With the early snowfall, it’s a good time to turn our attention to some of the students at Greeley West who to get out and do other sports than the ones that the schools offer. Students like Elijah Torrez and Layne Brown get out and enjoy the snow in the mountains.   

Torrez, who is a sophomore at West enjoys snowboarding. Meanwhile Brown enjoys skiing. 

Although snowboarding and skiing have many things in common, they are different. Snowboarding is just one “board” that you have to use to get through the snow. Whereas in skiing you have two skis and two ski poles. 

Torrez got into snowboarding at a young age. He was only 7 when he started. He did ski before he snowboarded at the age of 3. When Brown started to ski he was 8 years old. 

Torrez got into snowboarding because he wanted to be different. Torrez said, “ I wanted to try something different than the rest of my family.”

For Brown, it was also a family affair.  “My grandpa took me and my sister, and from then on we just started doing it,” Brown said. 

During the winter when it snows, Torrez goes snowboarding three or four times.   Brown says, “Every year as much as possible, my grandpa has the money.”

When asked what he loves most about snowboarding; Torrez responded, “ I would say control. I like that I can control what I do. I like it better than skiing.”

On the other hand Brown stated, “ I really like the snow in general. I like how it feels. My family also likes to do it too. I like to go fast as well, I probably shouldn’t because I always get hurt.”

 Torrez recommended Breckenridge and Loveland ski areas while Brown recommended Steamboat Springs.