Freestyle with Avery Read Online Free PDF

to try one of those,” Ricky suggested.
    I looked at Dad. He looked at me. We were both thinking the same thing: NO WAY!
    “That’s okay, Ricky. I’ve already set one aside for her at the register.”
    “Yeah, and also … I really don’t like pink,” I explained.
That
was the understatement of the year.
    I slipped on the helmet Dad had chosen—cherry red—and checked it out in the mirror. The outfit was definitely worthy of a Snurfer trophy.
But was Avery Madden worthy
?
    “Need anything else?” Dad pointed to the racks of pants and tops. “Anything at all?” He held up a ski hat that looked like a Viking helmet made of fleece with two horns and long yellow yarn pigtails sewn in.
    “Okay, Dad, that’s just plain scary. And besides, like you say—it’s not what you wear, it’s how you tear …
it up
!” Dad laughed at my personalized version of his rule. “Now can we get outta here already? I
need
to get to the mountain!”
    “No problem. I’m out of here, Ricky,” Dad said. “Andie should be in shortly.” And finally, we headed for the Snurfmobile. It was hard to find room for my board in the trunk. “Dad, what’s your snowmobile doing back here? It’s taking up all the space.”
    “Oh, that. I thought I’d use it later to hang a few posters for the Snurfer around town.”
    I rolled my eyes. My brothers and I joked that Dadlooked for any excuse to drive that thing around Telluride. Dad called it his favorite toy. I wedged my new board next to the snowmobile and we were off … ready to hit the slopes.
    The first thing I did when we got to the mountain was sign up for the Snurfer. I filled out all my info, printing my name as neatly as I could, and dropped it into the box by the ticket window. Dad pulled out his digital camera. “Just one. We need documentation!” I got close to Dad and he held the camera in front of us with one of his long arms. “Fleas!” we cried at the same time. Dad liked “fleas” better than “cheese” because he said it made people smile more sincerely.
    “There. Now we can always remember how I got my big break!” I laughed.
    Dad smiled. “So should we start on Boomerang?” he asked. Boomerang was a blue square run, which meant that it wasn’t too difficult. I knew he was choosing a blue square run for my sake—as a warm up. But it was a deep pow-pow day, so starting on a blue square was fine by me. “Oh, and here’s your lift ticket.”
    “Thanks!” I fastened the tag on my zipper. “Are you shreddy?” I asked, pulling my goggles over my eyes.
    “Are you?” Dad smiled and looked toward the mountain. “Race you to the gondola!” he declared. And with that, he took off. People turned to watch Dad pump his way through the crowd, creating a flurry of snow. He was tall and skinny in his bright blue outfit with the Snurfman jester cap flopping everywhere. It was a pretty funny sight.
    “No fair, I wasn’t shreddy yet!” I huffed and puffedafter him. I wasn’t totally used to the altitude, either.
    The gondola was free so people could ride from the base up to the Mountain Village to shop, eat, watch a competition, or just check out the view. It was going to be an amazing snowboarding day—I could tell just from looking out of the gondola. The trees were covered with snow, which meant one thing: deep powder runs.
    The lift zipped us up to the top of the mountain, where fresh snow was just beginning to fall. It was finally time to ride. “Sweet runs, here I come!” I shouted as I paddled myself to a bench to buckle my boots. I was totally ready to go, but Dad was still wiping his goggles. Time for revenge. “Hey Dad … race you to the halfway point!” And I was off. He seemed surprised to see me float by, but smiled and waved me along. For the first ride of the season, Dad always had my back.
    The trail started off slowly and I took wide, graceful turns in the fluffy snow. My legs were jelly at first, but soon I felt as if I’d never been away