Even if you don't know anyone who snowskates, you won't have a problem finding someone, either online, locally or at a hill to help you with the basics.

The good news is that, unlike Master Pai Mei in Kill Bill Vol. 2, most snowskaters aren't dickheads.

My friend Phil was an invaluable source of information, and even lent me various items (snowskate, leash, clips, advice) while I was still searching online and elsewhere for my gear. Here's a montage that Master Phil (starring here in the video) showed me, which immediately had me hooked on the promise of snowskating.

Having a guy like Phil who I could FB message once and a while, to help with little tips, was really the difference between getting-into and staying-out-of snowskating. The biggest piece of advice he gave me was the encouragement that I could actually do it. It's one of those sports that looks so incredibly hard, that you assume people take years and years to master. Phil let me in on the secret that he was riding ski hill runs in about a day of practice. Just this knowledge alone was enough to allow me to bite the bullet and give snowskating a flail.

The snowskating community is incredibly open, accessible and -frankly- nice.

After posting my first snowskating picture on Instagram, I was immediately (literally, within minutes) invited to an annual East Coast Snowskate Convention at Jay Peak.

The community is warm, open, and very chill. It's hard not to be humble when you're engaging in a sport nestled in the stillness of nature, while perpetually being only one misstep from mishap.