Snowboarding - Perisher, Jindabyne

Our journey began at 3am on Thursday the 7th of August, we sleepily packed up the car and made out way to Wyong to pick up the others.
Four of us, dosed up on caffeine and sugar began the 7 hour drive to Jindabyne, singing along to Jack Johnson and System Of A Down, a polar opposite of music.
The drive down was very average, we waited 20 minutes for a cheese toastie and had to persuade Bryce that he did not need to buy a digeridoo for the snow.

We headed straight up to the snow upon arrival to get in a quick half day of boarding, it was a blue bird day with pow pow - which is snowboard language for a 'beautiful day with fresh powder'.
This was Nathan's first day of boarding, ever! He picked it up ridiculously quick, although his trade mark move quickly became the 'Gorilla'. Not because he was fat or hairy, but every time he tried to go toeside or do a 360 turn he would off balance himself and cruise along the mountain with his feet clipped into his board and his hands guiding him as if he was running like a Gorilla.

One of the hardest things about snowboarding, in my eyes, was getting off the dreaded chair lift. Not only do you have to traverse to the chair lift whilst trying to avoid knocking people over, you keep one foot strapped in leaving your board dangling, which feels like your leg is getting an incredibly painful leg massage, with the icy cold wind blowing in your face. Even more painful is when a newbie stacks it getting off, so they stop the lift and your left dangling 20 feet in the air on a rickety cold chair wondering how much it would hurt if you fell. Having a fear of heights did not help me at all.
On our first day up there, we spent some time at Front Valley, Perisher, the beginners slope, where Nathan decided that if he was going to fall coming off the chair lift, i was going with him. We cruised several metres aimlessly grabbing at thin air trying to keep our balance until his board pulled him down and me on top of him. All in the fun of boarding.

Nathans Gorrila move stayed with him the rest of the trip, but he did manage to link his turns, do 360's and pick up the basic skills, whilst i managed to increase my speed and turns, also got in several small jumps. We stayed together whilst the others bombed it down the hill showing off and racing either other.

Any time that we stopped for lunch I could of sworn we were getting robbed, $15 for a hot dog & $12 for a drink! ALthough the hot dog was basically three meals in one, it had bacon, beans, cheese, hot dog, bun, onion sauce and some sort of curry thing at the bottom.

Saturday was Nathans birthday, the big 25, quarter of a century! In the morning he opened very few presents, we were both a bit impatient so he'd received most of them in the previous weeks. Few of the ones he did open were a size to small (Silly me) so I ended up inheriting a few items that day. We then headed up the mountain for another day of boarding! Where we went down one of my favourite tracks most of the day, which had several small jumps, followed by a mountain to cruise down, then some roller coaster like section to swerve through and finished with some more jumps.
I did spend one of the runs mostly on my bottom, cruising off the edge of the hills, and falling of the side of the jumps. Nerves had got the better of me.
We headed home, defrosted in the cabin showers and headed out to the local pub Banjos for a feed. I had one of the best chicken snitzels that has ever touched my taste buds that night. Followed by several vodka red bulls, canadian clubs, american honey and finally some deadly Absinth! *Shudders*
Some random guy came and sat with us, and decided that Nathan, Nicole & I should start out own clothing line called NathNickNay! We drunkenly thought it was a brilliant idea! We then headed up to the night club area, first time I've been clubbing wearing a beanie, jeans, a flano and vans. It was awesome!
Nicole and I spent the night meeting random people, stealing beanies, dancing, rollie polling and drinking V until our hearts beat through our chests.

And on Sunday, we rested.
Nathan & I took the camera out and went for a stroll along the lake side, which was absolutely stunning. It was a beautiful, warm(ish) day, a two-jumper-warm kind of day. We even found a little 1 x 2 metre sandy area we called our little beach.

Jacks Johnsons song 'La da da da da da. la da da da da da da' (Actual title unknown to us) became our theme tune for the holiday. We accidentally fell into accapela with it on the chair lift whilst snow boarding several times, among other songs the boys also managed to turn into a delightful *cough cough* acapella. The song was played by the local musician at the pub, it came on at a cafe when I went for a coffee with a friend and it was played on repeat the entire week.

Every day on the slopes was a blue bird day for us, and although I haven't been boarding for long, it was definitely one of my passions in life. The feeling of standing at the top of a mountain and seeing the views was breath taking, the adrenaline of cruising down a hill was addictive, I never wanted to leave Jindabyne.
Until the fourth day, around 1pm, I fractured my pelvis. I was having a bad morning, i felt pressured to keep up with the faster riders, I was not having a good time and I had a gut feeling something was going to go wrong, but i was convinced I was going to hurt my wrist and that would of been ok to keep boarding with.
My last run was the best and the worst, first jump I twisted my knee close to popping it out, but I got up after a few tears and pushed on. Clearing the next few jumps was a great feeling, I decided to pick up some speed, bad idea. The last jump I cleared and landed perfectly, until I tried to swerve a rock because the front of my board got stuck as i turned putting me on my ass.
I heard a crack and tears immediately fell from my eyes, I couldn't move at all at first.
After a while I tried to walk but my leg collapsed beneath me.
Bryce had to board to the bottom of the mountain to call for Ski Patrol which took so long to reach us he managed to walk all the way back up before it got to us.
That was a scary experience being on the back of ski patrol, I was strapped into the sled and covered up except for my eyes. I couldn't see how secure it was to the ski, and all i could think about was me heading down the hill back wards, picking up speed, in a run away body ski-thing.
The paramedic said it wasn't mandatory for me to see a doctor, I didn't want to but Nathan persuaded me to. The doctor thought it was muscle damage and said it wasn't mandatory to get an X-ray, I didn't want to but nathan persuaded me to because i've had previous hip pain, which was lucky, because there it was, clear as day, a fracture in my pelvis. Gutted. More tears, especially as Nathan and I had a flight booked to Paris for the coming Saturday.

I was given panedene forte and sent on my way. My body was not fed and not used to strong pain killers, so two minutes after leaving the doctors I had to sit down and briefly blacked out on Bryce, I’ve never broken a bone or passed out before so that was two firsts for me on that day!

I spent the rest of my holiday on crutches, tackling stairs and my arms slowly bruising. I got very fidgety, so spent little time resting, most of my time exploring the beautiful Jindabyne and painting, another passion of mine which I hadn't gotten to do in a long while.
The worst part about being on crutches was the toilet was separate from the cabin, so that was a mission in itself, having to tackle stairs, hills, opening doors and just basically not falling over. I tried the disabled shower once, but i couldn't stop thinking about how many people had sat naked on the shower chair before hand, and the water itself was so cool I almost cried, I had toes and fingers that needed to defrost, it just didn't cut it!

I strongly believe that everything happens for a reason, and perfect timing was that my friend Hannah & her partner Mike came down the day after I injured myself.
We spent the first day hanging out around Jindy, got some food, caught up and brought some bright green duct tape and stuck two bags of cotton pads to my crutches for comfort. The left over tape was then later used to stick some items from our friends staying in the cabin to the roof. A packet of crisps ended up taped to the fan, a hat, a thong, pillow oh, and the blow up mattress.

Leaving Jindabyne was hard because it had been such a beautiful chill place to stay and we cannot wait to go back!
We got home around 3am on Friday morning and slept like babies.

See you next year Jindabyne, thanks for the memories!