The Beginner’s Guide to Snowboarding

As you can imagine the first time you hit the slopes, snowboarding isn’t a skill that you pick up overnight. It’s something that comes with the muscle memory of at least a few weeks of practice, picking up as you experience, not necessarily as you learn. So how exactly do you get started snowboarding, especially if you’d rather just enjoy yourself rather than play at the X-Games? Here’s the blueprint for you snowboarding rookies.

Remember that experience beats knowledge any day of the week. I may know about different snowboards. I may know about the different techniques involved. I may know which snowboarding hills are considered the best in America. But without the experience and direct muscle memory associated with actual real-world skills, I won’t be able to out-snowboard anybody.

It’s important to remember throughout your entire journey with snowboarding, nothing can substitute good practice. Everything else you learn is simply to optimize the experience you get out of this practice. Remember that, log in your hours on the slopes, and you’ll do just fine.

Make your experience suit your tastes. Now that you know that experience will be crucial to your level of snowboarding prowess, it’s time to determine what kind of experience you’ll get. If you just want to snowboard to have fun, you probably won’t need to be concerned with advancing your skills on the more difficult runs and hills. Don’t be afraid to embrace the beginner’s hills, especially at first, simply so that you can get the most possible enjoyment out of your new hobby.

As for your styles and tastes, the way you snowboard will be up to you. You can choose your clothes, your hats, and even the hills you ride on. Part of making snowboarding fun is adding your own flair and originality to the slopes. Coupled with the solid skills that can only be borne out of experience, you may even look like a professional snowboarder to the untrained eye. Make sure you enjoy your snowboarding experience and that the way you snowboard expresses the joy you get from it.

Get in touch with an instructor if need be. An instructor doesn’t have to take you from zero to sixty over the period of several years – sometimes, an instructor only needs to hand you the blueprint. Work with an instructor for some beginner’s courses, and let them know the kind of competence you’d like to achieve.

Photo Credits: at@flickr

Originally posted 2009-08-20 03:00:22.

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snowboard tips, snowboarding basics

Posted by Ski Snowboarder on November 19, 2009 in snowboard tips, snowboarding basics. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.