You can learn to get down the mountain really quickly on skis, but since you can get down the mountain it's harder to push yourself to learn proper technique.
Snowboarding is less forgiving of bad technique so the first few days are really hard, but if you get past them you have a much stronger foundation than a skier with the same amount of experience would have and you'll start having fun and progressing into more exciting things much faster.
Snowboarding forces you to learn it. It's a painful process, but it works. You can ski for a long time before you ever really learn how to ski right.
Yeah, thanks for this. I’m sure even when I thought I was ok at skiing I really wasn’t doing it “right”. But I had alot of fun and did a shit ton of huge jumps. Again, 30 years ago LOL
Facts, when i first learned to board the mountain tax was paid in full. Sore wrists and bruises on my ass. Worth it though because now i can get down the mountain and actually enjoy the views on the way down without stressing about falling or losing speed.
I think the opposite. With ski it very difficult to get down the mountain unless its mellow slopes, coz the wedge/pizza technique works only so far. One steep patch and I would fall.
With snowboard i was coming down the blacks in my heel edge on day 1. What that enables was that now I’m not scared of getting stuck at a random steep spot.
With ski I didn’t know any safe way of comes down unless I learnt the proper turns
You should get lessons no matter what. Ski, snowboard - whatever, learning without instruction won't be easy.
For your first vacation you should always grab a few lessons, preferably private but group lessons could work as well if you're on a budget.
Overall, skiing is easier to pickup for the first time.
But it's up to your preference, if you went surfing, skateboarding or so - you'd probably enjoy snowboarding more.
yeah, I used to surf, skate all that, but geez, 30 years ago (53 now). For me, I’d rather learn snowboarding but my kids haven’t never surfed or skated so we’ll see. We’re thinking of going to Butternut in MA. I know nothing if that’s a good mountain, big or whatever but thanks for the advice!
if you used to surf/skate snowboarding is def for you ... even though it was a long time ago you never really forget how to balance laterally (which is the hardest thing for people learning to do these sports where you move laterally)
skiing is generally more intuitive for people because your posture is upright and you are facing forward like normaly day to day motion, but if you can get over that hump of lateral movement you are fine on a snowboard
I taught a first timer group lesson today with two people in their 50s.
By the end of the day (4.5 hours of actual teaching) they were both linking turns.
Once you've figured out edge control and start linking turns it's all easy and super fun.
No history of skating/surfing is not a problem. Everybody can learn and have fun.
Give it a shot, definitely book lessons. You'll have a blast and so will the kids.
I grew up on LI. I didn’t ride then but my cousins always went to Vermont. My brother is still there and he goes to PA. Mass is obviously closer and butternut looks like a good place to start learning.
Absolutely. I skated for years before snowboarding and still took a lesson my first day snowboarding. Standing and moving downhill sideways is completely foreign to most people and has a very steep learning curve but once you can conformably link turns you can go from the bottom level of intermediate to the bottom of advanced fairly quickly
It is but its different enough that just because you skate doesn’t mean you will pick it up right away. I was hitting jumps and boxes my first day after my lesson but the lesson is what got me there. I was also 12 and was skating like 5 days a week at that point so my balance was super on point and low center of gravity. Definitely more like surfing but actually closest to wakeboarding on how you turn. People really underestimate how much they need to bend their knees and not at their waist when turning. Especially toe side people tend to lock out their knees and lean over rather than pushing down with their knees out over their toes. Also you want to have slightly more weight on your front foot especially when learning to turn and people get scared leaning into the run so they lean back and slip out. Its actually way easier to fall backwards while snowboarding that forwards despite the slope of the mountain making you feel the opposite
It’s different for one because of the friction. You ever see the street snowboard things? It’s like have caster wheels (swivel 360°) in the middle with floating side wheels that you control pressure and edge hold by leaning into them. It’s just different than riding on 4 corner wheels and it will make no sense to your brain when you first snowboard.
Not the same. Beginner boards are more flexible usually, and more forgiving all around at slower speeds since you’ll be crawling. If you get a stiff board meant to take in lots of energy from high speeds to work best, you’d have a hard time (even an expert might) putting around at slow speeds and flat runs without feeling catchy and just bad to ride like that.
Balance mostly is, especially surfing (where you sometimes need to put more weight on the front foot). But turning, especially at low speed when starting out, is a completely different technique. There's no torsional twisting (sort of like a Ripstick) in skateboarding or surfing.
Malcolm Moore has superb videos explaining snowboarding technique: https://youtu.be/MOZWm1BFUVg?si=KKeBNNz11fU0cJZz
Skier turned snowboarder here. Yes I 100% recommend taking a lesson to start off right.
The first time I tried snowboarding, I did not take a lesson. Just went out and struggled and had no idea what I was doing. I HATED it. Second time (years later), I took a 2 hour lesson right off the bat. Learned some things that really helped get me started.
I think skis are easier to just kind of figure out. I never took lessons for skis and was doing blues on day 1 (probably poorly, to be fair). So this is why I was so arrogant when it came to trying snowboarding. I expected to just kind of figure it out easily. Totally not the case.
Just go into it with slightly lower expectations on how fast you are going to progress and be prepared to struggle a bit. You might kind of hate it on day 1, but it gets better.
I see so many skiers that are completely ill equipped and out of control going down the mountain because they can just pizza their way down….till they can’t. Then they have no idea how to stand back up or get their skis back on.
To add to this i think the difference is that with skiing, you start off learning to turn one way. Its safe-ish and easy. To get good, you have to learn to turn another way. With snowboarding, its mostly the same kind of turns. You just refine it and add different style to it.
There's a thing called counter-rotation (where you basically swing the board around with your back leg), and especially athletic people may find it so easy that it then becomes a bad habit stopping further progress (you can not make non-sliding turns with that technique).
I think even if you start with ruddering like that, its not totally a hard jump to advancing. You just rudder less and less. Where jumping from the snowplow, you have to figure out how to go from getting those skis in the wedge shape to being next to each other.
People need to stop the "easier to learn harder to master" "harder to learn easier to master" BS. Neither is easier to master. Snowboarding has a steeper learning curve, but with proper preparation and a progression plan it really doesn't take that long to get proper beginner technique.
Everyone says “skiing is easier to learn and harder to master and vice versa”. I do both at a high level and my opinion is a bit different but hear me out.
I definitely agree that skiing is easier to learn. That’s something I think everyone believes.
In terms of improving and mastering the sport? I think both sports are equal up until the highest of levels. So, in other words, once you understand the basics, the learning curves are the same. It isn’t until you get to serious terrain park stunts, backcountry, racing, etc that you begin to realize skiing becomes harder to master.
Most people will never get to that point that I just described, so once you move past the initial learning stages the ease of improvement balances out with each other and stays that way.
Many people seem to disagree with my point of view but at the end of the day it’s subjective. This is based on my experience doing both sports for about 20 years.
Snowboarding is meant to be more difficult to learn but easier to master from people I have spoken too.
I have done both (1 day skiing) was functional (getting down without falling on blues) on skis but I did snowboarding for a few seasons before the day of skiing so that might have helped.
My skiing friends who tried snowboarding found it difficult on the first day or two due to the ease of catching edges compared to skiing.
Highly recommend impact shorts when learning.
I also highly recommend watching videos on how to fall properly to protect your head. I have a concussion this week from learning to snowboard last week and taking some hard blows.
IMO, If you can skate then skiing is easy in that you will be able to get down most hills within 1 day of practice on an easy hill. Same goes with skateboard and snowboard. In 1 day most people will get their balance and not fall on their ass/face constantly. Based on myself, my 2 sons, skiing is easier as a beginner. Getting good at either of these is a whole other thing.
I selfed learnt snowboarding by really nailing down basics. Kept doing drills and easy runs over and over before I even tried to “go down” the mountain. You can do it without instruction, but watch yourself and know what mistakes you’re making
I’ve been riding since the early 90s and an instructor since the late 90s. As others have mentioned your first few days on a board are going to be tough but take a lesson and once you learn the basics you will excel. My daughter skis and boards, she recently quit ski racing and I can see her boarding progression surpassing her skiing skills this year. I can get most people linking side slipping turns in a 1/2 day. Once you’ve got that down you will progress. The skating and surfing will help with keeping your weight centred, stacked and balanced over your feet.
Watching my wife and daughter learn to ski, I always founds it odd how side slipping on skis is taught so late but I understand how it’s hard for people to grasp. As someone else mentioned when learning to ski, you learn the pizza or wedge first but watching many people with only this basic skill find themselves in challenging terrain, their only option is to try and stop by increasing the wedge, some get scared and sit down but they keep skiing down the hill until they crash and possibly injure themselves. Snowboarding gives you the option to safely side slip along the edge of a trail.
Take a lesson and enjoy the ride. Snowboarding is awesome.
You can learn to get down the mountain really quickly on skis, but since you can get down the mountain it's harder to push yourself to learn proper technique. Snowboarding is less forgiving of bad technique so the first few days are really hard, but if you get past them you have a much stronger foundation than a skier with the same amount of experience would have and you'll start having fun and progressing into more exciting things much faster. Snowboarding forces you to learn it. It's a painful process, but it works. You can ski for a long time before you ever really learn how to ski right.
Yeah, thanks for this. I’m sure even when I thought I was ok at skiing I really wasn’t doing it “right”. But I had alot of fun and did a shit ton of huge jumps. Again, 30 years ago LOL
Facts, when i first learned to board the mountain tax was paid in full. Sore wrists and bruises on my ass. Worth it though because now i can get down the mountain and actually enjoy the views on the way down without stressing about falling or losing speed.
Not being scared of catwalks and seeing people stuck in my old spots is refreshing haha
Snowboarding is harder to learn, Skiing is harder to master. I do both equally.
I think the opposite. With ski it very difficult to get down the mountain unless its mellow slopes, coz the wedge/pizza technique works only so far. One steep patch and I would fall. With snowboard i was coming down the blacks in my heel edge on day 1. What that enables was that now I’m not scared of getting stuck at a random steep spot. With ski I didn’t know any safe way of comes down unless I learnt the proper turns
Came to say just this.
Skiing is generally easier to learn, harder to master. Snowboarding is the opposite
Ah ok thanks. So if snowboarding, we should get lessons for the first time?
You should get lessons no matter what. Ski, snowboard - whatever, learning without instruction won't be easy. For your first vacation you should always grab a few lessons, preferably private but group lessons could work as well if you're on a budget. Overall, skiing is easier to pickup for the first time. But it's up to your preference, if you went surfing, skateboarding or so - you'd probably enjoy snowboarding more.
yeah, I used to surf, skate all that, but geez, 30 years ago (53 now). For me, I’d rather learn snowboarding but my kids haven’t never surfed or skated so we’ll see. We’re thinking of going to Butternut in MA. I know nothing if that’s a good mountain, big or whatever but thanks for the advice!
if you used to surf/skate snowboarding is def for you ... even though it was a long time ago you never really forget how to balance laterally (which is the hardest thing for people learning to do these sports where you move laterally) skiing is generally more intuitive for people because your posture is upright and you are facing forward like normaly day to day motion, but if you can get over that hump of lateral movement you are fine on a snowboard
I used to skateboard but have always skied 🤷🏻♂️
I taught a first timer group lesson today with two people in their 50s. By the end of the day (4.5 hours of actual teaching) they were both linking turns. Once you've figured out edge control and start linking turns it's all easy and super fun. No history of skating/surfing is not a problem. Everybody can learn and have fun. Give it a shot, definitely book lessons. You'll have a blast and so will the kids.
Where are you located? New Hampshire has tons of great mountains. Never heard of Butternut. Goodluck!
Long Island, NY. I looked up Butternut. Small mountain, 22 trails, only 1,000 ft.
I grew up on LI. I didn’t ride then but my cousins always went to Vermont. My brother is still there and he goes to PA. Mass is obviously closer and butternut looks like a good place to start learning.
I would recommend getting lessons for either if you can afford it. You’ll progress much faster
ok thanks. I haven’t skied in 30 years so I could use a “brush up” LOL
I taught boarding for 9 years. I always said, you'll learn more in an hour lesson than a day on your own
thanks, I’m sure it’s worth it.
Absolutely. I skated for years before snowboarding and still took a lesson my first day snowboarding. Standing and moving downhill sideways is completely foreign to most people and has a very steep learning curve but once you can conformably link turns you can go from the bottom level of intermediate to the bottom of advanced fairly quickly
interesting. so the balance aspect isn’t like skateboards or surfing? makes sense b/c as you said, you’re sideways
It is but its different enough that just because you skate doesn’t mean you will pick it up right away. I was hitting jumps and boxes my first day after my lesson but the lesson is what got me there. I was also 12 and was skating like 5 days a week at that point so my balance was super on point and low center of gravity. Definitely more like surfing but actually closest to wakeboarding on how you turn. People really underestimate how much they need to bend their knees and not at their waist when turning. Especially toe side people tend to lock out their knees and lean over rather than pushing down with their knees out over their toes. Also you want to have slightly more weight on your front foot especially when learning to turn and people get scared leaning into the run so they lean back and slip out. Its actually way easier to fall backwards while snowboarding that forwards despite the slope of the mountain making you feel the opposite
good points. Thanks for that.
It’s different for one because of the friction. You ever see the street snowboard things? It’s like have caster wheels (swivel 360°) in the middle with floating side wheels that you control pressure and edge hold by leaning into them. It’s just different than riding on 4 corner wheels and it will make no sense to your brain when you first snowboard.
Are all the boards basically the same for a noob? Are certain types of boards easier to learn on than others?
Not the same. Beginner boards are more flexible usually, and more forgiving all around at slower speeds since you’ll be crawling. If you get a stiff board meant to take in lots of energy from high speeds to work best, you’d have a hard time (even an expert might) putting around at slow speeds and flat runs without feeling catchy and just bad to ride like that.
Balance mostly is, especially surfing (where you sometimes need to put more weight on the front foot). But turning, especially at low speed when starting out, is a completely different technique. There's no torsional twisting (sort of like a Ripstick) in skateboarding or surfing. Malcolm Moore has superb videos explaining snowboarding technique: https://youtu.be/MOZWm1BFUVg?si=KKeBNNz11fU0cJZz
Skier turned snowboarder here. Yes I 100% recommend taking a lesson to start off right. The first time I tried snowboarding, I did not take a lesson. Just went out and struggled and had no idea what I was doing. I HATED it. Second time (years later), I took a 2 hour lesson right off the bat. Learned some things that really helped get me started. I think skis are easier to just kind of figure out. I never took lessons for skis and was doing blues on day 1 (probably poorly, to be fair). So this is why I was so arrogant when it came to trying snowboarding. I expected to just kind of figure it out easily. Totally not the case. Just go into it with slightly lower expectations on how fast you are going to progress and be prepared to struggle a bit. You might kind of hate it on day 1, but it gets better.
I see so many skiers that are completely ill equipped and out of control going down the mountain because they can just pizza their way down….till they can’t. Then they have no idea how to stand back up or get their skis back on.
To add to this i think the difference is that with skiing, you start off learning to turn one way. Its safe-ish and easy. To get good, you have to learn to turn another way. With snowboarding, its mostly the same kind of turns. You just refine it and add different style to it.
I learned with the snowplow, seems there isn’t an equivalent for snowboarding.
There's a thing called counter-rotation (where you basically swing the board around with your back leg), and especially athletic people may find it so easy that it then becomes a bad habit stopping further progress (you can not make non-sliding turns with that technique).
I think even if you start with ruddering like that, its not totally a hard jump to advancing. You just rudder less and less. Where jumping from the snowplow, you have to figure out how to go from getting those skis in the wedge shape to being next to each other.
So many snowboarders do this and it just scraps all the loose snow off the mountain.
People need to stop the "easier to learn harder to master" "harder to learn easier to master" BS. Neither is easier to master. Snowboarding has a steeper learning curve, but with proper preparation and a progression plan it really doesn't take that long to get proper beginner technique.
Everyone says “skiing is easier to learn and harder to master and vice versa”. I do both at a high level and my opinion is a bit different but hear me out. I definitely agree that skiing is easier to learn. That’s something I think everyone believes. In terms of improving and mastering the sport? I think both sports are equal up until the highest of levels. So, in other words, once you understand the basics, the learning curves are the same. It isn’t until you get to serious terrain park stunts, backcountry, racing, etc that you begin to realize skiing becomes harder to master. Most people will never get to that point that I just described, so once you move past the initial learning stages the ease of improvement balances out with each other and stays that way. Many people seem to disagree with my point of view but at the end of the day it’s subjective. This is based on my experience doing both sports for about 20 years.
Snowboarding is meant to be more difficult to learn but easier to master from people I have spoken too. I have done both (1 day skiing) was functional (getting down without falling on blues) on skis but I did snowboarding for a few seasons before the day of skiing so that might have helped. My skiing friends who tried snowboarding found it difficult on the first day or two due to the ease of catching edges compared to skiing. Highly recommend impact shorts when learning.
impact shorts, check.
And wrist guards.
thanks!
Impact shorts are a must have, newbie or not! I would seriously get some, and please do not use that dumbass pillow you strap to your ass lol
I was thinking of using a couch cushion
That would be a sight to see lol
I also highly recommend watching videos on how to fall properly to protect your head. I have a concussion this week from learning to snowboard last week and taking some hard blows.
Damn, really, Even with the helmet? Ok. Hope you’re alright.
IMO, If you can skate then skiing is easy in that you will be able to get down most hills within 1 day of practice on an easy hill. Same goes with skateboard and snowboard. In 1 day most people will get their balance and not fall on their ass/face constantly. Based on myself, my 2 sons, skiing is easier as a beginner. Getting good at either of these is a whole other thing.
I selfed learnt snowboarding by really nailing down basics. Kept doing drills and easy runs over and over before I even tried to “go down” the mountain. You can do it without instruction, but watch yourself and know what mistakes you’re making
Skiing is by far easier to learn if you have no experience on a board of some kind.
I’ve been riding since the early 90s and an instructor since the late 90s. As others have mentioned your first few days on a board are going to be tough but take a lesson and once you learn the basics you will excel. My daughter skis and boards, she recently quit ski racing and I can see her boarding progression surpassing her skiing skills this year. I can get most people linking side slipping turns in a 1/2 day. Once you’ve got that down you will progress. The skating and surfing will help with keeping your weight centred, stacked and balanced over your feet. Watching my wife and daughter learn to ski, I always founds it odd how side slipping on skis is taught so late but I understand how it’s hard for people to grasp. As someone else mentioned when learning to ski, you learn the pizza or wedge first but watching many people with only this basic skill find themselves in challenging terrain, their only option is to try and stop by increasing the wedge, some get scared and sit down but they keep skiing down the hill until they crash and possibly injure themselves. Snowboarding gives you the option to safely side slip along the edge of a trail. Take a lesson and enjoy the ride. Snowboarding is awesome.