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When I was 19 years old, my friend from university suggested I try snowboarding at a small ski resort in Kyiv. My previous experience in winter sports was skiing. When I was 8 years old, I broke my wooden Nordic-skis trying my first Alpine slopes. Also, I was pretty good on a skateboard. So, I definitely want to try and it should be easy to learn. The next day I was at a snowboard shop and I bought my first snowboard boots and I did 19 full days of snowboarding in that first season, which started at the end of February.

Over the next 5 years was like in the movie and I was a spectator: I saw how my life was changing direction into my new passion but at the same moment I can do nothing with it. I lost some old friends who didn’t share my new passion and found new friends who involved me deeply in the mountain life. After 5 years I became a hotel business owner at the most interesting ski resort in Ukraine. After 8 years of living and working in the mountains I realized that I was spending much more time at work and almost had no energy and time for riding and somehow everything changed again: me and my wife started small business which gave us not too much but enough money and time for living, traveling and riding.

Two years ago, me and my wife decided to go for all winter season to the Caucasus in Georgia. We wanted to spend that winter with our 2-year old daughter and teach her snowboarding. After 2 months in Georgia, war started in Ukraine and now it looks like my passion for snowboarding and a life in the mountains saved our lives.