Superstition
When snowboarding, never call your last run.
Jason told me this snowboarding superstition when I asked him if he has any personal superstitious routines he follows when he snowboards. He answered that he does not have any personally unique habitats but like all other snowboarders, he never calls his last run. The last run is the snowboarders last trip down the slope for the day. By call, Jason means verbally stating. Jason has been snowboarding for four years. He learned about this snowboarding superstition through observation and also from a friend who snowboards. According to Jason, the belief is that if one calls his last run, he will have bad luck, such as getting physically hurt, during his run down the slope. From his observations, Jason says the majority of the snowboarders follow this superstitious belief.
By not declaring a run to be ones last one, a person could continue to snowboard. However, by declaring ones run to be his/her last one, it puts a sense of finality. The term last run could mean the last run ever in ones lifetime because a person could get hurt so he would not be able to snowboard for awhile or forever, or a person could die. Either situation would make that run the truly last run for that snowboarder. I believe that by not calling the last run, the snowboarder hopes he/she will have a safe run down the slope and will be able to return to snowboard again. One could most likely identify who is familiar with snowboarding and who is not judging by whether or not he/she calls his/her last run.