OCR Text |
Show ! Sun Advocate Price, Utah Tuesday December 31, 2002 9A Skiing adventures of an old publisher (Continued from page 4A) which protected my feet but also prevented blood from traveling below my shins. Although I have never taken a ski lesson it is recommended and the ski instructors haven't changed much in 25 I years. member my wife's first lesson was from a young 19 year old named Chip. He took her group to the top of the mountain and explained the basic ski safety procedures. He made sure he and the students stood there long enough until he felt that the cold had killed enough of their brain cells that re- they would cheerfully follow what- ever lunatic command he yelled out. Then he skied a short distance down the mountain, just to the point where it got very steep, and swished to a graceful stop, making it look easy. After Chip stepped and turned to the group he ordered the students to copy wliat he did. This was the fun part Woodland creatures often woke up from hibernation just to watch this part of the new skiers education because even they understood that the law of physics doesn't permit a person to simply stop on mounthe side of a tain if his feet are encased in snow-cover- ed bowling balls. Nevertheless, one by one the students obeyed Chip's command and cautiously pushed themselves forward, and then, making unusual throat sounds, they passed Chip at high rates of speed and proceeded into the woods. "That was good," shouted Chip, as the students staggered out from under the trees with branches sticking out, antler-lik- e from their foreheads. Eventually people get better at this sport. If they stick to the lessons they become intermediate skiers, which means that they fall before they get to the woods. The correct stance is an essential part of skiing. Your knees should be flexed, but weak and shaking Your ankles slightly. should be bent and wobbly, Your feet should be slightly apart and quivering noticeably in your boots. Your arms should be straight and covered with a good layer of goose flesh. Your hands should be forward, palms clammy, knuckles white and fingers icy. Ybur upper body should be upright and swaying nervously from side to side. Your head should be up, eyes crossed slightly and darting in all directions watching for out of control snow boarders. Your mouth should be open, lips quivering and you should be mumbling audibly, "No, No, nooooooooooo." By now you're half way down the first hill, going 60 miles an hour, completely out of control and youre racking your brain on to how to stop. Your options are few. There's always the choice of falling but you'd be dead. There's the trees, but you've been there and that's no fun wearing those branches, and then you think of Chip and that maneuver he called traversing. That is the method of slowing down or controlling your speed by angling back and forth across the slope. swished by, yelling, "Are you okay dad?" Part of me was proud of him for how well he was doing, but I have to admit that there was a part of me that wanted to trip him. I have learned a few things over the years and was pleased that I never forgot them this year. I do not follow my kids, no matter how easy they tell me the trail will be. I have learned that I don't need to wear fashionable pink and green jackets and I have learned to enjoy the hot chocolate between runs. Skiing has changed over the years and so have 1. have a lot to be thankful for. Mostly that after coming back from one of these trips I can return to work without Owens was the genuine article really did not know much of what he had been doing since then. (Continued trxxn page 4A) for the letters and phone calls about issues to come pouring in, he went out and looked for what the people thought He was open to new ideas and I found that he often changed his mind when ernor. have to ask why, since I heard of his death early last week, I have felt such a loss. It's not that I was a close friend of anything. It think it is for two reasons. Fust Owens was a ml person, not like so many of the politicians of today who seem to ony owe allegiance to big companies and big So people made valid points about issues, even though his decidedly liberal stance would seem to support a different point of view. I money. His humble beginnings as one of nine kids from Panguitch made him that way. I still think he Since 1974, had never seen him again up dose. I saw him on television a number of times, and of course voted for him when he ran and won for congress again in 1 would have made a great governor, kind of a second Cal Rampton, but I guess we will never know now. also watched as he was defeated in his bid for gov the late 1980's. I I Second, when he died lost part I of youth. Teenagers and. young people in the late 60's anil early 70s needed someone they could grab onto and trust in politics. It seemed we had few to turn to. LBJ had discounted himself as a liar and a cheat Nixon said he was not a crook, but he was. The only Kennedy left seemed to always have poor judgment about almost everything he did. I know I had bo-co- cynical and untrusting. Owens brought back some of that trust for me, and later Scott Matheson reinforced that trust more. are both gone and it is a sad thing for the state of Utah. Now they anything broken. only broke my leg once while skiing. It was back in the late I 1980's. I know rumor had it that I fell off the bar stool but I have witnesses that I was actually skiing. Conditions had been perfect that morning. It was 12 degrees below zero, all feeling had left my toes and my body was basically numb as I was riding alone up the mountain on a chair lift About tiiis time a woman came screaming out of the forest backwards with no poles and her white ski pants down around her ankles. Not believing what I had just seen I must have leaned over to get a better look and I flew out of the lift, landed on my left leg and shattered it Somehow my friends still don't believe this story and I have to admit it's a hard one to believe. I still remember 20 years ago when my youngest son was five and we were skiing together. I was way younger back then (well at least 20 years) and a much better skier. I had an awful wipe out. My poles were 20 feet up the All-w-c&H- Buffets -&t Lunch Buffet 11:O0am-2:OOp- Monday-Frida- y, Seafood Buffet Sat. Night Buffet Every Friday, 4:30pm-0:O0p- Every Saturday, Duffete available m m 4:30pm-3:00p- to - m J go Albertsons Center (435) mountain and my skis had slid 10 feet below me. I was trying to figure out how I was going to get everything together again. Then, out of no where, looking like a masked bandit, a five-yeold, the down flashing effortlessly from no ear slope, poles, smiling to ear, as he lunged toward me, 613-113- 1 M-- Th & ar 11am-9p- Sat 11am-9:30p- Fri m, m Closed Sunday stores'll cata oglE .co I mmm ONE DAYONLYiSPECIAUHONE BRA BY DELICATESMHH ENTIRE DAY.ONLYXSPECIAL STOCK JUNIORS BASIC DENIM JEANS 7 ARIZONAJEA 99 THEKIDS'&YOURHOME! Sale! 4 On , : - ONEDAYNLYPECIAL! !&$ RIGID TWILt KHAKIS prtw Mm 010103 art QttnUmioHd. Mi noHN WMlMi ONEDAYiONLY1SPECIAL! MISSESDOCKERSfl ENTIRE STOCK gas Pfttgw rtngrirpitai 8MC80Q M, Wy lOnl 0M ENTIRE STOCK MENS FALr& WINTER aa ororigM prtew. mimm. XrRMy Non B MM i OUTERWEAR kAmw,omi mm pMg oft Ikgukr n) OH p1rrtrt ofM'gprtcHirt my MImm |