Apparently extremely hard. I went out for 3.5 hours with a certified instructor and I fell approximately 200 times. I was completely miserable most of the time and couldn't even make it down the bunny hill once without falling. In fact the last fall I took I thought I broke my neck. Several spectators asked me if I was okay and all I could do was groan in response. So snowboarding isn't my thing...maybe I'll try skiing next time.
2. Canoeing: My freshman year of college I took a spring break trip where we canoed through the Everglades. I had never been canoeing before and like snowboarding, I thought how hard could paddling a boat be? I didn't take into consideration I had to coordinate my movements with another person, the choppy waters of the Gulf and the tightly knit mangroves that line most of the glade's passageways. My partner and I never tipped the boat over, but we ran into the banks so many times, we affectionately started to call it 'getting a mangrove salad.' I think my problem was with rowing backwards, something I discovered when I went white water rafting a few years later. A friend and I were at the head of the raft and the instructor was screaming for us to paddle backwards. I was starting to get annoyed because he had been yelling for nearly two minutes to row backwards, and I wanted to snap 'I am damnit!' until my friend pointed out I had been rowing forwards the whole time. Whoops.
3. Icing a cake: I think that almost anyone can make a good cake, but to ice a cake is an art. The first time I tried I gave myself five minutes and started slopping the gunk on in big scoops like when the lunch lady served you in elementary school. However, once I started I realized I was in way over my head. The icing was ripping off chunks of the cake, so now I had bits of baked goods floating in my white icing. Also, the icing stuck hopelessly to the plate, and when I tried to scoop it off, I ended up scraping more icing off the bottom of the cake. I cracked the top of the cake and in the end was so frustrated I wanted to throw the whole thing in the trash. I didn't, but to this day I still can't ice a cake. It's particularly bad when I'm icing a chocolate cake with white icing. Maybe they sell a special knife for those icing impaired, but in the meantime my friends and family will have to judge my cakes by taste and not appearance.
4. Cooking the perfect egg: I'd like to call myself a fairly decent cook, but if there's one food that gives me the most headache, its eggs. I don't think I've ever cooked the perfect egg and I've been trying now for nearly three years. I always end up either breaking the yolk, cooking it too long, burning the edges or producing that nasty clear film all over the pan. Who honestly wants to eat that? I know I don't, but I am bound and determined to cook the perfect egg. My friend cooks her eggs on high to the point where they are snapping and popping out at her. She swears its the best way to cook eggs, but I'm not convinced. She needs a knife to cut through her whites, which to me is never a good sign. For now, I cook my eggs on medium, cross my fingers and hope for the best. The real issue for me usually comes down to flipping. My spatula refuses to pick up the whole egg, so I have half the egg precariously hanging off the edge, while I pray I don't break the yolk when I haphazardly flip it over. My success rate is 50%. Not so good. Oh well, like all things in the cooking world, success only comes after lots and lots of practice.
5. Doing a headstand: I was watching TV with my dad one day when he abruptly stood up and did a headstand in the middle of the room. We had been talking about yoga and I was complaining that I hadn't been able to do a headstand yet and how I thought it should be so easy. My dad said it was easy and proceeded to demonstrate. I became quite dejected. I hate it when I can't do something and everyone around me can. So I started practicing a lot until one day I finally kicked myself into a headstand. Now that I look back on it, headstands are all about trusting yourself, which I think is something that is harder than it sounds. I think I was always physically able to do a headstand, but putting your faith into your hands to protect your neck from snapping in half is a big deal. So for the trust factor alone, I think that headstands are definitely harder than they look.
