By Michael Lucas

February 1, 1999

It takes character to get up early in the morning, leave a warm bed on your day off, slip on wet boots over stiff socks, and fight the cold to spend a day in the snow. Making this a daily ritual takes commitment and endurance. Yet whether you ride 100 days a year or a mere dozen, you've made the decision to snowboard, and you'll never look at life the same. The decision itself is a bold statement, but that's obvious to any of us who make sacrifices and do whatever it takes to ride down a hill. Snowboarding teaches us important life lessons-confidence as we progress in skill, opportunity to face our fears and make decisions, and well, a healthy goggle tan.

It brings people into our lives and takes us places we'd have little reason to visit otherwise. We learn something about life through experience every time we strap onto (or possibly step into) our boards-on a purely reflective note, it's not just about fun anymore. The fact is, snowboarding shapes our lives-it always will. In this issue you'll meet six people whose lives have been significantly impacted by snowboarding. Each has their own experience with snowboarding, as well as with life. Some are from the mountains, some from the city, some are from Canada or other parts of the world. Yet through each of their stories weaves a common thread: the understood idea that snowboarding chose them. It's as if they've known it all the time. The path snowboarding has put them on-made them follow-leaves them with no idea what the future holds. They may never be the same again-and they wouldn't have it any other way.