To Board or To Ski: Which is Right?

Which is easier to learn, skiing or snowboarding? Many first time visitors to the slopes ask this question. This depends on your definition of easy. Do you want to be able to ride the lift right away? Or would you rather be able to ride that black diamond in a day or two? There are advantages to both skiing and snowboarding.

Skiing is most like ice-skating or rollerblading. You have the ability to use both of your feet independently of each other. For some of the less coordinated this can be a disadvantage, but with a little practice it can become easy. Another advantage to learning to ski is having poles to help you balance. These two shafts help you move around on flat ground and help keep you in place on sloped plains. On the first day skiing, you should be able to ‘snowplow’ or ‘pizza’ your way down the hill. This simply involves pointing your toes towards each other, slowing you down. This should allow you to ride the lift to an easy slope or even intermediate run in the first day. In the next couple of days, parallel carving should be easy enough. After this however, the learning curve begins to slow down.

Snowboarding is most like skateboarding or surfing. Although your feet are strapped to one board this can be helpful. No crossing of skis keeps your legs from twisting up. Also you don’t have to worry about keeping both feet together as they can’t really move that far apart. Snowboarding takes a few days to get the hang of. Learning to control the edges of the board is tough. If you use too much edge you can loose you balance and fall, but not using enough edge can cause you to catch the other and once again fall. Finding the balance between the two is one of the most important skills when first learning. Once you can turn and stop, which are very closely related, snowboarding becomes very easy to learn. Riding intermediate and advanced slopes within the first few weeks is very possible. Hitting jumps and grinding rails are two other options that open up very quickly when learning to snowboard.

Both skiing and snowboarding are easy to pick up if you have a little patience and a little time. Which you choose is ultimately up to you. So why not take a ride and try both? I guarantee both will be fun and well worth your time.