Snow Boarder Transition to Skier

Soylent_Green

Any boarders ever made the transition to skier? Reasonably competent boarder and love snow park and off piste, but the next time I go it'll probably be with at least one of the kids. Easier teaching them to ski if I am doing that too.

scottyboy

I am a boarder too and was thinking I may have to learn to ski to take my wee lad.

All depends on what age the kid is though. Whistler ski/board school will teach from 3 years although I think the norm for boarding is 5. What age is your kid? They might be old enough to board rather than ski and then you don't have to strap on the planks!

robinph

Surprised that places would take kids as young as 5 even for boarding lessons. Children just wouldn't have the strength in their legs for boarding until quite a bit older. Kids will have enough trouble getting to grips with balancing just standing on their feet at that age as they are physically disproprtioned anyway, and with the balance required for boarding being tougher than skiing they would need to be really determined to get much fun out of it that young.

scottyboy

I don't disagree with what you are saying as would have though 7+ would have been the norm but the Burton Learn To Ride schools will take 5+ and Whistler, which tends to do things the right way, allow 3+. I have seen the little ones, from the lift, at Whistler doing their thing on the special kiddies slopes. Although, Whistler is probably a special case that it has a separate area for kids.

Would hate to think I would have to hang up my board for 5+ years!! I guess I'll just board beside my son, that's if i can keep up!

Fattes

Soylent_Green, Actually had a border learning to ski with me over Christmas. He jumped into a class with 5- 6 week skiers and held his own!

Standard wasnt great and he kept on leaninig on his heels but he got it very quickly in the end and did well.

Principles of Balance are the same you just have to adjut it to having a narrow support under your feet

robinph

Also being stuck on the "wrong" mode of getting down the mountian for several years may not be so much of an issue either as they are unlikely to last a full day on the snow initially anyway. Depending on how things work out though you should get some time on your prefered method of transport between sticking the young ones in the snow school or taking turns with the OH minding them a other times.

goofygirl

Yup I did 3 seasons as a snowboarder, did my instructor exam etc then switched over to skis.

What I prefer on snowboard

- fresh pow
- open glades
- rails
- hiking

What I prefer on skis
- groomers
- moguuls
- cat tracks
- trees
- jumps
- not getting a soggy ass from having to crank my bindings every run

On a powder day there's no question I'll take my board out. I LOVE the surfy, floaty feeling of pow turns. No comparison. But in general I prefer skiing cause you've got much more maneuverability.

Skiing, by the way, is WAY harder than snowboarding. Not at the start you just point and go on skis. But it's soooo much more difficult to develop into a good off-piste skier than a boarder. And there's no wussing out on skis, you haven't got the fall-back option of being able to slip slide or falling leaf out. You. Have. To. Turn.

And if it's too tight/steep etc so help you God.

Soylent_Green

Son is only two now, but it'll be another 2 years before we manage to get away again since we just had another baby a few weeks ago. Was thinking 4 might be grand for skiing. Last year in Tignes there was some fantastic facilities for the ski bunnies. Will most likely do some lessons on the skis first. Would hate to be passed out by skiers who I was whizzing past last time.

davmol

INFIDELS!!!

Should be stoned to death for switching!!!!

kmick

I switched cause I went one time with a load of skiers. I was not back to square one but fairly close. Once I got the idea though I was carving in about 3 days.

paulharte

I seen boarders make the transition to skis and not even hit the deck once on their first day!! Its definitely an easier sport to pick up. you don't learn your turns on a board without 100+ crashes!

Fattes

Its definitely an easier sport to pick up

But a much harder to perfect

Don1

Boarder all the way, but out of morbid curiosty gave it a go.

Could ski switch down the learner run after 20 minutes and was turning proper on reds after an hour.

After 2 hours I got bored and my feet hurt, so I went back to my board.

petethedrummer

Boarding is tougher to begin with IMO. My first time on a mountain was snowbaording. I picked it up fairly quickly but the hard falls just wore me down by the end of the week. Every other snow holiday has been skiing. I found it much easier to going on the skis. I'm thinking of trying the snowboard again for a few days this year.

I think the general wisdom is that skiing is easier at the start but harder to master. or something like that.

petethedrummer

paulharte wrote: »

I seen boarders make the transition to skis and not even hit the deck once on their first day!! Its definitely an easier sport to pick up. you don't learn your turns on a board without 100+ crashes!

+1 on that

or as Eddie Izzard put it....

So I went snowboarding when I was in Aspen. And you look cool when you snowboard, you just look cool, you know? You cannot but look cool ‘cause you're nailed to a ****ing plank of wood. As long as you're vertical, you're going, "Hey, yes!" ( swishing sounds )

Skiing, you can be kinda… ( wobbles about ). There's a lot of that stuff, but this is just ( speeding sounds ). And there's only two positions in snowboarding: One is looking cool; the second is DEAD! Right? Pow!

http://www.auntiemomo.com/cakeordeath/d2ktranscription.html

...look for it on youtube.

opinion guy

paulharte wrote: »

I seen boarders make the transition to skis and not even hit the deck once on their first day!! Its definitely an easier sport to pick up. you don't learn your turns on a board without 100+ crashes!

Yeah but skiers switching to a board pick it up easy too. I only did one day boarding but using what I know from skiis was able to turn in couple of hours - even tried a jump but didn't quite land it. I think whichever one you do first is harder because its a completly new conceptualisation of balance. When you switch you already are used to moving on snow and balacing and edging to turn etc so its easier second time around.

Don1 wrote: »

Boarder all the way, but out of morbid curiosty gave it a go.

Could ski switch down the learner run after 20 minutes and was turning proper on reds after an hour.

After 2 hours I got bored and my feet hurt, so I went back to my board.

You had badly fitting boots. Get proper boots and then learn to carve which is an infinitely more fun way to ski than skid-turning down the slope