Renting a snowboard, buying a lift ticket and taking an all-day lesson would put a large dent in anyone’s wallet.

Unless you were at Mount Bachelor on Sunday – then it was free.

”It’s great to be able to come out and try it,” said Teresa Barrington of Bend. Barrington was snowboarding Sunday for the first time. ”And you don?t have to pay for it, so if you don’t like it you didn’t waste a lot of money.”

For six Sundays during the winter, Mount Bachelor offers free ski or snowboard lessons to the first 100 people who sign up. The free lessons include rentals, a ticket for the lower lifts and a discounted all-mountain lift ticket for those who complete the first two hours.

The catch?

The free lessons, which will happen again in February and March, are only for first-time skiers or boarders.

”The number one reason we offer the free lessons is to reach out to the community,” said instructor Greg Dixon of Bloomfield, New York. ”But it’s also great to get people hooked on a new sport, and hopefully they’ll come back to the mountain.”

While the lessons are open to anyone age 7 and up, assistant supervisor Andy Hansen said many of the first-timers are adults. The lessons teach the basics of skiing and snowboarding: balancing on the boards, moving across flat land and getting on and off the chair.

”Our number one concern is safety,” Hansen said. The instructors want to ensure that their students can safely negotiate their way down the slope and around other skiers before they send them up the bigger chair lifts, she said.

And after the beginners do figure out the basics, most of them love it.

”A lot of people are a little nervous or scared starting off,” said instructor Greg Albrecht. ”But after they get down the first time, then they are like little kids asking ‘can I go again, can I go again?’ ”

For Barrington and friend Amy Lameres of Eugene, the free introduction to snowboarding was a little painful. ”We pretty much fell getting on the lift, getting off the lift and everywhere in between,” said Lameres, who has been a skiing for more than 20 years.

But it’s all worth it.

”Oh we?ll definitely go again,” Barrington said, before getting back in the lift line. ”We’ve been having a great time.”

Mount Bachelor offers the lessons one Sunday a month and people must register in advance. For more information, check www.mtbachelor.com. For reservations, call 382-1709 or 800-829-2442.

Kelly Kearsley can be reached by calling 541-383-0375 or by sending an email to Kelly Kearsley.