[Preview] [Day One: The Injury]

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Well campers, here we are, day one of the Delaney Snowboard Camp in scenic Copper Mountain, Colorado. The day started off in a slopeside conference room where all the new campers, along with a few returning students, get to meet each other and our coaches for the next few days. Breakfast is served and videos describing the Delaney Core 4 teaching method are playing on a couple of TV screens as we sit at our tables and get to know each other. Kevin Delaney makes introductions and explains what we can expect over the course of the next three days...little could I know what would happen to me over the next hour.

"Okay, now this really sucks, this can't be happening. I haven't even gone 100 meters down from the lift and I injure myself?...."

After the meeting, we begin to split off into groups depending on our ability and experience. Having a season under my belt and a few good days this year, I'm put into the "Intermediate-Beginner" range. We all grab our gear, suit up, grab some complimentary Cliff Bars and sunscreen and head out. The group gathers just outside of the lodge to discuss the game plan and start off with a session of stretching. Proper stretching is stressed as being very important to help prevent injury. Especially considering the frigid conditions on the mountain today, we are warned to warm up those sleepy muscles.

The plan now is to do about two runs together as a group, then split off with the different coaches to focus on strengths and weaknesses, so off to the lifts we go. Those who don't feel very comfortable about getting off the lift are paired up with a coach to get additional instruction and assistance. Pick an object away from the lift and focus on that, your body tends to go where you are looking, so if you are looking at the ground in front of you, that is usually where you will wind up.

After getting off the lift, we convene once more to find out where our next rendezvous is, which happens to be about 100 meters down this blue run. A sweet little fresh corduroy groomer, with a gentle slope to let us all get our legs under us. We all take off down hill to meet at the next spot. I'm cruising along, remembering to stay low, keep my knees bent, one hand on either side of my board. Bam, frontside edge, no biggie, I'm still at the level where I usually slam down onto the slope a couple times a run, that's why I'm at camp after all isn't it.

But when I pop back up and start riding down to the group, that is when I feel that my left ankle feels more than a little funny, so I scrub my speed and drop down onto my butt. I take my boot out of the binding, maybe I just need to work it out a little bit, but that's when I realized that I did a little more than my usual face plant. I unbuckled and started to walk down the slope to where my group was, when one of the coaches saw me, he popped out of his board and ran up to me to see what was wrong. I explained to him what had happened, and before I knew it, he had the ski patrol over and they were checking me out.

Okay, now this really sucks, this can't be happening. I haven't even gone 100 meters down from the lift and I injure myself?!? This is what you think of as being the worst possible or most ironic way of starting out a snowboard camp. I insist that it can't be all that bad, after all, I popped right back up after falling and walked down to the other folks in the class. Couldn't I just walk back up to the lift and download? The ski patrol insists that I take the sled down, saying something about liability and that you can't be too careful. I reluctantly agree.

If you have never been in a sled, it is kind of a spooky experience. Your head is downhill, you are all strapped in and covered with vinyl and blankets which were partially over my head to keep the snow from blowing over my face. All in all it's rather unnerving to have so little control going upside down and backwards down a ski slope. I think it goes without saying I wouldn't recommend it. After the express ride to the lower patrol building, Anna and Neil, my two friendly patrollers, inspected my ankle and suggested that it might be sprained or worse, and that I should probably get it checked out at the clinic. I asked if I might give it a day and see how it feels, they said if that's what I want to do then elevate it and put ice on it.

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So I sit here in my hotel room looking through my thesaurus for synonyms of idiot. How about buffoon, dolt, jester, dunce, or blockhead, imbecile, numbskull, or oaf. My ankle, I never ever thought my ankle, I thought perhaps at some point my knee, but never an ankle. How on earth did a frontside edge on a run I would normally be tearing down, result in my twisting my ankle. Hopefully, the ice and Ibuprofen will do the trick and I will be able to be back tomorrow, but from looking at the grapefruit size of my ankle after writing this, who knows. Please keep your fingers crossed for me.

— Dave Ballantine, scared he'll never get sent anywhere again for MountainZone.com