Skiers learn snowboarding takes time
Column by Heather Burke Dec. 23, 2007

It was the request from my kids I had feared. “Mom, I want to learn to snowboard.” After a decade of skiing, our two kids voiced those words of defection. We had started our son on skis at age one, admittedly that was premature (he was actually 23-months old). Then we got his sister on skis by three. After several seasons of pricey ski lessons, and countless runs on the bunny slopes with them holding onto our pant legs or ski poles, they advanced to be expert skiers.

How I love skiing with them now, sharing the same slopes, everyone having parallel fun, making turns side by side. My ski dreams come true. So the threat of breaking up our foursome of “skiers” sent a wintry chill through me.

As a snowsports journalist though, how could I deny my kids the opportunity to snowboard? My husband and I had said to our kids all along, “we taught you to ski, we bought you skis, if you want to snowboard – that’s on your own dime.” How fortuitous that Okemo Mountain was offering free learn to ski and ride lessons when we visited Vermont earlier this month.

So our 14 and 15 year olds signed up, went through the rental process, and met their instructor to launch their snowboard career.

As parents, Greg and I decided not to hover, so we boarded the chair for the upper mountain. As I watched their endeavor from the lift, I said “I should be joining them – after all it’s my job to report on the sport.” Just as the words left my mouth, both kids fell almost simultaneously, my daughter went backwards with spine-jarring force, my son slapped forward hard onto his wrists. “Never mind.” No need for me to throw in my years on skis, only to snap both wrists and be rendered unable to type my column.

After an hour of skiing, curiosity consumed me and we skied down to the base area to check on their lesson in progress. Carefully, cautiously, they were both making timid turns, riding the magic carpet between each methodical low speed run.

They survived their snowboard debut. Their instructor said a few more lessons and they’d be able to connect turns in both directions. Alistair Mahoney, Okemo snowboard instructor said, “A lesson is the key for learning the heel to toe, and toe to heel turning motion. Otherwise you’ll continue to hook either edge, and bam – you’re down. It’s about pivoting and weighting your board to initiate the turn.”

Mahoney said it really takes an entire season to master snowboarding, despite the perception (and what so many people had told me) that you can learn to snowboard in just three days and that learning to ride is far easier than learning to ski.

After my son’s lesson, Ian said, “If you are an intermediate or beginner skier and want to cross over to snowboarding, I think it would be easier than coming into it as an expert skier. Putting aside everything you have learned in skiing and starting all over with totally different techniques is hard. You’re still using your edges, so it’s good to have the concept of getting around the mountain from skiing, but snowboarding is the exact opposite of skiing in a lot of ways.”

Tookie Bright, Perfect Turn snowboard supervisor at Sugarloaf said she transitioned into snowboarding just last year, after skiing since she was 1 ½-years old, of course she snowboarded 100-days last season to accomplish this. “Everyone comes into a snowboard lesson with different strengths. A surfer has the advantage of a good stance for snowboarding, but doesn’t have the perspective of edging that a skier has,” said Bright. “I encourage our instructors to play on the strengths of each new rider and throw out the habits that aren’t helpful.”

Mahoney explained why learning to snowboard can be tricky. “They call it beginner’s luck when at first your body has no reference for what can go wrong. After you have fallen a few times, which happens when you are first learning to ride, your mind rejects that motion that made you fall – knowing that it’s going to hurt.” Mahoney cautions, “A lot of people get on the chairlift well before they should. Until you can connect turns in both directions, you are not ready for the terrain you will encounter.”

Neither of my kids was eager to sign up for the next day’s lesson. “My butt is too sore,” said my daughter, as a result of a few hard fallbacks. In fact, they were both happy to get back on their skis and carve some high speed turns. “I felt clumsy for the first two minutes back on my skis,” said my daughter Aspen, “but after a few turns I thought - this is so much easier, I can ski so much better and I don’t feel like a complete loser.”

Ian said, “I think it would be so cool to be able to do both, to go back and forth between skiing and snowboarding.”

I am proud of my kids for trying new tricks. Of course, I was glad to have them back carving double track turns with me again. Suffice it to say our boards are off, and our hats are off, to everyone that takes the challenge to learn to ride.