The next morning, Chu Yinlong took Jiang Dao to the slopes to teach him how to snowboard.
In the script, the character Jiang Dao uses a snowboard, which is harder to learn than skiing.
Fortunately, Chu Yinlong is good at snowboarding. In addition, it is the only extreme sport that Jiang Dao has come into contact with recently that can be taught without a coaching certificate.
After putting on their helmets and protective gear, Chu Yinlong helped Jiang Dao step into the snowboard and familiarize him with the movements on flat ground.
“Bend your legs a little bit, lower your center of gravity… you don’t need to be so low.” Chu Yinlong held Jiang Dao’s hand and taught him patiently. “Don’t sit back, you will fall…”
Before he finished speaking, Jiang Dao’s body slumped backwards uncontrollably, almost pulling Chu Yinlong down.
“Stand up,” Chu Yinlong smiled helplessly. “Your left foot is not fixed right now, you can detach from the board at any time. If you are about to fall, remember to protect yourself.”
Jiang Dao blinked: “Isn’t there you to protect me?”
Chu Yinlong laughed: “I should let you fall on the ground so you remember pain, and learn the essentials quickly.”
Although Jiang Dao has no foundation for snow sports and has never skateboarded, he has excellent physical fitness and good coordination. From unfamiliar movements to several basic movements to stopping with one foot, it took him less than half an hour to master the essentials.
After receiving the affirmation and praise from Chu Yinlong, Jiang Dao was immediately excited: “Then can we go uphill next?”
He had been watching the people on the slopes for a long time.
Helpless, Chu Yinlong raised his hand and tapped Jiang Dao’s helmet lightly. “Let’s go, I’ll teach you to go uphill first.”
Standing on one leg may seem complicated, but in fact the principle is very simple – remove the binding of one foot, carry the board with the other foot, stand the board up, touch the snow with the more resistant side, and walk slowly to the top of the slope.
After one trip, Jiang Dao completely mastered the action.
The two stood on the top of the gentlest slope in the novice area of the ski resort. Chu Yinlong stepped on the snowboard with one foot and said, “Before starting the gentle slope, you must first learn how to fall safely.”
Snow sports test the limits of human speed. It is very easy for beginners to fall, and because the snowboard is fixed on the foot, once someone falls incorrectly, they can be seriously injured.
From the moment Jiang Dao saw the snowboard, he knew that controlling the fall is particularly important.
“Your feet are fixed on the board. Once the head of the board is inserted into the snow, falling is very dangerous.” Jiang Dao fully understood. “When both feet are fixed, you may end up somersaulting, and can even break your neck.”
“Yes, we call that situation ‘stuck in snow’, it’s very dangerous. Therefore, once you find that the situation is uncontrollable, you should take the initiative to fall safely and avoid accidental jamming.”
Chu Yinlong made a demonstration of how to fall as he spoke.
“You can fall in two directions, and it is safer to fall forward. Note that when falling to the ground, do not use your hands as support. Bend your arms as a buffer, lie down on your whole body, and hook your knees to lift the snowboard off the ground.”
Jiang Dao followed his example and threw himself forward on the snow without any timidity.
“If you fall backwards, don’t support yourself with your hands.” Chu Yinlong freed the snowboard, stood up, and fell back to the ground again, explaining, “Try not to land on your butt. Instead, dip your head forward, hold your chest with your hands like hugging yourself, arch your back, and use your waist and hips to your back to cushion the landing. Also remember to lift your feet to let the board leave the ground… When the speed is too fast, you can also try to roll and slow down.”
“This movement is a bit difficult.” Jiang Dao repeated the action. “One’s subconscious reaction will be to stretch out their hand to support themselves.”
Chu Yinlong nodded and said with a smile. “Once you break your arm twice, you will remember.”
Jiang Dao: …
“Okay, I think you’ve grasped the essentials.” Chu Yinlong stretched out his hand and pulled Jiang Dao up. “You can’t learn if you don’t practice. Start with the gentle slopes and straight slides. Only if you fall in the middle a few times will you remember.”
Jiang Dao was impatient to repeat the basics over and over again. Chu Yinlong also understood that with Jiang Dao’s physical fitness and talent for extreme sports, it’s better to take him uphill than practice over and over again on flat ground. He can learn everything from falling and stopping in the process.
Sure enough, as soon as Jiang Dao stepped on the snowboard, problems came up–
“Lean forward, not backward.” Chu Yinlong slid down beside Jiang Dao and verbally corrected his actions, “Lean ahead, don’t move back. Don’t be afraid to line your shoulders parallel with the slope, so that you won’t… Look, you fell?”
When people stand on the slope, they subconsciously want to “stand straight”, but unfortunately, snowboarding requires the body to be as close to the slope as possible. It makes one feel like they’re falling forward which is very counterintuitive.
Fortunately, after falling once, Jiang Dao immediately understood, and moved his center of gravity forward with confidence and boldly the second time to complete the simplest straight-line glide.
Stopping on the flat ground at the end of the ramp, Jiang Dao was triumphant: “It’s so easy? Isn’t there something more difficult?”
Chu Yinlong raised his eyebrows. “Then try not to slide to the end next time, and stop in the middle of the slope?”
Jiang Dao thought about the process of sliding down from the top of the slope – he’s basically in a state of continuous acceleration, until reaching the end of the slope where he decelerated gradually. However, inertia pulled him forward for a long time, until he finally stopped by pulling Chu Yinlong’s arm.
Stopping halfway up the mountain is indeed difficult.
“How to stop?” Jiang Dao asked suspiciously. His intuition told him that Chu Yinlong was digging a hole for him.
“Hold steady with one food. On this kind of gentle slope, there are two ways to brake. One is to turn the board across, similar to when you were climbing up on one edge.” Chu Yinlong instructed verbally. “The other is to use your free foot and brake.”
“Why do I think you haven’t finished your sentence?” Jiang Dao squinted at him. “Are you trying to laugh at me?”
Chu Yinlong smiled: “Don’t you think it’s too straight and easy and want a challenge?”
Anyway, this is just the gentlest ramp, and with Jiang Dao’s flexibility, there isn’t much danger. Besides, with him here, he won’t really hurt Jiang Dao – he just wants to play a small trick after seeing the smugness on his face.
After climbing to the top of the slope again, the two began to slide down.
“Brake.” Chu Yinlong shouted.
Jiang Dao decided to try to use the unfixed foot to assist the brake first, so he raised his left foot and stepped on the snow, trying to slow himself down, and as a result –
— he directly did the splits on the slope.
“Damn it!” Jiang Dao fell to the ground, and glared at Chu Yinlong, “I knew you were hiding something! Fortunately, I’m flexible…”
Chu Yinlong guided his board and stopped beside Jiang Dao, smiling. “You were the one who wanted a challenge.”
After speaking, he stretched out his hand to help him up. “Figured it out yet?”
“Figure what out?” Jiang Dao patted the snow off his body and then lightly punched Chu Yinlong on the shoulder. “I think you are bullshitting, and lied about using the unfixed foot to assist in braking.”
“I didn’t lie to you.” Chu Yinlong spread his hands. “Who told you to use that foot directly in the snow? You have to step on the board with the soles of your forefoot, and use your heel to help decelerate until you stop. Otherwise, your left foot will stop, and your right foot will still slide down.”
Sometimes the truth is very simple, but will feel very difficult if you don’t think about it.”
After Chu Yinlong’s explanation, Jiang Dao immediately understood. He got up and started to slide down again. Halfway through the middle, he successfully stopped using his unfixed left foot.
However, it is clear that this type of braking can only be used in single-footed slides, and can only work on gentle slopes. In the future, when both feet are fixed and when siding down steeper slopes, this braking method is obviously unusable.
“So, you must learn to brake horizontally.” Chu Yinlong adjusted the direction of his snowboard and slid down a bit. Suddenly he pressed his foot hard, the board rotated instantaneously, blowing up a wave of snow, and stopped.
Jiang Dao imitated him, but as a result… he fell to the ground and almost ate a mouthful of snow.
In the second attempt, Jiang Dao sat down on the snow slope again. He subconsciously lifted his feet, and as a result, he was covered in snow.
The third time, Jiang Dao successfully braked, stood there wobbling for a moment, then made a victory gesture to Chu Yinlong.
“Yes, you learned very quickly.” Chu Yinlong boasted. “The next step is to learn how to turn, and practice it. After your movements are fluid you can learn how to snowboard with both feet.”
On a gentle slope, the speed is controlled by one’s center of gravity and the direction of the snowboard. Turning is controlled by the direction the body leans towards, and is also something that often causes people to fall.
Chu Yinlong didn’t joke with Jiang Dao this time. He took off his snowboard, stood on the top of the slope while holding Jiang Dao’s hand, to get him familiar with the feeling of turning.
“Pay attention to your center of gravity.”
“Keep your upper body upright, and don’t stick out your butt.”
“Slow down, slow down, slow down! Hey, hey!”
Jiang Dao didn’t stabilize, and knocked Chu Yingdi down and pressed him into the snow.
Chu Yinlong stretched out his hand and slapped him on the ass. “I told you to slow down!”
Jiang Dao smiled and said, “You didn’t slow down when I told you to slow down last night!”
Chu Yinlong: …
Someone saw the two of them lying on the slopes for a long time and was worried they were injured. A staff member patrolling the VIP area ran up to the two and asked: “Do you need help?”
After asking, he was stunned on the spot.
With outsiders around, Jiang Dao stopped making trouble, and quickly got up.
Chu Yinlong couldn’t understand the language of country F, but he could speak the language of A, and replied with a smile, “We’re fine, thank you.”
The staff nodded with a smile and turned to leave.
Jiang Dao looked at her back and had some doubts: “He looks Chinese?”
Chu Yinlong smiled and said, “There are a lot of Chinese overseas in country F, it’s normal to see them. Let’s go have lunch first, and come back to practice more in the afternoon.”
In the end, Jiang Dao did not try to challenge the intermediate snow slopes on his first day, but practiced basic movements on the beginner slopes. He struggled for a while to get the braking and turning movements, and was finally somewhat proficient by the end.
It’s just that Chu Yinlong was right in saying one thing – snowboarding is learned with butt.
In the evening, Jiang Dao lay on the bed after a shower, feeling pain all over his body, especially his behind.
Chu Yinlong was also very helpless. “I told you to practice and then rest for a while, but you don’t listen. Now you know it hurts?”
“It didn’t feel like it before. The clothes were so thick that it didn’t hurt when I fell.” Even if he isn’t squeamish, Jiang Dao can’t help acting in front of Chu Yinlong, “I only found out after I came back… Can you rub it for me?”
Kneading and rubbing, Jiang Dao’s hands began to do bad things.
Chu Yinlong held his wrist up ruthlessly: “Tsk, you still want to hurt more, don’t you?”
Jiang Dao smirked at him: “That’s right!”
Hm, not sure if the author has skiied/snowboarded. A lot of people say snowboarding is easier (if they’re physically coordinated) 🤷♂️
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