Now boarding! You too can take the ups, downs, twists, and turns of snowboarding like a pro.(Sweat)(Alpine Snowboard National Championships)(gay snowboarding event)(Column)

Publication: The Advocate (The national gay & lesbian newsmagazine)

Publication Date: 26-OCT-04

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COPYRIGHT 2004 Liberation Publications, Inc.

The blazing sun over Breckenridge, Colo., is invigorating. It's March 20, and I'm hurtling down an icy hill at 40-plus miles per hour on a piece of wood barely wider than a skateboard, attempting to push aside doubts placed in my head by cultural taboos about gays in sports and, um, trying to ignore the other 100 men in tight Lycra bodysuits. I'm here at the 2004 Alpine Snowboard National Championships as the only openly gay snowboarder on the North American FIS snowboard tour.

Snowboarding, though similar to skiing, surfing, and skateboarding, is much more physically demanding than those sports. A day on the slopes is equivalent to a day of nonstop crunches, twists, squats, and lateral raises. When you're turning on a snowboard, your whole body arts like a spring that's being wound from both ends. As your head focuses on where you're trying to go, your shoulders are perpendicular to the board and your hands and arms are out to each side as if you're walking a tightrope, which in...

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