Wednesday, January 09, 2008

The Right Stuff

This winter, Kendra, Katy and I will be going on a ski trip to Colorado with Kendra's father and brother and their families. I'll likely have much to chat about regarding that once we return, so I will leave the actual trip for a later post. What I am interested in discussing now is proper equipment.

For most of my life, my attitude with regard to various activities was the "good enough" approach. Meaning, I'd get the bare minimum to participate and would fuddle through the best I could. Somehow, this made me cooler.

Lately, I've come to realize that there might be a reason to invest in the additional equipment. If someone who does something professionally uses some piece of equipment, and I am not as talented as they are, wouldn't it make more sense for me to make sure I am equipped similarly?

For example, for this trip, I am very interested in snowboarding. Though I have never snowboarded before, I am buying a helmet and wrist guards. While there may be some thought that it "isn't cool", I look at the pros and see that they take these precautions, and they likely fall much, much less than I am expecting to. And, really, how cool am I going to look falling down, anyways?

Also, being properly equipped means that I can attempt things that I might normally be timid about. Stuff on the snowboard is one example. Another is when I went rollerblading, I always wore a helmet, wrist guards and knee pads: I also wasn't afraid to try spinning stops and other things that might not be a good idea without the proper gear. When I go mountain biking on trails, my bike has front shocks; when I would go on my old bike, going downhill would be killer, and now it is no big deal, allowing me to go faster and still have more control. To me, then, having the right stuff means being able to participate in the full experience.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Good thinking with the safety gear!
I started wearing my bike helmet after college because it was not cool to wear it at school. That was dumb, those people were crazy bikers at MSU. Now I do not bike or rollerblade without my helmet (and wrist guards for blading as well) My wife Erin and I are getting a kick reading your blog entry about the resolutions. Especially the eat healthy one because now you are stuck with one recipe, haha! We are also trying to read more, and like to find cool articles on different websites/blogs to read to each other in bed before falling asleep. It is good together time.
later
mike