey stops to have better control before I head back to the blue terrain. It was definitely an eye-opening experience.

Due to lack of sleep, I crashed early last night. Unfortunately I woke up around one in the morning with a migraine. I tried to lure myself back to sleep, but I couldn’t. I read a bit until I was dead tired. I caught a few hours of sleep and didn’t think I could ski the next day.

I woke up and felt OK, but not great. I decided to go ahead and ski. I spent a bit of time on the magic carpet with Xuân and my nephew Hân who skied for the first time. I practiced my hockey stop and Xuân followed me. He picked it up fast. We had a lot of fun.

Then I went on the green slope with Đạo and Đán to continue to work on my parallel. I wanted to bring my skis closer together—to the point that they align next to each other.

I need to find a lesson plan to see what I should work on, but I couldn’t find anything yet. Maybe I should try out a blue slope next. I don’t know. I hope I’ll have a good sleep tonight.

I am having a great time on this ski trip with my older sons. I feel bad that my wife is stuck with Vương. We had a set of skis for him, but he refused to try. My wife had to stay with him. I told her I could watch Vương so she could take a skiing lesson, but she didn’t want to.

A week is going by so fast. We only have two more days to ski before heading back home on Sunday.

Despite lacking sleep, sore arms, and headache, I was determined to hit the slope. My goal was to transition from plow to parallel down the green slope. I didn’t realize that I had been plowing all these times instead of skiing in parallel. When I saw skiers who turned side to side down the slope with ease, I wanted to do that. I turned to YouTube and found a simple yet effective tutorial.

I tried out the technique on the magic carpet, but I couldn’t get anywhere. I went on to the green slope to just try it out. After several trips down the slope, I figured out how to turn my legs and shifted my weight. I was able to keep my skis in parallel positions. When I saw the instructor, who gave Xuân a two-hour private lesson yesterday, teaching an adult group lesson, I asked him if taught beginners parallel skiing. He said that, “I taught them the plow as a defense mechanism, but they should be learning parallel skiing. It is easier for a 75-year-old body.” Then he dashed off with parallel skiing.

As I skied my way down the mountain, I was bending down like ice skating and rollerblading. When the instructor saw me, he said, “You don’t need to bend down to ski. Stand up.” I took his advice and stood up. Tomorrow, I will continue to master parallel skiing before moving on to hockey stop. I hope to get a good sleep tonight.

After my failed attempt to snowboard on Monday, I switched back to skiing on Tuesday. I could barely put on a pair of used ski boots I bought for $40. Once I was able to jam my feet in, they hurt like hell. I could barely walk a few steps. I had to take off my boots. There went my chance for skiing.

I brought my boots to the warming area to warm them up. Before I put them back on, I massaged my feet. It felt better. I snapped my boots into a pair of used skis I bought for $50. I paid $75 to tune up my skis and to make sure my boots fit in the binding correctly. Then I paid $35 for a brand new pair of poles at the ski shop at the resort.

I skied for a few minutes at the magic carpet at the Wildcat resort and my feet started to feel the pressure. I took off my skis to let my feet rest. When I turned around, I couldn’t see Đạo and Xuân. I asked the lift operator if she had let the two kids on the lift to the green slope. Because it was a slow day, therefore; she noticed them. I worried that the green slope would be a bit of a challenge for Xuân. I kept waiting and felt anxious that I forgot about the pain in my feet.

Even though I didn’t feel like I was ready to get back on to the green slope, I hopped to see if I could find them. I spotted them with the ski patrol. When the patrol saw Xuân crying, he stopped and talked to him. He felt intimidated by the slope. The patrol gave him a wagon ride back down the mountain.

I plowed myself down and eased back into my groove. I didn’t fall at all. I joined Đạo and Đán on the green slope until it was time to close. Each time, I made my plow smaller to gain a bit more speed. My next goal is to learn parallel skiing and hockey stopping.

When we got back to our rental house, I was exhausted. Around bedtime, my arms were sore. I realized that I used my poles too much to push myself. My arms were so uncomfortable that I could not fall asleep. I ended up only with a few hours of sleep. I woke up with a headache, sore arms, and a painful thumb. Getting old sucks.

We’re vacationing in New Hampshire and staying close by Attitash Resort. Yesterday, I signed up for a two-hour private lesson for Đán and a group lesson for myself to learn snowboarding. Due to lack of coaches, my group lesson got canceled; therefore, I tagged along with Đán. We took a semi-private lesson together.

For two hours, we learned how to turn using our heels and toes and then connect them together to zig zag across the slope. Our coach told us that snowboarding was a bit harder to learn than skiing. Once you got over the learning curve, snowboarding would be less than skiing.

I started out with my dominant right foot, but I kept leaning back to my left foot; therefore, my board didn’t move and it turned in the direction that I didn’t want to turn. I tried switching my feet. As I stepped on the magic carpet with my left foot, I lost balance and fell. I landed my left hand on the belt and bruised my thumb.

After our lesson, Đán went up to the green slope with Đạo, who stuck with skiing. Đán fell several times and managed to snowboard down the slope. I stayed at the magic carpet and worked on my turns. In the afternoon, I joined Đạo and Đán on the green slope. I fell all the way down. I tried it one more time and fell even harder. I felt the impact afterward. My whole body was aching. My thumb was swollen and painful every time I wiggled it.

I am not so sure about snowboarding. My lack of sleep the night before put a toll on my ability to learn. I found strapping my left boot on the binding every single time I went down the slope and unstrapping it to get on the lift to be annoying. I had to sit my ass on the snow and pulled the board closer to strap in. With my swollen left thumb, it was painful to strap in.

I am glad Đán took up snowboarding. With his confidence and fearlessness, he successfully went into the dark side. I am going to stick with skiing and to develop more skills for this season.

Last night, my classmates and I took our ice skating test for Freestyle 2. Our coach graded our skills using the pass-or-fail system instead of the 1-10 scale. I passed the jump sequence, ballet jump, and half-lutz jump. She didn’t test us on the dance step sequence and the edged spirals. To the coach, as well as mine, surprise, I pulled off the one-foot spin. It was like a miracle because I had been struggling with it throughout our 10-week lesson. I could barely spin for 3 revolutions, let alone meet the requirement of six revolutions. Even earlier today, I couldn’t get my spin together during practice. Somehow I found my groove during the test.

I can now relax a bit for the holidays. Learning ice skating had been quite stressful at this level and I just wanted to learn for fun; therefore, I decided to stop after Freestyle 2. The techniques were becoming more challenging and I would need more time to practice. Unfortunately, my kids are no longer interested in ice skating. Đạo and Đán are learning ice hockey. Xuân is still taking figure lessons, but his heart is not in it. He hadn’t practiced and he couldn’t do the techniques at his level.

I don’t see the point for me to continue if my kids are not doing it. I felt guilty going to practice by myself while the kids stayed home with their mom. She had also been complaining about me going to practice. In addition, I have trouble spinning. I have all the excuses and legitimate reasons to quit. So yes, this is the end of my figure skate learning journey for me. I am glad I have made it this far. It was a wonderful experience.

Back in June, I attempted to drop in from the highest ramp at the Wakefield skatepark. I fell backward and hit my head on the ground. The impact cracked my helmet and had me blacked out for a few minutes. After that incident, I would never go near that ramp again.

Last month, I switched from the Zetrablade (by Rollerblade) to the Flying Eagle Enkidu aggressive skates and I felt more confidence dropping in since the Flying Eagle is much more stable. This afternoon, I revisited the ramp and faced my fear again. From the top looking down, the height and the curve were still intimidating. What would happen if I fell? Since I won’t have ice skating class next Thursday, I would still have two weeks to recover. I didn’t have much to lose.

As soon as I stepped my left foot on the coping, I knew I could not back out. With a bit less hesitation and a bit more confidence, I went for it. Thanks goodness, I made it through without breaking my bones or blacking out again. Having the right skates helped tremendously. I had a much better control with the Flying Eagle Enkidu aggressive skates.

I felt rejuvenated after making this small accomplishment. It proved that I can still keep myself challenged. When I first started out, I never thought I could do this one day. I still believe determination and practice paid off. I am old now and I have to take this aggressive sport much more careful than the youngsters. My second son, Đán, is so natural at aggressive skating. He can drop in with ease, but I am glad that he is also being cautious. He wouldn’t do it unless I would’t go first. If I could do it, he knew he could do it. I knew all along he could do it, but he wanted me to go first. Of course after I did, he dropped in successfully. As a father, I have to pave the way. Why not? I rather put myself at risk first than putting him at risk first. Then again, if he went first and succeeded, I might just chicken out.

Đạo took his Freestyle 1 test tonight. He did well on the pivot, backward edges, half flip, and waltz jump. He didn’t do too well on two-foot spin and arabesque. I was surprised that he pulled it off with not much practice. If he would spend more time practicing, he could be a great figure skater. I am not sure if he would like to continue to Freestyle 2 or he should just focus on ice hockey.

He started learning to play hockey two weeks ago and he really liked it. His figure skating lessons helped him tremendously in making the transition from figure to hockey. I am not sure if hockey is a bit too aggressive for him. He seems a bit reserved when they played the game, but he enjoyed it.

Đán is more of the hockey type. He has the speed and he is not afraid to attack. He still needs to work on his hockey skills, particularly on controlling the puck with his stick. Once he got that down, he would be a top player. I might sign him up for private lessons to work on his shooting and controlling skills.

Đán excels at rollerskating at the skate parks. His fearlessness is taking him far. He can jump and drop into the bowls with ease. He can also ride the sides of the bowl. He has definitely surpassed me. I ordered a pair of USD Transformer for him for his birthday. It’s an aggressive skate for kids. I can’t wait to see what he can do with it.

We had been hitting the skate park almost everyday now because of Xuân. He is stepping up his game with his scooter. He can drop the from the quarter pipe and higher curved ramp as well. He dropped into the bowl too. At school, he drew a picture of me and him at the skate park. I love that drawing even though I have a bald head, fat figure, and two stick arms. The rollerblade looked good though.

The more Xuân is interested in skate park, the less he is interested in the ice rink. He doesn’t want to practice and he doesn’t want to take lessons either. We won’t continue him on the next level.

As for me, I wanted to learn so much. My days have revolved around skating. At work I would eat lunch quickly and hit the skate park for forty five minutes. At home, I try to find time to get to the ice rink when the kids and I aren’t at the skate park. I am learning to pump to get myself out of the bowl or the half pipe. Technically, I should have learned how to pump first before I learned how to drop in, but I did it in reverse. Now I need to learn how to pump and how to ride the pipe.

For ice skating, I have learned all the techniques for Freestyle 2. I am still struggling with the one-foot spin because I get dizzy any more than three revolutions. I will required to do six for the test. Because how terrible my spins are, I don’t think I will advance to Freestyle 3 after this. I’ll learn on my own and focus more on the jumps.

As the winter coming, the kids are already geared up for skiing. We rented seasonal skis for Đạo and Xuân and snowboard for Đán because he wanted to try snowboarding. They ran out of rentals for adults; therefore, I am still trying to buy used ski or snowboard. I am leaning toward snowboarding as well.

Poor little Vương will be spending time with his mom instead. He doesn’t want to do anything yet. I am trying to get him try the scooter like Xuân. He seems to like it. He is still too young. He still has plenty of time to try later. I just feel bad that I don’t get to take him out much with the rest of his brothers.

Xuân didn’t do too well on his ice skating test last week. He struggled with backward crossover and T-stop on his left foot. These two foundation skills are very important for him later on. Unfortunately, he didn’t want to practice. He passed Beta, but doesn’t want to take any more lessons. He wants to learn to play hockey like his brother Đán instead.

Before he could start hockey, I want him to take one more skating class. He will learn the mohawks and 3-turns in Gamma, which will help him with hockey. He agreed to take one more class. Next year, I will enroll him in the Future Caps Learn to Play program so that he can get all the gears and skates for free, which would cost $1,000.

Đán will finish up his Learn to Play Hockey 3 this Saturday. He seems to enjoy it. He will start level 4 next Monday. After that, we will be eligible to join a hockey team. I am not sure if I want to drop $1,600 for him to play on a team. I am sure my wife wouldn’t mind.

Đạo will finish up his Freestyle 1 in two weeks. He doesn’t seem to enjoy figure skates as much as he used to. He is not sure if he wants to take Freestyle 2, but he wants to give hockey a try. I enrolled him into Learn to Play Hockey level 3 and he will start next Monday at the same time as Đán. They just won’t be in the same class.

For me, I am still struggling with one-foot spin. Yesterday, I went to practice, but I could barely do the dance and jump sequences. The rink was a bit crowded. My mind was not in it because I didn’t sleep much the night before. I don’t think I will go to Freestyle 3.

My wife has purchased skiing season passes for Đạo, Đán, Xuân, and me. Đạo and Đán, in particular, are happy and looking forward to skiing. I am grateful, but also feeling guilty. With season passes, we will most likely spend our weekends skiing and less time tidying up the house. As much as I would love to go skiing with the kids, I dread not taking care of things around the house. I asked my wife to see if she could cancel the passes.