iRide
Zaskoda’s Snowboarding Journal

Few things have taught me the value and strength of faith more than snowboarding. I believe that the lesson can be applied to just about any part of life. Please, indulge me for just a moment.

First, I’m not talking about religious faith. I’m not talking about blind faith. The faith I’m talking about could also be called confidence; I’m talking about faith in yourself and faith in the moment.

Rarely do I ever go snowboarding and not feel fear. Maybe that’s what makes any given sport “extreme”? When I’m challenging myself as a snowboarder, I’m constantly putting myself into situations where a mistake can mean pain. In some cases, a mistake could also mean death. Being aware of this risk and remembering the pain of all my past mistakes feeds my fear.

Many of my mistakes happen because I did not know what to do in a new situation. These mistakes can not be helped. More often, my mistakes happen because I let fear control me. Fear of leaning down the mountain causes me to lean too far back and then I catch an edge and fall. Fear of going too fast causes me to cut too hard into the mountain and then I hit a bump and lose my balance. Fear of falling causes me to imagine myself falling - and then I fall.

Snowboarding, like so many other things in life, is about owning one’s fear. Every day I go ride, I grow. My greatest joy comes when I overcome my fear and have faith in my own ability to ride through the moment. I find that this becomes a series of moments, one after another, where I’m not concerned about past or future - only the now. Furthermore, I find that when I have removed all doubt and fear from my awareness and am left with only faith and confidence, I also find myself at peace. It’s at these times when I ride my best.

Snowboarding also taught me that fear is always on the move. What scared me before, once conquered, likely won’t scared me again. However, as I continue to explore, I find that fear is never far away. The process of growing and improving as a rider means finding and conquering fear over and over.

I’ve observed this paradigm directly in other extreme sports such as slacklining, mountain biking, surfing, rock climbing, and even scuba diving. Sometimes the paradigm shifts, but the fundamentals are there. The fear may be of falling, drowning, or any possible kind of failure. The true risk may not even exist. Still, the fear feels just as real and the quest is to conquer that fear.

Tell me that much of life is not exactly this paradigm! Tonight, as I reflect on other things, I find that these experiences help me to remember the value of faith. If I let my mind imagine my failure - I’m more likely to fail. However, if I have faith in myself and this very moment, then I am far more likely to succeed.

Granted, I won’t always know what to do in a new situation; I might fall. That is, after all, how we learn. However, so long as I can keep finding and conquering my fears in life, I will continue to grow and improve. If I lose faith and let my fear control my actions, I will only stumble and fall again.

One final note. It comes with practice… It comes with doing and not with thinking. There is a time for thinking. However, you can not conquer fear until you face it.

Just thought I’d share…

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This entry was posted on Sunday, December 30th, 2007 at 12:11 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.