I went snowboarding today for the first time, and damn is it difficult. When I was 12 I learned how to ski in less than an hour. I was on medium slopes by the end of my first day. Today however, I spent an hour an half lesson figuring out how not to completely wipe out, and then six hours on the slopes before I could get down a small green without falling down more than twice. I still didn’t feel very in control though.
dude, she was a transexual, and you couldn’t get it up.
My first day of skiing was pretty rough. By the end of the second day I was on blues.
My first day of snowboarding was a disaster. The heels of my hands were bruised from falling forward all the time. The second day was a little better. Third day was a blast. Snowboarding takes just a little longer to pick up, in my experience.
And I get shrinkage when it’s really cold.
Oh… Jeez. Trust me, I feel your pain. This winter was my first winter snowboarding (and I’m a fellow New Jerseyan… fancy that… where did you go?), and I cannot tell you how many times I broke my butt. The first time I went down the mountain i was on my feet for all of… oh, wait, I WASN’T! Yes, it was very difficult. I almost cried. I vowed to never go again.
But I did.
And you know what? You really do get better. I’m the least co-ordinated person you’ll ever meet, and I now find it safe to call myself a snowboarder. Stick with it.
Good luck!
Man, I had the opposite experience. Then again, I was a skateboarder as well. But the first day I was doing power speed runs and bouncing around moguls. Stick with it as soon you’ll find your legs and then it will be a blast.
Actually, what you accomplished today is pretty darned good. It took me the better part of a week until I could get down a green without falling more than twice.
Go out another day, you’ll really start whaling.
I have a theory about why learning to board is so hard for so many people. First is, you had to be a skater. The balance issues and the way you make turns are similiar.
But also, #2, when people try and teach snowboarding, they try and teach it on the same slopes as use for beginning skiers. This is wrong. On skis, you can snow-plow to turn. On a board, you must be moving, and not too slowly, to turn well. Flats are an absolute disaster for beginning boarders. And yet where do we teach them? On flats designed to keep beginning skiers slow.
If it were up to me, we’d teach beginning boarders to go straight down the hill first. No turning. 'Cause it’s a lot easier to go straight down than try and turn. The kind of hill you need for this is a very short but relatively steep one. Once you had everyone going straight down the hill consistently without falling, THEN you’d try and teach them about turning. But let them have some fun first and get their confidence that they can go down the hill on one of these things.
I think boarding is actually harder than skiing. That’s why I like it, it’s a challenge. But that
also means a steeper learning curve.
-Ben
cainxinth - This is an inappropriate post for this forum. Please do not post this type of comment again in this forum.
They say snowboarding is harder to learn but easier to master. I was on blue slopes by day 2, but this was only because I was trying to keep up with my friends, who all knew how to board already. I really didn’t know what I was doing, and it took me about 6 or 7 times before I was able to link my turns properly and do a whole run without biting it.
ModernRonin2 is totally right. I hadn’t thought about it that way before, but that’s how we teach our friends when they’re starting out, we take them to this little tiny rise behind the first lift that works really well just to get your feet under you.
AND I am going snowboarding for three days. Leaving tomorrow morning. Just finalized the plans, so I’m haaaappyyyyyyy. See y’all!