I didn't grow up in a rich family that lived in a yacht, and also had cabin in Tahoe. No, and even lift tickets and lessons for our family was really out of our price range. We did however do family snow trips, complete with tons of sledding at a little place near Kirkwood, about 45 minutes from Lake Tahoe. When I was around 14 or so, my Mom, Bro. and I rented cross country skis (!) for the first time (a step in the boarding direction I guess). It was a blast, I promptly fell and hyper extended my wrist (of course), which was sore for a long time afterwards. We skied properly (i.e. CROSS country) for awhile, and than said forget it and hiked up some hills for the down hills stuff. At that time, earning our turns was the only way to get them.
Amazingly (no, I'm not making this up), my dad spotted a board half buried by the roadside on the return home from one of these snow trips. It was an old Santa Cruz 3X 146 (I'm 5'9", 150lbs.), with tiny ancient Burton bindings..... and still no money for lift tickets. But hey, we had sled hills, and our soft leather or vinyl snow boots. So what if the bindings wouldn't cinch down tightly enough (ever tried to strap in wearing tennis shoes?)?, I mean, who would WANT to strap in anyway? The falls hurt so much more when you're strapped in and can't jump free! Snowboard bindings don't pop free like ski bindings you know. I mean sheeze, how do you spell suicide?
Well that went on for several years, as we grew older and .... began to make more money on our own. My bro. and I were talking allot about going boarding by now. My Mom hadn't skied for 20 years, so she was wondering if she could still do it, my Bro. and I had seen the Kirkwood resort many times, and boarded down dinky sled hills WAY too many times, and we were now dying to go, and now with a little spare cash in our pockets as well.
We finally decided that the time had come, and we should go for it. We found a resort (Boreal) that had a rental, lesson and lift ticket special, and decided to go for that. We got all of our stuff together, which included (*gasp*) bibs, and old-school Oakley sunglasses and hit the road early one morning. Everything went according to plan, until we pulled in and found that Boreal had closed for the season the week before... uhh... ..we could have died. Thankfully, they pointed us to another place (Sugar Bowl) that was still open, and 30 min. later, we were there. We got our stuff and hit the slopes. The guy in the shop did a push test on me to see if I was goofy or regular. I came out goofy, and TRIED that for an hour or so. Than I happened to try regular, and found it was sooo much easier. My binding angles were now all wrong, and the runaway strap was now on my BACK foot, but hey, I couldn't tell the difference at that point!
The lessons came and went, I learned a ton, and was off to the the blue runs where we finished off the day. I had a sore rear from catching my heel edge early on, but that was the extent of my first days antics. I think I only got in one more day that season, which also has stories worth repeating, but the boarding bug had bit, and I was dying for the next season to come around. I was now 21, and had just truly boarded for the very first time in my entire life. It had taken long enough, but I appreciate every moment more than ever, because it took soooo long to get there.
To get to see views of creation like this... (Lake Tahoe)

and fields of powder like this... (Northstar)

To look down an impossible steep, and several minutes later look back up it with a silly grin, powder all over you, realizing you just did it...(Kirkwood)

Going with friends or even a brother who you may not have tons in common with (that's bro. Paul above), but all have the deep love of boarding .
My sister picked it up last season...

...And I'm hoping my 9 year old sister will this season.

Boarding pictures of her on the way!
Come on snow, and season '06-'07.

Boarding is utterly incredible. It's as simple as that.