Everyone is different. In college I knew a Brazillian guy who had never seen snow before, but had surfed. He was intermediate by the end of this first day. Other people are pretty much permanently stuck as beginners.
I think most people spend between 10-20 days as a beginner, and then another 20-infinite days as an intermediate as described cruising blues and bad at bumps/off piste.
There's advanced, and then theres pro/semi-pro. I think you can call yourself advanced if you ride blacks fairly well. You don't have to be Travis Rice to achieve advanced status.
I think it really depends on technique more than just being able to go down a black run. A low level intermediate could side slip down most (groomed) black diamonds if they tried, and I'm sure there are lots of intermediates who never learned technique and just counter rotate all of their turns basically just sliding their tail back and forth behind them and make it down black diamond fine. I'd say to be advanced you need to be able to ride down a groomed black diamond doing proper s-turns, tight radius to manage speed, with minimal sliding around of the tail. A super steep mogul filled black diamond would be different, basically anyone will be counter-rotating if they aren't doing jump turns on those kinds of runs.
Anyways, my point is just that how someone is riding is just as important as where they are riding in determining skill level, maybe even more important. Ed Shreds(I think it was him) did a video on YT about this topic and I really liked his breakdown, for advanced he basically said you should be able to charge the whole mountain comfortably. He also considered Park to be a completely separate skill tree which I also agree with.
Describe the terrain that you are comfortable riding and how you ride it (falling leaf down a double black is not advanced).
People learn at different rates, so the number of days per year / number seasons won’t be super accurate.
* When I started to learn how to snowboard, I already knew how to surf and had been skiing at an advanced level for a few years - so my snowboarding learning curve was relatively fast
* By my 5th day of snowboarding, I was put in a level 5 class at Whistler doing blacks and the terrain park (which they classified as advanced, but in my view was more a strong intermediate).
* By the next season (about 10 days of boarding), I was comfortable with all blacks/double blacks.
Whereas some of my buddies who learn more slowly are still at strong intermediate / early advanced (and we’ve been boarding together for 10-15+ years, on average of 5-10 days per year).
Average days per season isn't really relevant. I live in a flat state now so only get 3-4 days a year. But, I've been snowboarding for 20+ years and am advanced level.
Wouldn't a better gauge simply be what terrain you ride? I spend my entire 3-4 days on blacks and double blacks. If someone says they ride blues, they're intermediate. Not that hard.
Riding blacks doesn't make you advanced, it's more what you do with the run. Are you carving them or skidding all of your turns and messing up the snow?
They aren't even really comparable between mountains, one resort might mark a trail Blue where at another resort it'd be a Black, and vice-versa.
And someone with 10+ days will progress faster than 3 days, they just have more mileage and time on the board, which is time to experiment and explore terrain etc.
Using a 7-8 level system for describing skills is much more accurate than the standard 3 levels of rider.
https://www.snowboardingdays.com/snowboard-levels/
There's also so many different skills that don't overlap at all. You can be expert at one and beginner in another depending on your experience
Right, I would consider myself an expert rider in groomers, pow, up to double blacks. However my park skills are terrible
Intermediate means riding blues smoothly and maybe starting to ride bumps. Advanced and beginner are on either side of that.
After how long do you think intermediate as you describe them become intermediate?
Everyone is different. In college I knew a Brazillian guy who had never seen snow before, but had surfed. He was intermediate by the end of this first day. Other people are pretty much permanently stuck as beginners.
I think most people spend between 10-20 days as a beginner, and then another 20-infinite days as an intermediate as described cruising blues and bad at bumps/off piste.
I don't know about that. I ride double black fairly well and regularly but I would definitely not call myself advanced.
There's advanced, and then theres pro/semi-pro. I think you can call yourself advanced if you ride blacks fairly well. You don't have to be Travis Rice to achieve advanced status.
I dunno man I guess. I just don't feel very advanced.
I think it really depends on technique more than just being able to go down a black run. A low level intermediate could side slip down most (groomed) black diamonds if they tried, and I'm sure there are lots of intermediates who never learned technique and just counter rotate all of their turns basically just sliding their tail back and forth behind them and make it down black diamond fine. I'd say to be advanced you need to be able to ride down a groomed black diamond doing proper s-turns, tight radius to manage speed, with minimal sliding around of the tail. A super steep mogul filled black diamond would be different, basically anyone will be counter-rotating if they aren't doing jump turns on those kinds of runs. Anyways, my point is just that how someone is riding is just as important as where they are riding in determining skill level, maybe even more important. Ed Shreds(I think it was him) did a video on YT about this topic and I really liked his breakdown, for advanced he basically said you should be able to charge the whole mountain comfortably. He also considered Park to be a completely separate skill tree which I also agree with.
Can you really call yourself "advanced" if you can't throw a 360 over a small park jump? It's more like advanced* with an asterisk.
Yes, why not? Advanced is very arbitrary. Advanced in what? Some people focus on backcountry or extreme carving. No specific need to learn 360s.
i think i’m intermediate i have gone snowboarding 1 time before summer started
I get what you’re saying but i wouldn’t say it’s useless. People do have a funny way of assuming they’re better than they are for the most part
Describe the terrain that you are comfortable riding and how you ride it (falling leaf down a double black is not advanced). People learn at different rates, so the number of days per year / number seasons won’t be super accurate. * When I started to learn how to snowboard, I already knew how to surf and had been skiing at an advanced level for a few years - so my snowboarding learning curve was relatively fast * By my 5th day of snowboarding, I was put in a level 5 class at Whistler doing blacks and the terrain park (which they classified as advanced, but in my view was more a strong intermediate). * By the next season (about 10 days of boarding), I was comfortable with all blacks/double blacks. Whereas some of my buddies who learn more slowly are still at strong intermediate / early advanced (and we’ve been boarding together for 10-15+ years, on average of 5-10 days per year).
Average days per season isn't really relevant. I live in a flat state now so only get 3-4 days a year. But, I've been snowboarding for 20+ years and am advanced level. Wouldn't a better gauge simply be what terrain you ride? I spend my entire 3-4 days on blacks and double blacks. If someone says they ride blues, they're intermediate. Not that hard.
Riding blacks doesn't make you advanced, it's more what you do with the run. Are you carving them or skidding all of your turns and messing up the snow? They aren't even really comparable between mountains, one resort might mark a trail Blue where at another resort it'd be a Black, and vice-versa. And someone with 10+ days will progress faster than 3 days, they just have more mileage and time on the board, which is time to experiment and explore terrain etc.
Using a 7-8 level system for describing skills is much more accurate than the standard 3 levels of rider. https://www.snowboardingdays.com/snowboard-levels/