We all fail sometimes. It's what we learn from failure that's important.
So much of the ski and snowboard news articles we read relate to the success of pros or the industry, not much talks about the failures. I’ve mentioned before that I believe failure is a big part of learning, so here are some of my biggest failures and what I learnt from them.
1) Landing waaay before the landing of a 50+ foot jump in Whistler
This is the crash that changed many things for me. It’s the crash that resulted in multiple surgeries to repair my ACL and the cartilage in my left knee and I wasn’t able to get back to 100% for a long period of time.
How did it happen?
I was in the park with a snowboard coach and a group of other riders and we had worked our way up to one of the larger jumps in the park. I had knuckled some jumps previously, my knee was a pretty sore and I wasn’t very confident about the jump.
Nevertheless, I went ahead with the jump, didn’t get enough speed and the next thing I knew I was sitting in the snow with a torn ACL, several menicus tears, 2 stretched ligaments and severe bone bruising.
What I learnt
This crash taught me be a mental rider. It taught me to listen to what my body tells me and to value the mental aspects of snowboarding. On top of that, it taught me that I had to strengthen my abilities, both mentally and physically if I wanted to keep progressing without severe injuries.
It also taught me to overcome my weaknesses and to value hard work. I had to spend the next year gathering up my courage again and strengthening my body. Being able to come back from that and see my hard work pay off was one of the biggest confidence boosters of my life.
2) Large hip jump to headplant
How did it happen?
I was enjoying a leisurely day in the park. I wasn’t really paying that much attention to the terrain that day, as I was staying away from the really high level park features.
I decided to go as big as I could on one of the larger hip jumps and I ended up catching my edge on some rough snow as I was leaving the top of the hip. All I saw was sky and the next thing I knew I was landing on my head. My helmet split into two pieces.
My friend told me that I went ridiculously high, but completely missed the hip and landed on the flat icy snow next to it.
What I learnt
For one, this taught me that a helmet is usually a good idea, especially in the park. I walked away with a concussion and I have no doubt it would have been a more major concussion or worse if not for my helmet that day.
It also taught me that you should always check out each feature properly before flying off them, even if your ability is much higher than the feature. My learnt that accidents seem to happen when I stop paying attention and don’t give the park features the attention that they deserve.
You have to keep your head in the game, even if you’re doing something you’ve done many times before.
3) 5000 crashes in one day, my first day in real powder
How did it happen?
This was during my first trip to Whistler. I was barely above the skill level of a complete beginner and I had never seen powder before. It had just snowed 30 cm that day.
Long story short, I spent the entire day never making it down a single green run without faceplanting. It was pretty frustrating, and I had to work insanely hard to stop from crashing every 5 meters.
What I learnt
That day was one of the most frustrating days of my snowboarding life, but it taught me to keep going when you get presented with a challenge.
If you want to be a good snowboarder, there are many, many challenges that you’ll face along the way and I learnt that not only will you have to work hard to get past them, you’ll need to embrace each challenge as an obstacle that you’ll be able to overcome and learn from.
If you want to be successful, in life or in snowboarding, I believe failure is something you’ll come across often. It’s not something you should be sad about, but rather something you should embrace as a chance to learn and better yourself.
Would you like me to give you a formula for success? It’s quite simple, really. Double your rate of failure.
Thomas J. Watson, founder of IBM computers.