Breaking in my Yahoo! snowboard at the summit of Alpine Meadows, originally uploaded by nicolecwong.

I finally broke in my first snowboard (thank you, Yahoo!) during the final Saturday of California’s extra-long ski season: July 4th weekend!

As the temperature climbed to 80 degrees that Saturday, my friends and I slushed down the melting slopes alongside people who looked like they belonged at the beach, baring lots of skin in bikini tops or swimming trunks.

On Sunday, we continued basking in the summer heat (and burnt our shoulders a bit) while tubing off the back of a motor boat that carved a wake from Tahoe City to Emerald Bay.

I’m not, as The Wall Street Journal article wrote, one of the “ski fanatics, many of whom consider it a badge of honor to hit the slopes on Independence Day.”  Last time I shredded the slopes was 2008.  Rather, as I told the TV-station weather lady who interviewed me at Alpine Meadows (as I clutched my Yahoo! purple Monson board), I loved the novelty of snowboarding one day and splashing in the lake the next — all without shivering! Only in lovely California.