Introduction to Snowboarding cont'd

  So, you've got your board, boots, and bindings, and you think you're ready to hit the slopes!  Well, think again city dweller!  Apart from the  fact that snowboarding is difficult to learn and you can  expect to spend at least a few days racking up bumps and bruises before you start to get the hang of it, you're going to need some warm clothing.

It is even less fun to stumble, fall and twist if you're miserable from being cold and wet.  A big mistake for first timers is that they do not take this into account.  They don't want to try a second time because they were freezing cold and wet. Remember snow is after all frozen water!

What will you want/need to stay warm and dry?
1.  Snow pants (waterproof and insulated)
2.  Ski/Snowboard Jacket (waterproof and insulated)
3.  Thermal/Synthetic undergarments (breathable and synthetic fabric)
4.  Ski Socks (a must for your toes!)
5.  Warm gloves/mittens (preferably waterproof)

If your pants and/or jacket are not insulated, that is OK. It means you will have to wear extra layers underneath.  Synthetic fleece is a great layering choice, top or bottom.  Below are my pants and jackets.  The pants and jacket on the left are not insulated, so I primarily wear them late in the snowboarding season when the weather warms up.

 Vocabulary:
1. dweller (noun) - a person who lives someplace or stays one place for a long time
2. miserable (adjective) - extremely unhappy or very sad
3. freezing (adj.) - very cold, or literally turning from a liquid to a solid- like water to ice
4. insulated (adj.) - filled with or covered in something to effect temperature- ie. to keep something warm
5. synthetic (adj.) - a man-made version of something  or chemically created substances like plastics

Activity:  Answer the following questions.  Please write your answers in English.
1.  Why do you want good snow pants if you're going to try snowboarding?
2.  Do you think having warm clothes is important for you?
3.  How does where you live effect you answer to question 2?
4.  If you want to snowboard how will that change your thinking?

Grammar point:  series

 Look at the first sentence of today's post.  I have some words in blue.  They are three items I am discussing as well as the conjunction and.  When you write about more than two items and you are listing them one after another you must place a comma after each one except the last.  You use the conjunctions 'and' or 'or' only before the last item, no matter how many there are.  If I were to talk about many of the Seven Dwarfs (or dwarves?) from the Disney Movie, Snow White it might look like this:  Sleepy, Grumpy, Dopey, and Franky all went looking for firewood.