Her pink ski jacket twirls around like a cone in a candy floss machine. Her shrieks of laughter echoed off the forests walls as we stop to stare at her. Her arms are stretched high in the air as her body spins around and around. The tube she is riding in picks up speed with every turn, until it reaches the bottom. Shaking her head she attempts to steady herself and shake off her dizzy fog, as she tumbles out of her tube.

Handing my plastic ring to the attendant, I plunk myself into my own frozen purple circle of fun. I arch my back, taking care to protect my derrieri from any surprise bumps on the ride to the top. The rope jerks, spinning my tube around, as I dragged up the hill to go tubing.

It’s a beautiful blue sky day. We are at Cypress Mountain’s tube park located on Vancouver’s north shore mountains. This is tobogganing at it’s finest. Smooth groomed slopes, with walls high enough to prevent people from crossing over, await us. Attendants hold our tubes while we ready ourselves. There are four of us wanting to go down together. We throw our rope with ring into the tube and then hop in - legs and arms sticking out on 90 degree angles. One hand grasping our own handle and one hand steadying our kids’ handles. Samantha, a young high school student, gives us a big push, launching us down the run. Quickly, we pick up speed. I look over at Jillian, my six-year-old, worried that she is going to start crying, but all I see is a smile, an ear-to-ear grin. The thrills come fast and furious, but before we know it, we’re at the bottom. We pile out, eager to do it again and again.

Snow tubing is one of those activities that anyone can do, provided they’re over four feet tall. All you need are winter boots, warm mitts, hat, ski jacket, snow pants and ideally sunglasses or goggles. According to the Snow Valley website, tubers hit speeds of up to 80 km/hr. Surprisingly no one is wearing helmets, but then again, no one falls out of their tube. Speed and fear are good deterrents. It’s cost about $18 for two hours and includes tube rental.

Our kids love it, but the long line ups for the rope tow dampen their enthusiasm. While Bill and I are eager to keep going, are children are done after two hours. This is a great family activity, or if you have visitors who are getting cabin fever, head for the hills. A word of caution though, we were tubing on a groomed controlled track. If you are sledding or tobogganing anywhere else, wear a helmet especially if it’s icy or there are rocks or trees.

If you are interested in trying it, go to Playday.com, to find a tube park in your area or call your local ski hill to see if they offer it. I’m not sure what is more fun, water tubing or snow tubing, but they both provide a thrilling ride.

Has anyone else tried this ridiculously fun winter activity?

Cheers,

Julie

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 27th, 2007 at 11:00 am and is filed under Kids, Road Trips, Toys. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.