WINTER FEATURE
Jon Frank: No risk, no gain
Behrend sophomore Jonathon Frank is tearing up the slopes at Peak n' Peek this winter.
The first time sophomore Jon Frank snow
boarded was almost his last. A seventh grader,
Frank rehted a snowboard to try his hand at it.
“I was a big snowboarding fan, and I wanted
to try it out,” Frank said. “It was pretty hard, and
I fell a lot. I did not get back on a board until my
freshman year at Behrend.”
His second dance on the slopes produced
many of the same results.
“1 went to Peak n’ Peek with a borrowed snow
board from a friend,” Frank said. “While going
down a hill 1 tried to stop, but [ended up] getting
the wind knocked out of me. I had a few good
bruised ribs.”
Another hiatus was an afterthought as Frank
was determined to return to the slopes.
“After the winter break I was ready for some
real snowboarding,” Frank said. “1 took advan
tage of the class Behrend has with the Peak. That
semester I learned so much.”
Frank became so confident in his skills that he
invested in them.
“My roommate at the time bought a new snow
board so I got to use his old one pretty much for
free,” Frank said. “I ended up buying it off of him
SHAWN ANNARELLI
mjnjging editor
for pretty cheap, and it’s still the board I use
now.”
After the purchase he dropped another $l2O
on a new pair of bindings to go with the veteran
board. Frank’s snowboarding has led him to
make his next purchase, a QH££-a-week plus pass
at Peak n’ Peek Tuesdays, 'Wednesdays and
Thursdays.
“I try going twice a week, but with classes it is
difficult to go at times,” Frank said. “The pass
came with eight weeks of free lessons that I use
to learn new spins, doing boxes and rails, and
doing jumps.”
Frank likes to ride in the park perfecting his
stunts, “until I start to feel uneasy about the
jumps.” He then heads over to the trails to cool
down.
Riding is more than just an adrenaline rush for
Frank.
“Going down the mountain is therapeutic for
me," Frank said. “Before the season started I lit
erally could not wait. It was like a craving. It’s a
way to express yourself.”
Frank is coming a long way from his first out
ing. He is proud of the bumps he takes.
“Snowboarding comes with its inherent risks,
but so does walking outside every morning,” he
said. “Nothing risked, nothing gained.”
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Behrend Beacon
February 19, 201
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