Ever since I was a little kid, starting around 5 or 6, I would watch everything my dad did. I watched him build our garage and woodshed and he even built the house we live in.

I wasn’t born yet to watch him do that, but if I was, I would have watched.

But what I loved watching him do the most was snowboarding. I would see him through pictures my mom showed me and even videos of him on the snow sliding away. Right away, I wanted to learn how to snowboard. By the time I was 5, my dad strapped a snowboard to my feet.

We first started off in our backyard, not going very fast at all, just getting comfortable with how the board works. Once I was getting used to it and my confidence was up, my dad said “it’s time to go to the mountain.”

He took me to Stowe Mountain Resort, the mountain he worked at as a snowboard Instructor. We drove up in his truck, which I loved because it had the new car smell to it still. Plus, the tunes he played were the best. Everything from Red Hot Chili Peppers to Blues Traveler, and even Prince. Up we went bopping our heads to the tunes for 40 minutes, not saying a word until the tunes were cut off by us opening our doors. As we stepped out the doors, I saw how big the mountain was. I was shocked at how wonderful it all looked.

We were now on our quest to the magic carpet. I was so excited to get out there on an actual mountain and not my backyard. We strapped in just our front foot, took one push with our back foot, and then I was going up the magic carpet. The trip up the carpet was quite a sight to see, as I was surrounded by a clear tube.

Once at the top, we strapped in our back foot. My dad and I went down the small hill with me holding his hands.

We went down the small hill a couple of times, holding hands each time. Soon I was trying to make it down the small bunny hill just by myself, without my dad’s hands. I was falling left and right. I kept trying until the day was over.

I knew the lifts closed at 4 p.m. and sadly never made it down the bunny hill without falling that day.

Later In the season, I was doing really well on my snowboard in our backyard –without my dad’s help! He saw I was practicing a lot. Soon another weekend started off by going up to Stowe in his nice smelling new truck with kicking tunes. This time Sublime, The Cure, and my favorite, Santana. Once we arrived, we started to get ready in the truck. All our gear was finally on.

The last step to us getting ready was to take a piss next to his truck with the doors open so no one could see us. We now, could go shred the snow, starting off on the chairlift this time. Going up with my dad by my side, it was the most beautiful view ever. The first half of the day I was going down all the tails with my dad’s help, holding his hands. In the second half of the day, I wanted to try by myself. My dad gave me the go ahead.

I fell a lot, but I knew that was going to happen. Again I knew the mountain closed at 4 p.m. I had not gone down one run yet without falling. On our last run, I had never been more happy and filled with joy in my life, as I went down the whole trail not falling once.

But best of all, my dad got to watch me do it, and not have to watch me do it from the view of him holding my hands.

Thanks to my dad I still snowboard every weekend, and have been a snowboard instructor for the past three years at Jay Peak resort.

All of those years, my dad has been my boss, and still will be for a while. My dad has taught me so many things, and very valuable life lessons. He’s made me who I am today, a snowboarder, but also a good person. I could not thank my dad enough though for teaching me my favorite thing to do in the whole world.