Snowboarding for Geeks
xfive.co
Snowboarding for Geeks
1–10 of 219 posts
Re: Snowboarding for Geeks
#2This is the kind of content I come to HN for. :)
Re: Snowboarding for Geeks
#3+1. Always wanted to learn to Ski not having been exposed to snow early on but was told that Snowboarding is easier than Skiing for absolute beginners. Perhaps this time i can actually get some proper lessons. Timing couldn't be perfect!. Thanks.
Re: Snowboarding for Geeks
#4Is there an equivalent for skiing?
Re: Snowboarding for Geeks
#5+1. Always wanted to learn to Ski not having been exposed to snow early on but was told that Snowboarding is easier than Skiing for absolute beginners. Perhaps this time i can actually get some proper lessons. Timing couldn't be perfect!. Thanks.
My experience has been the opposite. Skiing is easier at slow speeds and has a shorter learning curve, but takes a lot longer to get good. Snow boarding has a higher learning curve and is harder at slow speeds, but once it clicks you can do most anything on the mountain in a couple of days.
Skiing was intuitive and my body wanted to do enough of the right thing to get me down most of the beginner slope with little "learning". Snowboarding felt unnatural so i had to fight my bodies natural instincts. The trick with snowboarding is to go faster than feels comfortable at first because it is much easier when you have momentum.
Re: Snowboarding for Geeks
#6+1. Always wanted to learn to Ski not having been exposed to snow early on but was told that Snowboarding is easier than Skiing for absolute beginners. Perhaps this time i can actually get some proper lessons. Timing couldn't be perfect!. Thanks.
My experience has been the opposite. Skiing is easier at slow speeds and has a shorter learning curve, but takes a lot longer to get good. Snow boarding has a higher learning curve and is harder at slow speeds, but once it clicks you can do most anything on the mountain in a couple of days. Skiing was intuitive and my body wanted to do enough of the right thing to get me down most of the beginner slope with little "l…
> way you have to lean with snowboarding felt unnatural so i had to fight my bodies natural instincts.
I had the same feeling with skiing.
1. Lean forward to stop and get control when ur instinct is to lean back to stop the glide.
2. lean on the opposite side of where you want to go, you want to lean in the same direction.
etc
Re: Snowboarding for Geeks
#7+1. Always wanted to learn to Ski not having been exposed to snow early on but was told that Snowboarding is easier than Skiing for absolute beginners. Perhaps this time i can actually get some proper lessons. Timing couldn't be perfect!. Thanks.
I don’t think it actually is easier, from my experience based on learning years ago on a school trip, where a lot of people skied and about a dozen of us boarded. It seemed that the beginner skiers were able to navigate more of the resort faster than us boarders over the first two or so days. But after about three days with a lesson in the morning and riding on our own all afternoon, the difference had pretty much disappeared, and the more adventurous of us of either type were doing intermediate difficulty runs pretty easily.
So apart from the first couple of days, I don’t think it really makes that much difference.
The biggest difference to me, I have to admit, is that once you get the hang of it, snowboarding feels cooler and more fun than skiing looks (to me), but I’m sure skiing is a lot of fun too (especially if you want to go very fast, which is a lot easier on skis)! But for the first day or two of boarding, you spend a lot of time on your butt and falling over!
Re: Snowboarding for Geeks
#8Riding hardboots since the 90's. Lots of gear tweakers in that scene. People treating their clothing with certain kinds of stuff they treat sails with to not rip them to shreds when doing continuous laid down linked turns, boots modifications for extra flexibility, experimenting with all kinds of shapes and materials and hours and hours of talk about edge pressure.
I tried Driver X boots for example. Way to rigid compared to the forward flex of my hardboots!
Re: Snowboarding for Geeks
#9+1. Always wanted to learn to Ski not having been exposed to snow early on but was told that Snowboarding is easier than Skiing for absolute beginners. Perhaps this time i can actually get some proper lessons. Timing couldn't be perfect!. Thanks.
>but was told that Snowboarding is easier than Skiing for absolute beginners.
I think the "easier" depends on the target skill level.
Skiiing is easier to achieve a beginner skill level. Absolute beginners can point their toes inward and ski "pizza wedges" down easy hills rated as "green" within a few hours. Indeed, many skiiers including adults never leave this stage. But upgrading the skills to intermediate level requires changing the technique to shift the body weight to the edges of the skis. This shift can take weeks.
Snowboarding learning curve is the opposite. It's harder to get going as a beginner because you must balance on alternating edges of the board to even make the simplest basic turns. But the payoff is that you can graduate to intermediate and advanced slopes (the blues and black rated trails) much faster.
Re: Snowboarding for Geeks
#10+1. Always wanted to learn to Ski not having been exposed to snow early on but was told that Snowboarding is easier than Skiing for absolute beginners. Perhaps this time i can actually get some proper lessons. Timing couldn't be perfect!. Thanks.
Just a warning, snowboarding is traditionally considered more difficult for beginners than skiing. This is mostly because your legs are in fixed positions, so you have fewer independent points of contact with the ground (so balance is worse).