Winter Sports is for the people who hear a cold front is coming and start waxing something. When everyone else is buried under a blanket with the thermostat cranked, this crew is already out on the ice or halfway down a slope, cold drink in hand, delighted about the whole situation.
A bear who lives at the rink
Puck Paws brings the hockey. A black silhouette of a bear skates hard across a gold circle, stick low, puck right where he wants it, while his free paw holds a mug perfectly level. The words around him say he has got this, and judging by that stride, he does. There is a certain kind of player who shows up to the late night adult league like it is game seven of the finals, and every bench in town has one. This bear is him, down to the refusal to set his drink on the boards.
A penguin who skipped the lessons
Snowboarding Penguin is the one who never needed an instructor, at least according to the penguin. He rides a board through an explosion of rainbow colored powder, beak up, body loose, a foaming beer raised in one flipper like a torch. Penguins are famously comfortable in the cold, so technically this is his home turf, but nothing about that grin says he is taking it easy. This is a bird who looked at the steepest run on the mountain and decided it was a warmup.
For the one who loves the cold months
Everybody knows the winter person. They get excited when the first snow falls. They own more than one pair of gloves and know exactly where every one of them is. They leave for the mountain before sunrise and come back rosy cheeked and starving, telling the story of the jump that almost worked. Maybe it is your hockey dad who still plays on Tuesday nights. Maybe it is your sister who counts the days until the lifts open. Hand them the bear or the penguin, whichever matches their sport, and stand clear of the door. They are about to go stand in a snowbank and call it fun, and honestly, they are right.
Written by Liam. Thanks for reading.
