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.

I woke up early today and headed over to Attitash to catch the 8:30 am opening. I got on the second chair. I snowboarded two runs on the green and one on the black trails. I tried carving. My heel line was looking good, but my toe line still needed work.

I went back to the rental house and we didn’t get out of the house around 10:15 am. I went to Wildcat Mountain. The crowd was less than I had expected. Wildcat brought back many memories. Four years ago when we first learned skiing, I couldn’t pizza down the blue terrain. I had to call the ski patrol to take me down on a toboggan. Đạo, Đán, and Xuân did the same. Now we all conquered the blue terrains.

I skied with Vương and wanted to use the poles. I went to the rental shop. The price to rent the poles was $12 for the whole day. I showed them my employee ID and they loaned me the poles. It was another fantastic employee connection.

The kids and I enjoyed the advanced terrains at Wildcat, but my wife and her sister couldn’t do much here. We’ll stay in Attitash tomorrow, but it will be raining all day tomorrow. We might just stay at the rental house to relax and recharge.

I woke up early this morning with some sadness. Four years ago today, my mother passed. I wrote her a letter in Vietnamese.

Around 7:45 am, I headed over to Attitash. As I was getting ready in the parking lot, I realized that I forgot my helmet. I didn’t want to turn back so I went to the rental shop. I told the man at the podium that I am an employee and I forgot my helmet. He loaned me one without any charge. He told me, “We take care of our employees.” Another benefit of being an employee at Vail Resorts.

I snowboarded on the big green trail practice carving. I was loving it. I took three runs and headed back around 9:30 am. The rest of the family was not done packing. We didn’t leave until 11:00 am.

The lift lines were long, but they moved fast. I skied with the younger kids. We did three runs and it was time for lunch. After lunch I went to the blue trails at the big kids. I had to keep up with them. They skied fast.

Another fanatic day in the book. I love skiing and snowboarding.

Last night, I had a Long Island Iced Tea with Thai food. Lacking of sleep the night before with a long day skiing and a bit of alcohol, I got knocked out. It was a good sleep.

I woke up early this morning, wrote up a blog post, and waited for the rest, including my wife’s sister’s family. It was almost 10 am and not too many of them were up yet. I decided to go for a few runs since Attitash is about 5 minutes from our rental house.

The lines were already long when I arrived. I took the green slope trying to carve on my snowboard. I wanted to see if I could go low where I could touch the snow. I did one turn at a time. I was getting a hang of it. I wanted to practice more runs, but the lines were too long.

I hopped on a different lift, which had no line. It turned out that the blue trail was quite icy. I fell several times. By the time I got down, it was time to go back to pick up the family.

The line got longer. I went with Xuân and his cousins for two runs. They got tired of waiting in line so we went in for a late lunch. We took an hour and 40 minutes lunch. By the time we were done, the lifts were closed.

It was time to go home. I’ll head out before 8 am by myself early tomorrow for a few runs.

I read 62 books this year, which is 30 less than last year.

In 2023, I read mostly poetry books. This year, I went back to fiction, nonfiction, and a few design and technical. I should be reading more web design and development books. I also read Vietnamese fiction. I have over 30 Vietnamese books on my iPhone; therefore, I can alternate between English and Vietnamese.

I read some books on buddhism, which I liked. I want to read more on life, death, compassion, kindness, and all the buddha teachings. I also want to read music books again, especially on jazz and hip-hop. I am in the middle of reading a book on Miles Davis, John Coltrane, and Bill Evans.

With the skiing and snowboarding activities, reading has not been my top priority. I definitely pick up reading again after the holidays and ski season.

Check out my reading record.

At 11:00 pm on Wednesday, we hit the road from Virginia to New Hampshire. The kids were sleeping. My wife and I took turns driving. We arrived at Attitash around 9:30 am. I was expecting to take 12 to 14 hours, but we made it in 10.5 hours.

We had brunch then hit the trails. I skied with Vương and my wife on the green trails at Attitash Peak while Đạo, Đán, and Xuân went to Bear Peak. We had a late lunch. I joined the older boys on Bear Peak. Unfortunately, the lift stopped working. We waited 20 minutes and had to take the shuttle back to Attitash base.

Needless to say, I am exhausted and sleepy. I am going to need a nice sleep to recharge. We’ll be skiing and riding at Attitash and Wildcat for a week.

Snowboard Technical Fundamentals

1. Control the relationship of the Center of Mass (COM) to the Base of Support (BOS) to direct pressure along the length of the board
2. Control the relationship of the COM to the BOS to direct pressure across the width of the board
3. Regulate the magnitude of pressure created through board/surface interaction
4. Control the board’s tilt through a combination of inclination and angulation
5. Control the board’s pivot through flexion/extension and rotation of the upper body
6. Control the twist (torsional flex) of the board through flexion/extension and rotation

Teaching Skills Fundamentals

1. Collaborate on long term goals and short-term objectives
2. Manage information, activities, terrain selection, and pacing
3. Promote play, experimentation, and exploration
4. Facilitate the learner’s ability to reflect upon experiences and sensations
5. Adapt to the changing needs of the learner
6. Manage emotional and physical risk

People Skills Fundamentals

1. Develop relationships based on trust
2. Engage in meaningful, two-way communication
3. Identify, understand and manage your emotions and actions
4. Recognize and influence the behaviors, motivations and emotions of others

Vũ Nguyễn writes:

Please remove what you wrote about nhạc sến being cheesy. Obviously you don’t truly enjoy it. If you want cheesy then take a look in the mirror.

To be honest, I can’t remember what I had written about Nhạc Sến. This is the only post that I could find about Nhạc Sến and “cheesy.” Reading it again, I did not knock on Nhạc Sến. Anyway, I am not going to remove what I had written.

First Time Snowboarders

Level 1: “I’ve never snowboarded.” –Green Zone Snowboarder

Level 2: “I have experienced sliding, traversing both directions, and stopping.” –Easiest green terrain

Level 3: “I can control my speed while moving across the hill, and can stop with confidence. I am starting to turn in both directions.” -Green terrain

Level 4: “I can link skidded turns on green terrain.” –All green terrain

Blue Zone Snowboarders

Level 5: “I am confident and can connect different turn sizes and shapes on all green terrain. I make more or less the same size and shape turn on easy blue terrain.” –All green terrain and easiest blue terrain

Level 6: “I am doing most blue terrain by connecting various turn sizes and shapes. I am also exploring switch riding, easy bumps, and/or freestyle.” –All blue terrain

Level 7: “I am able to ride all blue terrain in varied conditions and working on easy black terrain, including bumps, trees, and terrain parks.” –All blue terrain and groomed black terrain

Black/Expert Zone Snowboarders

Level 8: “I am confident performing dynamic turns on varied terrain and snow conditions, including trees, steeps and powder.” -All black and easy double blacks terrain

Level 9: “I am confident riding the entire mountain. I am working on a variety of tactics and techniques that will take me to the next level.” –Entire mountain, all conditions

For my third shadow, I observed an instructor teaching 7 to 9 year-old kids to snowboard. He went off the curriculum. It was tough teaching kids. They caught an edge and fell over and over again. By the end of the lesson, they couldn’t do a J turn.

In the afternoon, I decided to take the test to get it done and over with before I take a week off for vacation. I bombed the test because I changed the order of the curriculum and added a few things. I have to do another shadow with my supervisor before I could take a retest.