Written By: Ethan Roda
My Brother the Daredevil
“Going Straight Down the Mountain is Fun!”
My youngest brother, Andre Roda, has always been a fascinating character. Ever since I can remember he has been a daredevil. A daredevil is someone who is adventurous, daring, and bold. Whether it’s jumping off of the highest piece of furniture in our house or picking a fight with one of his older brothers. Andre is the youngest, and I am the oldest of four siblings so he always feels like he has to keep up. Andre is twelve and we are thirteen years apart in age. I chose to interview Andre about his hobby of snowboarding, something I never dared to try. I wanted him to share some differences and similarities he sees between snowboarding and surfing–two sports that exemplify his daredevil personality.
Andre was born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania and moved to Long Beach, New York in 2016 when he started kindergarten. When we first moved to Long Beach he immediately started taking surfing lessons during the summers. Since Pennsylvania obviously does not have any beaches nearby, this was a new and exciting activity for him to try out. Andre, along with my other younger brothers, began doing surf camp every summer. They really enjoyed it and began going out on their own on nicer days to enjoy the waves!
When I asked Andre when he picked up this hobby of snowboarding, he responded, “Last winter break, our family friends invited us to go snowboarding in upstate New York.” I think his experience surfing and with extreme sports in general gave him the confidence to go all in with snowboarding. I asked Andre next about how he learned to snowboard. He responded, “My friends, and going straight down the hill is fun, and because I surf it is really similar, except you're not riding a wave.” I found this answer illuminating because riding waves and shredding snow have some similarities, including how you just have to go for it and have no fear.
Since my brothers and I tend to be competitive, my next question for Andre was about who he thought was the best snowboarder out of his brothers. He hilariously responded, “Me!” He added that his other brothers had a hard time picking it back up from the year before but that he “just went for it.” I personally have never gone snowboarding; therefore, I wanted to figure out some of the difficulties he encountered for the first time. He explained that balance was one of the biggest hurdles to get over in the beginning, and also that being attached to the board with your boots was also something that he had to get used to. He went on by saying that “when you fall you have to land on your butt, you can't put your hands down when falling or you could really hurt your wrists.” I think this could have been a poke at my other brother Tre, who had fallen their last time snowboarding and used his wrists to catch his fall.
After asking Andre about the difficulties he encountered, I was interested in finding out how the equipment played a role. He told me that the boots and helmet were the toughest to get used to at first and also wearing multiple layers to keep warm. This was one of the biggest differences he explained between surfing and snowboarding because when surfing you only need your wetsuit and a board. On the other hand, in snowboarding you need a helmet, boots, protective layers, your board, and also techniques to fall safely.
I then asked Andre, if he thought having more experience helps people snowboard. “Yes,” he responded. “The more experience the better, once you figure it out you get it.” He told me the same with surfing, that the more times you go out there and try the better you will be. I followed up with a question asking Andre if his knowledge of surfing helped him to snowboard and also to tell me a few similarities and differences between the two. He told me that surfing helped him with the idea of snowboarding. However, he explained, “it’s very different, especially when turning because with snowboarding you cannot lean with your feet because they are planted onto the board.”
When it comes to similarities and differences he had a few things to share with me. A similarity between the two sports is the terms ‘normal’ and ‘goofy,’ referring to which direction you are most comfortable with snowboarding or surfing. I learned that normal is when your left foot is in the front and your right foot in the back steers, and goofy is flipped when the right foot is first. Andre surfs and snowboards normal. He added, “if you can face both ways snowboarding that's great because if you're going down a hill then you can turn both ways to go down.” Some differences he mentioned again included how you are strapped to your board while snowboarding because of all the equipment and with surfing you just have a leash attached to one foot. I think this is important when trying to ‘bail out,’ or fall because with surfing you can just jump off of your board. With snowboarding you must fall a specific way so that you do not injure yourself. He also mentioned the obvious difference of the ocean compared to a snowy mountain, and that the conditions for both can drastically change from the wind direction to the height of the waves or iciness of the mountain.
Andre, my daredevil little brother, is amazing. At the conclusion of the interview he stated matter of factly, “If I could go down a fast hill forever I would.” This statement sums up his approach to sports and to life. He teaches me to be more fearless when I try new things and live life to the fullest. We should all try to do what Andre does and “just go for it!”
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