# How did you guys start snowboarding?



## lab49232 (Sep 13, 2011)

Growing up in the glory days of the sport right as it was hitting mainstream popularity on tv and the like. Begged for years to go, parents never wanted to schlep 3 kids up to the mole hills in Michigan until one Christmas morning they woke us up and were just like hey you guys wanna go do this. Killed myself for an entire day including night riding. Didn't even stop to take a bathroom break. I literally couldn't buckle my own seatbelt when we drove home without nearly every muscle I had cramping.

That being said, get yourself a lesson and you'll avoid a LOT of initial hurdles that are more painful than fun for some people.


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## wrathfuldeity (Oct 5, 2007)

18 yrs ago, at the ripe age of 44 my kids talked me into trying it. Beat the living crap out of myself, but had not has as much fun in the snow since I was a kid. Grew up in Nebraska so there was only sledding down wee little mole holes. One of these days I should take a lesson...but I enjoy the pain too much.


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## 16gkid (Dec 5, 2012)

Friends were always into snowboarding, I thought it was super lame for a long time  , was bored one weekend and accepted an invite to tag along with some friends up to a local hill in wisconsin,I figured even if I hated it, we had plenty of beers. Fell in love and started lamenting the years I could have spend riding.


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## Donutz (May 12, 2010)

I was one of the volunteer parents who went with my daughter's school for ski lessons. While I was standing around on the snow freezing my toes off, a couple of snowboarders rocketed past. It looked like fun, so I rented the equipment next time up.

In retrospect, it was probably pretty embarrassing. Which is why I'm a big advocate of lessons.


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## Snowdaddy (Feb 2, 2018)

I grew up doing a lot of cross country and alpine skiing. Somewhere in my late teens I grew bored of it and wanted try snowboarding instead. Rented a snowboards with a cousin when we were skiing in the Alps. Took the gondola to the top and strapped into our hard boot setups. Since I had done a lot skateboarding it wasn't all that hard keeping my balance. Unfortunately my cousin broke both his arms on our first day so it ended there.

More than 20 years later, after a long break from skiing, it was time to get up into the mountains with my family and some friends. I rented a snowboard and alternated between that and skis. Snowboarded a couple of days on a useless rental and managed to go around the mountain after a couple of days.

The next year when my kids didn't need me to have skis I tossed the skis and never looked back.


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## Oldman (Mar 7, 2012)

My wife as a teacher used to take her French class on a three day French immersion program north of Montreal, a small town and hill called St. Donat. She did the trip over 10 times and I went along for about the last 5 or 6. I used to take my skis, but never really loved skiing, required too much focus all the time. One day I'm riding the lift with another teacher and I say to him, "Those kids on boards look so relaxed in their body language, I think I want to give it a try" We made a pack that on the trip next year we were going to give it a try.

Next year arrived and we arrive at the resort and I was talking to one of the program directors stating that we wanted to give the board a try. We had brought our skis in case it wasn't for us. He said to us, " Look, you are here for three days. Get a board and go straight to the bunny hill with the students for the learn to ride lessons. Stay on the board for the full three days you are here. Trust me, but the end of the three days you will know if riding is for you."
Well damn if he was not spot on. At the age of 49 I was in love with it after just one day. Interesting that the other teacher, who was a very good skier, gave it an honest try, but was never hooked and stayed with skiing.

Like Donutz, I cannot stress enough how important it is to go straight to a lesson when learning to ride. You will save yourself a lot of pain and suffering, ( see Wrath's comments above, but then he admits to loving pain  

We all got started in different ways, but should you get hooked, your life will have a new dimension to it that you would never have experienced.


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## smellysell (Oct 29, 2018)

December of 2017 my son wanted to start snowboarding, so I decided to learn with him, and the big bit me hard immediately. After 2 times renting, bought my own setup and went 75ish times the next season, and was on pace for about the same this year before Coronacation.

Sent from my Pixel 3 XL using Tapatalk


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## Snowdaddy (Feb 2, 2018)

I used to build my own "snowboards" when I was a kid. Once I actually nailed my skis together and nailed my sneakers to them... dad wasn't super pleased.


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## WigMar (Mar 17, 2019)

My friends and I started riding skateboard decks on the snow when we were really little. Then, my uncles took me snowboarding when I was twelve. I broke my wrist right away, but I tucked it into my coat and kept trying to shred all day. Between my parents and getting into other things, I didn't snowboard again until I was eighteen and on my own. My buddies took me to Copper and I rode someone's sister's board with my hiking boots. I loved it so much that I got some used gear that week! I was on a downhill skate team at the time, and snowboarding felt like heaven immediately. I've been snowboarding as much as possible for the last eighteen years. I can't imagine my life without it.


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## LeDe (May 16, 2018)

I was about 14/15 years old, had been skiing since I am was 6 and l really liked it. But some of my friends had been snowboarding for a couple of years. 
My mum finally agreed to rent me a board and got me and my brother a few lessons. 
Well, I knew straight away I would never be a skier anymore. 
I enjoyed the pain, the hour spent stuck in the pow. The "worst" part was the snowpark, riding with better rider who also skateboarded, I could only use my size and power to jump higher and further to "impress the crew", no style, no brain, no 360 but backflips, very few clean landing, lots of pain, beers and others stuffs would make up for it. 
We did not have all those free tutorials online and I was way too stupid to use them anyway. 
What amazes me today is that though as I am now so scared of impact, I wish I could get some proper air again, but I am ever more in love with the whole thing, the learning, the tech now, just being in the mountain with friends (or not) no matter the condition. 
I hope so hard we'll all have a great season next year.

All the best,


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## NT.Thunder (Jan 4, 2020)

I grew up in Tasmania for a large part of my youth and throughout school was doing all the outdoor education classes doing rockclimbing, x-country skiing and building snow caves and spending weekends bushwalking and sleeping up the mountains. Also spent much of my time in the water surfing and sailing so just love being outside.

Joined the Air-Force in 93 and left Tas for basic and trade training which was close to the snowfields and I actually think it really started as just somewhere new to drink beers with mates. Loved it and have been on again off again for 25 years depending on jobs and where we've been living. Really loving it these last few years back boarding now my daughter is old enough to join me and really into her skiing. Love the time on the mountain with my daughter. Love travelling with the family.


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## neni (Dec 24, 2012)

wrathfuldeity said:


> One of these days I should take a lesson...


I keep telling myself this year after year after year...

I grew up on skis living next to small resorts (back in the 80ties, skiing was BIG in Switzerland; skiing camps were mandatory part of the school itinerary; we 10yo kids were shooed on a bus to go to skiing classes - or later - racing every weekend). I hurt myself frequently when ski racing; usually twisted knees. Skis were no joke back then.

Got on the first board in '92 (never put a foot on a ski ever since). Board was an oversized monster which I hardly could maneuver. Snowboarding lessons didn't exist. I didn't learn much in those days. And it didn't click.

After a long hiatus, when I begun to date a new guy who was heavily into snowboarding, alas, I got out the now 10yo boots, got an old board handed from him, and here I was, back at start, trying again to learn to maneuver.

As he and his pack were seasoned riders already then, I learned by copying and simply by "try to follow and try to survive". They were a quite mean bunch as they didn't slow down much, and laughed their ass off about my failures frequently (usually tomahawks in deep). However, the first time I was riding pow back in those days, I sooo fell in love with snowboarding, I became the more obsessed part (and certainly the gear whore of the family).

I never picked up the easy going fun mockaround playful way of riding. Sometimes I regret it. I also regret that I never took lessons, as my learning curve would have been steeper, I'm sure. However, by trial and error and lots of repetition, I got to the level to be able to ride steep and deep in BC confidently, which is the type of riding I enjoy most. So... all good.

And... the guy meanwhile became the husband, riding buddy ever since


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## deagol (Mar 26, 2014)

I started in 1987. I saw a snowboard in a shop (Burton Elite 145). Bribed my parents to get it for me. I earned it by splitting a chord of firewood into smaller pieces. We had a slope in the backyard that served as a make shift ski run- it wasn't steep but it was probably 150 feet long maybe. Back then, it did snow enough to turn it into a reliable "ski run". enough to stand and balance on and make maybe 3-4 "turns". Nowadays, it doesn't snow anywhere near enough or stay cold enough for that to work there, not that parents still even own that property anymore anyway. I used moon boots at first, then upgraded to generic Sorels. Wrapped ankles in ace bandages for support the first time we went to a ski area in spring of 1988. Shawn Palmer yelled "you suck" at me from the chairlift. He was correct.


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## drblast (Feb 28, 2017)

In 1998/99 my college roommate invited me to a Christian ski retreat near Massanutten, VA. I'm not Christian but he promised it would be mostly snowboarding and not a lot of talking about Jesus. That wasn't entirely true but I did get out for about 8 hours in sweat pants and a jogging suit, broken rental gear, no goggles, in spring slush conditions in February. They were snowmaking which made visibility without goggles quite the challenge.

I did not do well that first day but I went out and bought a cheap setup on sale that spring. The next winter for whatever reason something clicked and I could ride without falling much down blues the first time I went out. I rode that board for years until I got a Burton Dominant, also on sale, that weighed about half as much.

I had grown up skateboarding and skimboarding which I think really helped. Skimboarding especially because balance and weight placement is a big deal and you can't force a skimboard to steer at all without shifting weight.

After I moved to WA in 2012 and could finally ride without driving five hours each way I turned into a gear whore. Coming out of that phase now since I've found some favorite boards, boots, and bindings and nothing I ride is a dramatic improvement on those.


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## chomps1211 (Mar 30, 2011)

Tried DH skiing once @ when I was 17. I Sucked soooo bad they actually asked me to leave for being a hazard to myself & others. 

The Military put me on cross country skis in the Sierras for cold weather mountain warfare training a few years later. Didn't fair any better. (...this picture is the closest I got to staying upright that entire time.)










30 years later,.. Jan 30, 2011, at the ripe old age of 50 I saw a Michigan tourism ad for a group snowboard lesson, board rental & lift ticket for $40. And since I always wanted to try it, I figured I'd risk a hip for $40. ?

Ironically, I Ended the night with a hip pointer injury. ?Bruised it so bad, my toes turned purple. But I actually made it up & down the hill a few times before that happened. 

Even with that injury, I had a blast & I actually didn't suck near as bad as I did on skis. I've been seriously hooked ever since. 

So I went out once more on rental equipment and then decided to drop a small fortune buying my own gear. 

Bought the wrong sized boots, board & bindings,... took a bunch of trips I couldn't afford north to Boyne. Took a few lessons,... things really clicked after that. 

Since that first day,.. sliding sideways has been the most fun I could have with my clothes on! ??


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## timmytard (Mar 19, 2009)

My best friend was a hardcore skater in grade 8, I could skate a little bit, but couldn't do an Ollie. So skateboarding was starting to suck for me.
I used to put a bike tube tire under the board, so I could pull the board up with me when I jumped.
Almost identical to how snowboard rides.

He then got a snowboard.
I got to try it on this super short 30 foot Hill beside my house.
Big enough for 2 carves and a jump to flat.
He got to go to a real mtn, the bastard haha.
But having had used the bike tube while skateboarding I knew how it was supposed to work.

Then in grade 8 at my new high school, when winter came.
He started hanging out with older skaters & they snowboarded lots.
At first break we'd all be sitting in the cafeteria & they would be getting ready to skip the rest of the day to go riding.
School was just the meeting place for them..
I had already been kicked out of 2 elementary schools so this seemed like the best idea ever.

So I tried to get my split up parents to go in on one. 
Christmas came around & my mom wanted me to go to my dad's for Christmas.
I didn't want to go, I thought he was a chump.
After arguing for days, my mom said we got you a snowboard, if you want it, you gotta go get it.

The next week or so I was sofa king excited.
But I couldn't let my dad know when I went there so had to play it cool.

Finally Christmas came around.
Presents were being handed out but of course my dad waited till we were all done doing that, without pulling it out.
I knew I had one coming but he still didn't pull it out.
Few hours later he came out of his bedroom holding a super short, SUPER WEAK Black Snow snowboard.

I was absolutely crushed, this was not a snowboard, I had ridden a real snowboard before, only down a 30 foot Hill, but this was not a snowboard.

My dad could tell by the look on my face, I was not impressed.
So he got all excited & made me put it on & pretend I liked it.
It was fuckin' torture.
I went to his place for Christmas, for this piece of shit.
Fuck I was pissed, total Christmas ruining toy haha.

For the rest of the day he kept going on & on about how awesome this stupid fucking Black Snow was so awesome & it was killing me.
I was seriously debating hitchhiking home to my mom's.

Then just before dinner he told me to go get a can of something out of the mud room closet.
When I opened the door.

There it was gleaming brighter than the sun, a real fuckin' snowboard, with real bindings & metal edges.

What an ass for torturing me for a good 12 hours before letting me have it.
Haha in hindsight, it was pretty good.

I had been skiing with his new wife and her kid who was at least 5 years younger than me.
He was already a ski racer dork & the last time I had gone with them, I just tried to keep up with the little shit & ended up needing to get hauled down all wrapped up in the ski patrol sled. Twisted my knee so bad they had to cut my pants off above the knee it was so swollen.

But this time I would be riding a snowboard & instead of the little dinky MTN that I had been to skiing a few times, we were going to Whistler.

I was super nervous after riding up 3 or 4 different chairlifts to finally get to the top.
Fuck, was I gonna be able to make it all the way to the bottom?

I strapped in, stood up & rode off.
I had watched a tonne of snowboarding videos & knew what needed to be done to ride one. It felt just like skateboarding, the carve on a skateboard felt almost identical to a snowboard to me.

It felt like I was riding off into the sunset, like the ending of a movie or book.

Then I caught my first & by far the worst toe side edge.
I had no idea that could happen, nobody warned me about this evil fuckin' toe side edge catch.
They never showed that in any video I ever seen
I didn't have time to put out my arms it happened so fast.
I ate the hard pack groomer face first, smashed my goggles.

Had to suck it up & keep going.
One of the best days ever.


TT


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## freshy (Nov 18, 2009)

In the winter of 86-87 my friends and I took the trucks off our skateboards and rode them down a pretty big hill (for an 11 year old) at Midnapore Lake in Calgary. One of the rich kids got a Legend SE and we were like wow it has steel edges. But I was hooked even then. I saw it as skateboarding in the snow. It wasn't till the next winter or maybe the one after I finally was able to rent one. I had my dads old Sorels like 4 sizes too big and his army issue snow pants but I didn't care. I remember renting a few more times and getting stuff like Minstrel carving boards and thinking I sucked when I tried taking it in the halfpipe...I did suck but to me a snowboard was a snowboard.
It was like 1993 when I finally bought my first one at a consignment store, a Kemper Freestyle but cut down to look new school and the bindings you screwed right into the core before inserts were the norm. I had it on layaway and paid the $250 after like 6 weeks or something. The binding were set up for regular and the fucking place wanted to charge me another $50 to drill holes for goofy. I ended up just using the existing holes trying to position a goofy stance on to regular holes so angles and stance width were dictated by how many screw holes could line up...I don't know why I never tried to drill my own. Still I'd only get to go like once or twice if I was lucky for the next few years.
Finally in 97 I got a job at Big White and bought a Joyride with the ski boot type buckles on the bindings and Preston boots and rode over 100 days that year. The next year I came back for more, and met a cute snowboard chick who rocked and we started hanging out. Spent the next 3 years up there and had a pass somewhere ever since till I had kids. Still have not had my fill of chasing powder days, and still with that same cute chick.


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## Craig64 (Jul 16, 2015)

I first hit the snow in 1980 at 16 yrs whilst on a weeks School excursion. I can't even remember if it was Perisher or Thredbo where I started. I was instantly hooked from then on. Only skiing in Australia at this time. Around the late 80's I jumped across into snowboarding when it became more accessible in Australia. Was a pretty good skateboarder/surfer in the 80's so for me it was really super quick to adapt to snowboarding. I remember the 1st time I was snowboarding was in hard boots. Back in the 80's the Kosciusko was a long way from my joint with the roads back then (9 to 10 hrs).


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## OldSnow (Nov 20, 2019)

Nine said:


> I am a new rider who has only snowboarded a handful of times and i have ridden with skis a little bit more. I am from Australia and only ever went to Selwyn using rentals and i had a great time skiing but i always thought snowboarding looked cooler so i'm wondering how did you get into snowboarding?


I learnt to ski at Selwyn too! Skid almost every year with my parents there from the age of 8 I think it was until 14 or 15 when we had our high school ski trip and I thought I'd try snowboarding.. never went back to skis - had a couple of long breaks until I hit mid 20s and then picked up more regularly again over the past 10 years.


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## danzo (Nov 19, 2012)

I've been riding for 7 consecutive years now and how I got into it was on a trip with some friends when I was in college. I'll never forget the rush I got when I learned how to go edge to edge and hold some speed. & it was just so much fun watching all my friends fall while learning, especially the girls )

Anyways, that same season I told myself that I was going to keep doing this until my body won't let me - So I went to a snowboard shop and bought myself my own set. 

I've been a season pass holder ever since, built myself a quiver, and have now gone on multiple trips all across North America... Let's just say I haven't looked back since, and it still excites me to this day to think about chasing them pow days!


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## Manicmouse (Apr 7, 2014)

I did a week on skis on a school trip to Whakapapa on Mt Ruapehu when I was 10, I was on the learner slopes the whole time. I don't really remember much about it. Ended up trying snowboarding a few times in my teens, it looked fun I guess and my wonky feet that stick out don't work for skiing.

I did a week at Whakapapa in my first year at Uni with a mate, we stayed on the snow in a lodge which was awesome. He was way better than me but I was getting the bug. Ended up getting student season passes for the next few years.

When I was 20 I went with a couple of mates to Rossland BC for 3 months on a work abroad scheme. We didn't realise that Trail was the unemployment capital of BC so we shovelled snow for cash under the table and did odd jobs for our landlord. Went from a crap snowboarder to a confident one over that time at Red Mountain, really loved the tree boarding we don't get in NZ.

Since then it's been my number one passion, but I've never lived close to the snow so it's always long drives or expensive flights


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## Jimi7 (Jan 14, 2020)

I was really into mountain biking, but when I hit ~30yrs old I was losing the endurance to ride up a mountain or if I made it to the top of a mountain I was so worn out that it was tough to enjoy the ride back down. I was too egotistical to switch to easier mountains or not ride to the top, so I gave up mountain biking in favor of snowboarding; all the fun of blasting down the mountain minus the work of riding up = win/win in my book. I was hooked immediately and went out an bought some entry level gear from a big box store to finish the season. The next season I got my first proper board - a Burton Custom. I rode nearly every weekend from Oct-May for the next 8-10 years and took many a day off when it was dumping pow. Spent a few years as an adaptive instructor at El Dora. 

Then the mortgage meltdown happened and I lost my company and job, so I spent the next few years riding exclusively on week days and rarely missed a powder day. It was pretty awesome. I really got into tree riding. Got really spoiled and it was hard to get motivated to shred when reality (aka kids, job, etc) started interfering with snowboarding. Recently, I started riding somewhat regularly now that the kids are on skis. I'm really stoked to be back on my board. 

I still rock my original ~20+ year old snowpants and jacket, which are literally falling apart, taped, stitched and glued to together and no longer waterproof.


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## WigMar (Mar 17, 2019)

Jimi7 said:


> I was really into mountain biking, but when I hit ~30yrs old I was losing the endurance to ride up a mountain or if I made it to the top of a mountain I was so worn out that it was tough to enjoy the ride back down. I was too egotistical to switch to easier mountains or not ride to the top, so I gave up mountain biking in favor of snowboarding; all the fun of blasting down the mountain minus the work of riding up = win/win in my book.
> 
> I still rock my original ~20+ year old snowpants and jacket, which are literally falling apart, taped, stitched and glued to together and no longer waterproof.


Have you ever tried downhill mountain biking? It's insanely awesome to throw a heavy downhill rig on a chair lift and watch it float up the mountain in front of you. It actually gets me in better shape for cross country too. 

I rocked my ancient outerwear for far too long. All the seams were taped, because I had to reassemble the panels after all the stitching was gone. I ripped out the liners and put the duct tape on the inside. You could never tell I was dressed in rags by looking at me. I got new clothes a season or two ago, and I'm so much more comfortable.


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## speedjason (May 2, 2013)

I tried skiing a couple of times. Hated it just couldn't do it right. A couple of winters later, I bought a day pass on Groupon. I decided to give snowboarding a try. I got on it pretty quick and very soon I was totally hooked especially when Art of Flight came out. Ever since after that, I just buy season pass at the local small hill and go snowboarding every weekend. Last fall, I moved to Colorado so I can fully utilize my Ikon pass and here I am about 250 something days later started snowboarding in 2013.


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## Jimi7 (Jan 14, 2020)

WigMar said:


> Have you ever tried downhill mountain biking? It's insanely awesome to throw a heavy downhill rig on a chair lift and watch it float up the mountain in front of you. It actually gets me in better shape for cross country too.
> 
> I rocked my ancient outerwear for far too long. All the seams were taped, because I had to reassemble the panels after all the stitching was gone. I ripped out the liners and put the duct tape on the inside. You could never tell I was dressed in rags by looking at me. I got new clothes a season or two ago, and I'm so much more comfortable.


Never tried downhill mountain biking. Looks fun. I saw some guys at A-Basin that rigged up their downhill mtb's with skis for downhill ski-biking. That looked fun. I'm thinking of getting a One-Wheel for the summer months. 

I definitely could use some new outerwear, but I just spend about $400 this season for new boots and bindings out of pure necessity. If I find an extra $500 in the budget, I'm getting a board - you have to have priorities.


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## TooNice (Feb 7, 2014)

neni said:


> I grew up on skis living next to small resorts (back in the 80ties, skiing was BIG in Switzerland; skiing camps were mandatory part of the school itinerary; we 10yo kids were shooed on a bus to go to skiing classes - or later - racing every weekend). I hurt myself frequently when ski racing; usually twisted knees. Skis were no joke back then.


Similar beginning except that I sucked too much too race. I remember that some of the cool kids would start to snowboard. But since I was neither one of the cool kids, sucked at skateboard, and thought that if I hurt myself snowboarding, I might end up injuring both knees instead of one (at that point, I had already dislocated my knee once) so just watched the cool kids.

After I left Switzerland, I only got on snow a small handful of time (probably 5 at most). Nearly two decades later, I moved to Japan and joined a social ski/snowboard event. At that point I wasn't as timid as I was as a kid and wanted to try as many new things (legal) as possible. So I picked to try snowboard. And I sucked at it. At the end of the three days, I could still only do the falling leave on the heel edge, while some people could already go from edge to edge. I-did- wonder if it just wasn't for me, but I had fun during the event and told myself I wasn't going to give it up just yet.

It was only after I had spent over a whole week on snow (next season? Or the season after that?) that I realised that.. the boots were waaay too big. I always size up for my every day shoes, since I have wide feet, I sometime size up quite a bit (two size or more from my real size), and I initially used those measurement to rent the boots. Even after I thought of trying smaller boots, the smallest size for guys is still a whole size larger than my real size, so I was always struggling with massive heel lift. It was only when I realised that heel lift was not normal that I was able to change edge, and that's was it, I was in love.

I joined this community for advice, bought my gear, bought my first season pass, and racked up about three weeks on snow. I was still not riding properly, but I had fun riding badly. I still remember being able to counting I could go from one edge to another before falling over and increasing that count slowly.

The year after that, I did my season in Whistler, 88 days on snow, got some proper coaching, a L1 and 2 instructor licence, and found out that some people actually rode more than 100 days a day, not even counting the ones who ride both hemisphere. Regretting that I didn't start snowboarding as a kid in Switzerland, I've been trying to make up those missing mileage ever since. I am pretty sure that I've now accumlated about as many days, and more hours on a single plank than on two. Although I still don't have the smoothness/finess of the good riders I sometime see, I love the feeling of being on a board on snow, and the fact that there is always some new challenge after you've cleared one (and I don't think that I plateau as much as I did on skis).


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## neni (Dec 24, 2012)

TooNice said:


> Similar beginning except that I sucked too much too race.
> ...
> After I left Switzerland...


 You are Swiss?!?


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## neni (Dec 24, 2012)

TooNice said:


> Although I still don't have the smoothness/finess of the good riders I sometime see, I love the feeling of being on a board on snow, and the fact that there is always some new challenge after you've cleared one (and I don't think that I plateau as much as I did on skis).


I know that feeling. Altho I do ok, get down everywhere, I will never reach the smoothness of those I know now who learned as kids and did ride ever since all season long, and look just as if they're born on a board. It all seens so natural to them. One can learn n exersise as adult, sure... but the head start you get learning as kid... playful, invincible? Priceless.

I assume, we'll see a generation of very smooth riders to come with all the kids who now grow up with snowboarding from very young age on, as the old 90ties-20 board boom generation gets their offspring on boards so early.

When I see how the 8yo/10yo, or now 16yo kids of friends ride? Awesomness.


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## MODO (May 2, 2019)

It fell right in with SURFING FOR 40 PLUS YEARS 🏄🏼‍♂️🏂🏄🏼‍♂️🤙🏻🤪🏂


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## J.C. (Mar 15, 2020)

Growing up in northern Georgia (state) you are more likely to play football or baseball, which I did. When I was 14 a good friend of mine moved 3 hours north into a small North Carolina mountain town called Banner Elk. I had no idea that this area existed outside a map, nor that it was so high and had legit winters. Long story short, all the young guys in that area were snowboarding to be future park rats. My parents actually bought me a board (Mistral with K2 bindings), hard to believe looking back because we didn't have a lot of money then, so I learned on Beech and Sugar Mountains. Then come to find out that we had a tiny resort called Sky Valley, Georgia just a little over an hour north of me. I feel really lucky that my parents bought me a board, and of all places in the southern U.S. to live, I lived close enough to several small resorts.


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## Kevrog21 (Apr 7, 2020)

My dad helped a family friend research and get a deal on his new Subaru, and locally Subaru runs a deal where if you buy a new car you get two season passes.

Dad has boarded on and off since he was a young adult, and I never had up to this point (was in HS at the time). The family friend gifted us the season passes as a thank you for my dad’s help.

Rounded up some very used and abused gear online for as cheap as possible. Went for our first day. My dad stuck with me until we got about 50 yards from the lodge (lodge and parking is mid-mountain at Timberline, so you usually start by going down) and then said “okay see ya, I’ll meet you at the bottom!”.

Needless to say, it was an interesting way to learn lol.


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## MrDavey2Shoes (Mar 5, 2018)

My dad busted his shoulder and couldn’t take us up the mountain skiing anymore when my brother and I were like 5-6 so he started us on snowboards so he could stand at the bottom of the bunny hill and supervise us from there.


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## eelpout (Mar 1, 2009)

grew up in Minnesota cross country skiing. occasionally would go to Afton Alps, Buck Hill, Trollhaugen etc. with downhill ski school field trips and would skate _up_ the slopes and then go down. bonus: learned a lot about waxing from that Nordic skiing! 

Fast forward decades, did some downhill skiing in the 00's and when at Lionshead in Vail, noticed all these snowboarding kids in their comfy boots and decided I had to try _that_. Took a bunch of boarding lessons that trip and never went back to skiing.


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## Clayton Bigsby (Oct 23, 2012)

My very first time was on a “snowboard” I built in my wood shop class in 1978, then in 1985 while working at a cabinet shop one of the guys came in with a burton Backhill, I was stoked from the time I seen it and knew I needed one. Three of my best friends drove up to Bellingham and bought 3 Burton Performers and I can remember being pissed that they didn’t ask me to go, so the next day I drove to Mount Vernon Schwinn shop owned by Legend MBHC Jeff Fulton’s dad and bought a Burton Elite 150 (1985) and haven’t looked back since then. The best part was we worked four ten hour days at the cabinet shop in Arlington so we would hit the road first thing Friday morning heading to Baker, which back then was only open on the weekends giving us fresh thigh deep powder just about every weekend and back then ski’s were to narrow for the skiers to enjoy powder so it was all ours every weekend, and with local rippers like Kelly, Dano, Fulton, Turk, Amy then later Bas, Ranquet and Loebs and looking back it made for a very memorable time in our lives.


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## timmytard (Mar 19, 2009)

Clayton Bigsby said:


> My very first time was on a “snowboard” I built in my wood shop class in 1978, then in 1985 while working at a cabinet shop one of the guys came in with a burton Backhill, I was stoked from the time I seen it and knew I needed one. Three of my best friends drove up to Bellingham and bought 3 Burton Performers and I can remember being pissed that they didn’t ask me to go, so the next day I drove to Mount Vernon Schwinn shop owned by Legend MBHC Jeff Fulton’s dad and bought a Burton Elite 150 (1985) and haven’t looked back since then. The best part was we worked four ten hour days at the cabinet shop in Arlington so we would hit the road first thing Friday morning heading to Baker, which back then was only open on the weekends giving us fresh thigh deep powder just about every weekend and back then ski’s were to narrow for the skiers to enjoy powder so it was all ours every weekend, and with local rippers like Kelly, Dano, Fulton, Turk, Amy then later Bas, Ranquet and Loebs and looking back it made for a very memorable time in our lives.


You bastard haha, I'm jelly
I've only been to Baker a handful of times, but one of those times held up as the all time best day for more than 20 years.


TT


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## Surgeon (Apr 13, 2020)

I had been skiing for about 4 years. By '87 I asked for a cheap Black Snow without edges for christmas and I used that thing a lot on the small hills around my house.
By '89 I had saved enough money to buy my first Sims Freestyle. That's it. Been riding ever since.


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## zc1 (Feb 20, 2017)

Same story! Started skiing, then in 1986 I got a Black Snow Edge snowboard (the one they made with steel edges) and learned to ride at the toboggan hill across from our house. Got the "Edge" because you had to have steel edges for it to be allowed at the local ski hill, which was the plan. The board came with written and pictorial instructions outlining how to turn. I had studied snowboarding videos and then the instructions, and that was it. First day out I was doing heelside and toe-side turns, so second day out was at the local ski hill and on it went from there. Best compliment I ever got was overheard in the lift line: "That guy is way better than his board." 😂


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## ksrf (Nov 1, 2017)

Skied a little on school trips back in the late 80's. Tried snowboarding for 10 minutes on a friend's board at Yawgoo valley in 93. Flash forward to 2011. Bought a used burton canyon from a friend with some old burton custom bindings. 
Driving up to Big Boulder in pa with my wife and kids for my first go I thought I was looking at mt Everest. I figured I would get seriously messed up, so I took a lesson with a bunch of kids. It was humiliating. I learned how to toe turn and heel turn without much fuss. 
I think 2 years later, after only a handful of days on the hill I bought a Rome factory rocker and that board allowed me to really start to enjoy snowboarding.


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## Crusty (Nov 8, 2018)

I was a skater. My folks took me skiing as a kid and as soon as snowboards started showing up I wanted to ride but they wouldn't let me (mostly just a money thing, they had invested in all my ski gear). As soon as I got my license I was in my 1980 Celica heading to the mountain. So junior and senior year of HS I drove the 2 hours as often as I could. Went to college in the mountains to ride and never really left.


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## cjaggie123 (Oct 21, 2018)

I was 8. My entire extended family is skiers. I wanted to be different.


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## Clayton Bigsby (Oct 23, 2012)

Manicmouse said:


> I did a week on skis on a school trip to Whakapapa on Mt Ruapehu when I was 10, I was on the learner slopes the whole time. I don't really remember much about it. Ended up trying snowboarding a few times in my teens, it looked fun I guess and my wonky feet that stick out don't work for skiing.
> 
> I did a week at Whakapapa in my first year at Uni with a mate, we stayed on the snow in a lodge which was awesome. He was way better than me but I was getting the bug. Ended up getting student season passes for the next few years.
> 
> ...


I wish that more riders that are in it for the passion and the fashion could experience powder or like yourself experience the worlds best powder, PNW powder


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## Scalpelman (Dec 5, 2017)

I grew up skating in CA. Mom used to take us skiing every year and after my brother and I saw snowboards we gave it shot in high school circa 1985. Started by bailing down sledding hills on a rented board with snow boots. Then college got in the way for a while. I moved to NH in 1994 for med school and learned for real on the Dartmouth skiway on a cheap second hand board and sorrel boots. Instant satisfaction. At 51 yo I ride more now than I ever have. In retrospect, one of those “years off” I took in my 20’s would have been better utilized as a SB lifestyle year!


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## cliffjumper68 (Nov 30, 2018)

plywood, rope, sorrel boots with heals cut off and a lot of bruises and smiles on local park in Colorado Springs


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