Cambrie-Elizabeth Encalade ‘26 after a morning of snowboarding at Whiteface. Photo: Yosef Spear ’26.
Cambrie-Elizabeth Encalade ‘26 is from Hawaii and competed with the Northwood Crew in the fall. She has never seen snow in person, let alone ridden on it with a snowboard. Once the rowing season was over, she found out she could try snowboarding, she signed up for the Ski and Snowboard Club with her roommates, Sasha Luhur ’27 and Willow Zhao ‘27.
Cambrie thought snowboarding would be easy because she liked to surf and skateboard. Before Whiteface Mountain opened, Cambrie was confident that she would pick snowboarding up her first time trying it. All of Cambrie’s friends would joke about how she was going to be eating her words and falling for the first time. She had to get used to the cold weather and is still adjusting. She had trouble at first with waking up earlier to go right out into the cold, but she got used to the waking up part quickly.
For some time, Cambrie regretted signing up for snowboarding because she kept falling and, one time, even fell into a toddler. She felt like she wasn’t progressing and was stuck at the beginning stages. She was told she should get lessons, so she went to her older and experienced snowboarder friend, Sophia Sherman ‘25. Sophia taught Cambrie the basics so she wouldn’t get hurt and have to go to Mr. Donatello after every session.
Cambrie likes to snowboard with her friends, Willow, Sasha, and Louisa Parsons ‘27, even though she can’t keep up with them. After not enjoying it at first, Cambrie brags to her friends back home about her snowboarding adventures. She says that so far, snowboarding’s been fun, especially because she’s falling less.
