As soon as I learned there was an Adidas Samba snowboard boot, and people seemed to like it, that was that. It didn’t matter that I was a Burton loyalist while growing up, or that other new models caught my eye.

It was early in my pre-trip Googling for “best snowboard boots,” then, that I came across the Adidas Samba, which was surprising - in my time away from snowboarding I had missed that Adidas had gotten into the game, and done so with a model name primarily associated with the soccer-style shoes I wore in sixth grade. I was happy to ride whatever duffer plank I rented for the afternoon, but had no desire to plunge my feet into the dank orifices of loaner boots. No time away from riding could erase my memories of rental shop grab-bag footwear, with lining that’s perma-damp for some indeterminate reason, and assorted internal facets and ridges ready to claw at your high ankle as soon as you’ve set off on your first run. What I wasn’t willing to risk was a pair of uncomfortable boots. Play icon The triangle icon that indicates to play It had been five years since my last snowboarding session, and since my Park City outing was one of opportunity during a work trip to Utah for the Sundance Film Festival, my preparation had entailed simply raiding the dregs of my winter sports gear bag. And though I have a helmet, I can’t remember when I bought it, or why: it’s a Burton RED model colored a shade of deep brown that would prompt a living coil of feces to remark, “Christ, that looks like shit,” with a spherical shape that will be sub-optimal if aerodynamics ever actually matter in my riding.

My gloves were adequate but old, with palm padding that was breaking down in real time, leaving trails of tiny black debris on anything I touched. That combo kept my torso dry, but because of the limited body coverage, every time my butt hit the mountain - be it when I was strapping into my board or, as the day went on, eating shit - fistfulls of slope would do flume runs down Ned Canyon. My proper snowsports coat was at my in-laws’s place, so I was wearing a waist-length winter bomber jacket with an autumn-weight rainjacket as a waterproof shell. I’ve never liked the way goggles limit peripheral vision, so I don’t own a pair instead I typically snowboard with a pair of sunglasses - except for when I forget to bring them to the mountain, which, on this day: that. Let’s talk first about what I didn’t have, standing atop a Park City Mountain Resort trail in Utah on a 17-degree day in late January.

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