As a guy who considers himself to be pretty athletic, it is amazing how many winter activities I have never tried.
We recently worked on a special in our paper, which essentially was about winter activities and winter safety.
While thinking about different things I could write about, it became very apparent to me that I have not experienced that many winter activities.
As a kid I was all about hockey in the wintertime, I played for ten straight years, until I was 15, at which time I began refereeing hockey instead.
But in the summer I was a jack of all trades, I played soccer, lacrosse, ball hockey, and baseball just to name a few.
But what that told me was how little I actually knew about winter activities.
Thinking about the things to do during the winter I came up with plenty including cross country skiing, snowmobiling, snowshoeing, and curling just to name a few.
And what do all those things have in common?
As ashamed as I am to admit it, they are all things I have never tried.
I do have to admit I have been skiing plenty of times before, but it was always downhill.
While I would probably refer to go downhill skiing, mostly because I like the speed you can gather, I think I should still give cross country skiing a try.
In fact I should likely give all of those activities a try.
I am the kind of person who spends most of his winters on skates, in fact I would spend most of my summers on skates too, which I am sure is relatively normal for a large majority of Canadians, but I think it is time I shed those skates and participated in other activities.
I look at the other activities, like I said I have been skiing but cross-country would be a different experience worth trying.
Curling has always looked like a fun thing to try, but knowing that you need a large number of players to play and knowing that I do not have a lot of free time I have never bothered to give it a try.
Well that needs to change.
Snowshoeing I consider to be very similar to cross-country skiing, except instead of wearing skies you are wearing snow shoes.
I think it would be fun, and it would be a great way to spend an afternoon enjoying nature.
Snowmobiling would probably be the most fun, mostly because like I said before I like speed, but it is also the most unlikely.
These are all activities I will eventually get out and do.
And if you have never experienced it before, you should too.
Maybe it will become one of those things you cannot live without.
Like hockey and skating are for me.
