Where it all Began

My cousin Holly was always my favorite person in the world when I was younger. She was the coolest person in the world too. She skateboarded, and as a young boy. There was nothing cooler than skateboarding to me. As I grew and moved and saw her less, I tried to get into skateboarding but I wasn’t any good and I didn’t have anyone to teach me. But I carried the love and respect for boarding culture with me through most of my life. As a child my dad had bought me a board that was a great board for any 4 year old who wasn’t going to go down any mountains. A nice plastic board with bindings that you could strap any pair of child winterboots into, no wax, no edge, perfect for riding down 3 foot hills outside of our apartments. (they felt 

way more massive than that at the time!) We never actually went to any mountains or resorts, and the few times we did, it was pretty expensive just to visit them for a large family living on a single income. So lift tickets and rentals were never a part of the picture for me. My childhood snowboarding experience mostly amounted to trying to stand up on sleds without holding ropes and trying my best not to fall down as we slid down the hills. As I continued to grow, I started meeting people more and more frequently that were a part of the boarding culture, one of my first infatuations with women was a girl who had talked about snowboarding like it was just apart of her life for forever, I didn’t have that same experience in life but god did i want it. One of my best friends also was an avid snowboarder, he’d show up to school with his new jackets, or helmet, and lift tags still attached from the last trip or season. “This one was 400 dollars!” … a 400 dollar snowboarding coat? Mine was like an 80 dollar coat that’s gotta last me another 4 years. Despite that I could feel the mountains calling my name. It wasn’t something I got around to doing till later in life. I’m talking my 30s. 30 to be exact. See, after school, I found substances and we don’t need to get into the nitty gritty of all of that. But they become more important to me than anything else. So boarding got put waaaay back on the back burner, for the love of boarding to be rediscovered some other day. Sometimes during the 2023-2024 season I said to my friends and coworkers, let’s go snowboarding, and they’d get excited about it, “hell yea” or things along that nature were always said but there was never any follow through, we never went. I can’t remember if it was after or before I got sober…. But sometime in 2024 I had a friend who I would see her snapchats of her snowboarding all the time. So I shot her a message, something along the lines of “That’s so cool and looks so fun! I’ve always wanted to try it.” It took no time at all for her to set up my first snowboarding experience. I got to the mountain 30 minutes before they closed, she let me try out one of her boards, and I dislocated my shoulder on the bunny hill. As she turned to talk to her son i was rotating and raising my shoulder whispering and thinking to myself “dont cry dont cry dont cry”

Later that year, before the 24/25 season  had started, that same friend gave me my first snowboard and had taken me snowboarding my first time that season as well. A different buddy had gotten me off the bunny hill and on a lift during a different trip. Sometime within the first month of that season I tore my tricep and my meniscus in my knee. I took some time off for most of the reminder of that season just to get back into it towards the very end of the season. Enough to get one or two more trips in briefly. My third season, the 25/26 season, I made the most progress. Day one of the season for me was supposed to be my buddy and I. He didn’t make it and I was on a new mountain by myself on my birthday. A complete stranger told me what lifts I should look at, and he even covered my fake beer tab (my name for N/A beers because it’s funny to me) . I didn’t go boarding with anyone but my youngest daughter that season. Maybe I’ll never be good enough to hit a double black diamond, or maybe not even just a single black diamond, maybe I will learn some secret from a pro and I go to get sponsored. I don’t know what the future holds. I don’t know where it will go. I guess for me, that’s part of what makes it exciting. It’s an adventure, and maybe it’ll be really great, or it could be a very poor experience, but that’s what makes it RAW. If you’re like me, somewhere in the world, you love adventure, travel, and experiences. Then maybe you’re in the right place. Maybe what you need is a little RAW Adventure too. But for now. The important thing is we are here. And we get to enjoy this experience.