If, come the end of the winter, you find yourself struggling to deal with the prospect that you won’t win every contest you enter, you can always turn to music. The recorder or piccolo are easy to pick up, or the bongos, or perhaps the guitar.

Learning an instrument may require a mind-numbing dedication to executing a selection of standard riffs that you repeat in the same order, over and over – but it is nothing like snowboarding. Isolating yourself from distractions for several hours at a time will be important, as will hiring a good coach or teacher who will keep you on track when your motivation wanes. When you have finally learned to execute all the chord changes to perfection after a long summer spent on your own, you can unveil them to the world, and seek approval.

Like I said, nothing like snowboarding.