Yesterday, I went up to Porters to do some snowboarding for the first time this season. Porters is the closest ski field to Christchurch that I’m aware of. Having never been to Porters before, I’m not quite sure what to expect. There has been lots of advice and comments from friends; and most suggested Mt Hutt is better. I decided to check out Porters anyway.

The drive was easy; taking approximately 90 minutes to get to the ski field car park. The access road is in good condition; it didn’t even require snow chain on this particular day, which saved me at least 20 minutes. Admittedly, the facilities are not as good as Mt Hutt. The rental gear looks old. They have T-bars instead of chair lifts. The cafe is smaller, and the car park looks like an organised mess. On a positive note, the crew are great; most of them anyway.

Last year, I did a beginners lesson at Mt Hutt and discovered that I’m goofy. As a refresher, I signed up for a half day beginners lesson. It was NZD 95 for the beginner lift pass, gear rental, and lesson. The lesson went rather well… that is until I have to learn to use the platter lift. There are no platter lifts at Mt Hutt. The platter lift looks easy but I just couldn’t get the hang of it the first few tries. I was not looking forward to keep walking up the slope. I did it once and it was a real workout. Luckily, perseverance and words of encouragement from the instructors and friend paid off. That and a few handy tips. Having the platter between my legs, and putting the bulk of my weight on the front foot with it slightly towards the heel side seemed to work really well for me. This allowed me to keep going up the platter lift and snowboard down the beginner slope almost non-stop for the whole afternoon. It was AWESOME. Other than getting used to the platter lift, I spent most of the time improving my control of the board. Being able to slow down and stop when you want to is surprisingly helpful. It is also great that the board goes where I want it to go; most of the time anyway. Due to where the lesson was conducted on the slope, I ended up having to ride fakie. On the upside, I can now go both directions quite comfortably. I can’t wait to get back up the slope.