Hi! My turn to say hello!
My name is Doug, and I live in Philadelphia, PA. I'm 43 years old, and have a daughter who just turned 11. I grew up in central Illinois, and never set foot on a mountain with the exception of our family trip to the Rocky Mountains when I was about 8. I was a bit of a skateboarder in my teens (the late 80s), but was never able to do any tricks, or anything....just was an average rider. I like to bike and rollerblade, too. I did water ski a fair bit as a kid, and cross country skied as a teen (mostly on the flat grounds of a nearby golf course).
My daughter expressed an interest in snowboarding a few years ago, so I bought her a $20 "snowboard" from Target. It's red, plastic, and you just slide your feet into two plastic buckles on the top. She enjoyed it, though, and mastered going down our nearby hill pretty quickly.
For years, I'd been wanting to go to one of the relatively nearby mountains (Blue Mountain, Jack Frost/Big Boulder, Cambelback, etc.) to try my hand at skiing, but as my daughter's interest in snowboarding blossomed (especially after this year's winter Olympics), I thought, this is the year, let's just pick a date and go. So two Sundays ago, we drove up to Blue Mountain (about 90 minutes north of Philly), and purchased one of their (half price on Sundays!) rental/lesson/lift ticket packages. We took part in a group lesson that progressed through stages, and then practiced on the learning hills. We both decided that we might not be ready for a "real" trail (the "Vista" trail is the one we had access to), but we stayed till dark practicing, and really enjoyed ourselves.
Since then, I've been learning all I can about snowboarding: reading this forum, watching videos, visiting snowboard/ski stores, etc. I really had hoped to get back to Blue one more time before they close, but it probably won't happen, so we'll have to wait until next season.
I'm 6'2", and ride goofy foot. My daughter is about 5 feet tall, and rides normal.
Here's a picture of us at Blue: