You're Never Too Small to Go Big
[by: Jak Smaltz, Morgantown, WV]

My story, just basically, was that my whole family and friends told me I was too small, young, and inexperienced to skiboard. Even the guy at the rental shop said I wouldn't have any fun because I was too small to control them (I'm small for my age look like I'm 10.) He wanted me to use kids skiboards, but my stubborn pride forced me to use regular boards. I felt like they had set a challenge for me to overcome, I had to learn how to skiboard better than my bro and ski in general better than my parents. Now, none of them are on any teams or anything they just ski and skiboard for fun... that's all I do, but my bro is really good and he jumps and does really wild stunts so I had to be more impressive than him. I taught myself to skiboard (seeing as everyone thought I was a waste of time) and how to jump, carve, land, and do "wacky" tricks. I just set my mind to do it and now I can out jump and trick most people. I wasn't a very good skiier to begin with, but the skiboards really helped and now I feel I can do anything on them (and now I feel I can conquer any goal.)