# Old guy, going to learn how to snowboard this weekend. Hoping for some advice.



## Chocula

I skied for years, but stopped a long time ago. I have wanted to snowboard since the first time I saw someone on a board. My son is now 12 and I am taking him to learn with me. He has never skied or snowboarded. 

We are renting boards and helmets. We have the right warm gear including wrist guards, masks, mittens, snow pants, coats and long Johns.

what advice do you have for my son and me? What are we forgetting? Are padded shorts and knee pads highly recommended? I am worried my son may hate having all of the extra gear on him or get irritated and give up. I have taken some nasty falls skiing and back then very few people even wore helmets.

I want my son to have a blast.
Thanks


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## drblast

Padded shorts aren't a must, but highly recommended. Burton impact shorts are what I wear. Knee pads...not a terrible idea but I've never needed them. I have definitely needed and not had padded shorts.

Drink water, stretch, and take breaks as frequently as you and your son need to. You'll know when it's time. The important part when going with kids is that they have an enjoyable time. That might mean they're really into it and want to do a ton of runs and get hurt a few times, or it might mean you buy a lot of hot chocolate and take it really easy.

I _always_ overestimate how long we're going to be there or how many runs are left when my kids ask. "Let's do ten more runs or leave when they close" sets the expectation, then I'm a hero when they're tired and we stop early and go get a hot drink. I also never ask them if they want to do another run, or are tired, or anything like that. I set the schedule. "Hey let's do two more runs and go get hot chocolate. Sound good?" is way better then "Are you guys tired? Do want to do another run or get hot chocolate?" People in general have a better time at challenging things when they're not constantly having to decide whether to keep doing it or not and can instead count down to a reward.


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## Donutz

I always wear knee and shin pads and a back protector when I'm doing park stuff, but otherwise just the Burton impact shorts. I did a tailbone fall onto ice one year and it bothered me the rest of the season, so never again.

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## RayzTheRoof

Take a lesson together and let him know that it might be really difficult the first couple of times but it's a ton of fun after. For me it was important get over that mental hurdle because it really sucked at first. Lots of falling on my butt and not realizing what was wrong.

And I'd say size down your rental boots from your normal shoe size because heel lift was a major problem for me in rental gear. I didn't know why I was struggling to turn but that was a major factor.


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## freshy

I would recommend not wearing padded shorts and knee pads for exactly the reason you said. Then again I've never worn that stuff, nor have my kids. I also don't have any hockey gear I could suit up in...


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## wrathfuldeity

Learn how to fall...see below

Falling really hurts... | Snowboarding Forum - Snowboard Enthusiast Forums 

Creepy basement vid

Creepy Basement vid needs Stickied! | Snowboarding Forum - Snowboard Enthusiast Forums 

Since you have skied you already know about snow conditions, terrain and edges. Some of the concepts are similar, but just rotated 90 degrees, i.e., keep your weight forward on the ski tips/nose of the board, ski hands in front/board hands/shoulders parallel inside of the cereal box, ski hips side to side/boarding humping and dumping/sitting. It the best thing ever...last week, still hit the hill with the kids after 19 years. Have fun!


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## Manicmouse

drblast said:


> Padded shorts aren't a must, but highly recommended. Burton impact shorts are what I wear. Knee pads...not a terrible idea but I've never needed them. I have definitely needed and not had padded shorts.
> 
> Drink water, stretch, and take breaks as frequently as you and your son need to. You'll know when it's time. The important part when going with kids is that they have an enjoyable time. That might mean they're really into it and want to do a ton of runs and get hurt a few times, or it might mean you buy a lot of hot chocolate and take it really easy.
> 
> I _always_ overestimate how long we're going to be there or how many runs are left when my kids ask. "Let's do ten more runs or leave when they close" sets the expectation, then I'm a hero when they're tired and we stop early and go get a hot drink. I also never ask them if they want to do another run, or are tired, or anything like that. I set the schedule. "Hey let's do two more runs and go get hot chocolate. Sound good?" is way better then "Are you guys tired? Do want to do another run or get hot chocolate?" People in general have a better time at challenging things when they're not constantly having to decide whether to keep doing it or not and can instead count down to a reward.


The kid's 12 not 8 😆, he'll be kicking Dad's ass by lunchtime guaranteed!


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## Myoko

My 2c worth, Get a lesson, even if it's only one group lesson. By the 3rd day you will be sore but feel like you have it under control and be enjoying it, hang in until then. If your kid can skate he knows how to fall and will be ok, you, well you will learn eventually just try and roll if you can and hug yourself rather than stick a hand out. Without some weight on your front foot you will have NO control, have some kind of even (both feet) edge at all times. Something, anything over your tail bone is a very good idea. Stay as low and as balanced as you can and when you get tired and start standing up STOP, thats when shit happens. Skiing is easy to learn, hard to get good. Snowboarding is hard to learn, easy to get good I reckon.


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## Crusty

Yeah, lesson. Mid day first day. When you first get there, dub around on your own for a few. Get comfortable on the board (and I use the term comfortable very very loosely here). Fall a bunch, laugh a lot, take a break before you get too frustrated. Then take a lesson. It will fast track the learning curve times a million.


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## killclimbz

The most common injury is breaking your wrist. So given you are just learning, I would say wrist guards are not a bad thing to use. Once you start to get the hang of it, then you probably don't need them. The impact shorts are not a bad idea either. Again, just for your first few days and then you can decide if you need this or not. Definitely get a lesson. That shortens the learning curve big time.


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## Chocula

Thank you all for the great advice. The plan is to get lessons the first day, but we will get the equipment a day early, so we will try it out and get comfortable with it. Would love to get private lessons for my sanity and the resort said it is first come, first serve, so we will get their early to sign up. 

I am a bit of a risk taker, but my son is much safer than i am on our ATVs, his dirt bike and our bicycles so I feel like he will be fine. My bigger concern is the muscle soreness for me. Old age is tough. LOL

Thanks again everyone. This is another item on my bucket list and I am so excited to do it.


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## wrathfuldeity

Chocula said:


> My bigger concern is the muscle soreness for me. Old age is tough. LOL
> 
> Thanks again everyone. This is another item on my bucket list and I am so excited to do it.


Pre-dose with ibuprofen to prevent the swelling before it happens (because it will happen) and if you have compression socks/sleeves for your calves wear them during and 1-2 hours after riding to keep things like lactic acid flushed out due to enhanced circulation.


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## Chocula

wrathfuldeity said:


> Pre-dose with ibuprofen to prevent the swelling before it happens (because it will happen) and if you have compression socks/sleeves for your calves wear them during and 1-2 hours after riding to keep things like lactic acid flushed out due to enhanced circulation.


Sounds like I need to buy some compression socks.


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## f00bar

Make sure you go in there with real expectations. Not sure what his background is, whether he skateboards or anything like that, or even enjoys cruising around on his bike, but in general its a 1-3 times out before you actually get to where you say you are doing anything close to snowboarding. For some the learning curve is faster or steeper.

The other thing is 12 year olds are weird. Depends on your kid, but some will still like hanging out and learning with dad, some will get tired of the constant nagging encouragement you'll likely be giving him. Lessons with all kids his age may be better for him than mixed with you is my point. Or he'll have a great time with the old man. Think it through though.


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## Crusty

wrathfuldeity said:


> compression socks


Funny you say that. Never had compression socks until this Christmas. Wore them riding Sunday, simply because they were thin and it was cold and I wanted to layer socks. Sure enough, my legs weren't as beat after.

Ok, it's funny to me at least.


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## f00bar

For his first few times out it's going to be his abs that'll have him curled up on the couch in the fetal position more than his legs. He'll spend way more time getting up than anything else. On that note, depending how good of shape you're in there are lots of ways to accomplish this. It'll take a bit to figure out which works best for you. I say this assuming you are 40+ and have some sort of dad bod and don't really go to the gym much. If you still play in the hoop league or are a runner, etc, then don't sweat it much.


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## ridethecliche

The other thing is to make sure you wear clothing that's easily opened up and vented. It might be cold on the mountain, but you're going to get toasty picking yourself up over and over again.


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## Chocula

f00bar said:


> For his first few times out it's going to be his abs that'll have him curled up on the couch in the fetal position more than his legs. He'll spend way more time getting up than anything else. On that note, depending how good of shape you're in there are lots of ways to accomplish this. It'll take a bit to figure out which works best for you. I say this assuming you are 40+ and have some sort of dad bod and don't really go to the gym much. If you still play in the hoop league or are a runner, etc, then don't sweat it much.


Absolute dad bod. I cannot recall what a gym is its been so long and I get winded walking up the stairs. Yes, I know this is going to be hell for me.


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## f00bar

Chocula said:


> Absolute dad bod. I cannot recall what a gym is its been so long and I get winded walking up the stairs. Yes, I know this is going to be hell for me.


Don't sweat it too much. It really won't be that bad, we tend to make things sound worse than they really are. Getting up will be the hardest thing, if you struggle one way, think about what you are trying to do and try a different way. You'll be working muscles in ways they haven't been, even if you do go to the gym. But its all short duration bursts, so way more duable than if you were to set out and try to run a 5k on the first attempt. You'll be sore but nothing some advil won't fix.


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## Donutz

Actually, for us older folk, two Advil after every session is a good rule of thumb.


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## wrathfuldeity

In the long term...we really don't remember pain...we might think or dwell on it...but the actual physical pain...nope. And we often turn it into a glorious event. The trick is the interpretation of pain, e.g., it was the worst frick'n thing or ehh it was just stupidity leaving my body. Lol.


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## Myoko

Big fan of compression tights. Thought they were a load of crap but now believe they are worth every cent when you are on the mountain and off the mountain.


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## Manicmouse

Donutz said:


> Actually, for us older folk, two Advil after every session is a good rule of thumb.


Before and after. So it's already working its magic 😆


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## Tox

I learned 20 years ago, but looking back I’d say get wrist protection and padded shorts to protect your coccyx. I wish I’d had them, with hindsight. There’s a lot of being flipped forward and back when you catch those edges, but nowadays a fully rocker board would make catching edges less frequent, and therefore make learning a lot less... painful. 

if you’re an experienced skier you’ll probably have great core strength and that’s really important - especially hauling yourself off the deck all day.

Boarding is also wetter than skiing - you sit in snow and put your hands down frequently, so get longer gloves / mitts with a sealed cuff and waterproof the appropriate places...

And try and get onto powder ASAP - safely of course. But when you first get that buttery float sensation, everything makes sense.


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## ctoma

Tox said:


> I learned 20 years ago, but looking back I’d say get wrist protection and padded shorts to protect your coccyx.


Yep, you definitely don't want to take a spill and break your coccyx.


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## pabstbluribbin

Myoko said:


> Snowboarding is hard to learn, easy to get good I reckon.


Couldn't agree with this more. I too am an old fart, started skiing when I was 7, switched to boarding in my 20's...that was 20 years ago...but what I remember is those first few times out are BRUTAL...especially when you're thinking you could be skiing down blacks but instead you're back to square one...BUT it is worth every minute of it, and I'm totally happy I made the switch.

One additional thing that others haven't said, which may seem obvious, but it boggles my mind seeing people just starting out not finding space on the mountain. You will not be successful if you stay close to people because you'll constantly be falling trying to avoid them. Find nice open patches of snow well away from people so you have time to recover...and even pick up a little speed. While the falls are harder, picking up a little speed can actually be helpful for better balance...but you have to have space!


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## PistePioneer

Myoko said:


> Skiing is easy to learn, hard to get good. Snowboarding is hard to learn, easy to get good I reckon.


I apologize in advance, but I wanna go on a bit of a tangent off of this comment.

I hear this expression a lot but it's usually in the form of: "Skiing is easy to learn and difficult to master. Snowboarding is difficult to learn and easy to master." and I agree with the first bit, but I don't understand why people believe that snowboarding is any easier to master than skiing.

It's definitely much harder to learn how to turn on a snowboard.
But I don't believe it's any easier to master, let alone _easy_ to master. I could snowboard every day for the rest of my life and probably never "master" it. There's always something to improve on. I don't believe there's ever been a snowboarder or skier that said to themselves one day: _"Yup, that's it. I have mastered snowboarding/skiing. I couldn't possibly get any better."_

Sorry, rant over lol.


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## t21

A bit of advice adding among others is NOT to put your toe edge down when you start to heel slide down the bunny hill, cuz you will dig your edge down and it will stop you instantly. I've seen a lot of beginners hurt their wrist by doing that and some with a broken nose. You would rather fall back(facing downhill) because the distance/and impact from you to the ground is much less than your toeside going downhill, same goes if you ended up facing uphill, if you feel like you are about to go down drop to your knees instead of putting down your heel edge. Goodluck and hope you and your son will have fun learning.


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## Donutz

Yeah, I don't know about "easier to master." I'd go along with "easier to get good at." Once you're past the basics and the going-sideways-down-the-hill phase, you only have one plank to deal with, which makes pretty much everything easier.


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## mojo maestro

when on your ass.........flip over and stand up toeside........when riding..............look where you want to go...........and confidence..........you got this..........


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## mjayvee

When I started, I was advised to pick an edge (heel or toe) and learn how to stop on that edge. It may be tempting to immediately focus on going straight downhill, but really learning how to snowboard is having control over your edges. 

I remember early on that I would focus on one edge for an entire day and then alternating to the other edge for the next session. Once I felt comfortable on both edges, that was when I began linking turns and carving. This was during my 1st season when I went 10 days. 

Do not expect to figure it out within only a few sessions. Stay determined and hungry to learn how to snowboard. 

I was once told that snowboarding gets better & better as you progress. And I learned over time that it was a true statement. You just have to make it through the initial struggles.


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## drblast

PistePioneer said:


> I apologize in advance, but I wanna go on a bit of a tangent off of this comment.
> 
> I hear this expression a lot but it's usually in the form of: "Skiing is easy to learn and difficult to master. Snowboarding is difficult to learn and easy to master." and I agree with the first bit, but I don't understand why people believe that snowboarding is any easier to master than skiing.
> 
> It's definitely much harder to learn how to turn on a snowboard.
> But I don't believe it's any easier to master, let alone _easy_ to master. I could snowboard every day for the rest of my life and probably never "master" it. There's always something to improve on. I don't believe there's ever been a snowboarder or skier that said to themselves one day: _"Yup, that's it. I have mastered snowboarding/skiing. I couldn't possibly get any better."_
> 
> Sorry, rant over lol.


This bothers me too. Anyone who feels like snowboarding is easy to master probably doesn't ride switch.


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## WigMar

mjayvee said:


> I was once told that snowboarding gets better & better as you progress. And I learned over time that it was a true statement. You just have to make it through the initial struggles.


I'm surprised that this statement continues to be true as the years go by and the skills pile up. It totally is though. Once you can link turns, it just keeps getting better.



drblast said:


> This bothers me too. Anyone who feels like snowboarding is easy to master probably doesn't ride switch.


Agreed. Oh, that felt too easy...? Now do it backwards. Also, with so many areas of snowboarding to focus on, being an overall snowboarding master seems pretty hard to obtain. You've got to master steeps, trees, parks, streets, carving, and switch. How many pros can say they've truly mastered the sport? Sure they've mastered the frontside lipslide, but have they mastered snowboarding?


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## Myoko

I think the saying is pretty true. Once you have the basics down in snowboarding you are away, many skiers who try it bail before the 3rd day I reckon as it is a hard learning curve. I just think skiing is more technical comparative to snowboarding as you have 2 planks and 2 poles. Lot more going on and thats before we talk about moguls which some obsess over. Think I fell over twice in 2 days having a go at skiing for example, did that in the first 30 seconds learning to snowboard. Mastering anything is a lifelong journey that can never be fulfilled. Easier to get good at snowboarding as Donutz says.


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## Snow Hound

I think that saying has a lot to do with the fact that the mountain opens up a lot sooner for snowboarders. Once they've mastered the falling leaf a confident rider can get down pretty much any slope. A steep moguled run that would be impossible for a skier trying to snow plough can be slowly navigated by a beginner snowboarder.


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## Crusty

Donutz said:


> Yeah, I don't know about "easier to master." I'd go along with "easier to get good at." Once you're past the basics and the going-sideways-down-the-hill phase, you only have one plank to deal with, which makes pretty much everything easier.


It's not easier to mater, but I've always felt snowboarding is more natural, and the learning curve gets easier quickly- for a while.

What I've always told people is 'Go slide across your kitchen floor in your socks. How do you stand?'


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## Manicmouse




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## ridethecliche

Snow Hound said:


> I think that saying has a lot to do with the fact that the mountain opens up a lot sooner for snowboarders. Once they've mastered the falling leaf a confident rider can get down pretty much any slope.* A steep moguled run that would be impossible for a skier trying to snow plough can be slowly navigated by a beginner snowboarder*.


Probably not. 

Skiers can stop between every bump as well.


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## smellysell

I got punished way worse the first few days snowboarding than I did the day I tried skiing. 

Sent from my Pixel 3 XL using Tapatalk


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## Snow Hound

ridethecliche said:


> Probably not.
> 
> Skiers can stop between every bump as well.


I take it you've never skied? The snowplough is useless and dangerous once things get steeper. Also at some point a skier has to turn - a snowboarder can just ride the heel edge all the way to the bottom. Trust me I was making it down slopes after 5 days that my wife wouldn't even consider after 5 years on her skis.


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## pabstbluribbin

I agree, master is probably not the right word, easier to get good sounds about right...in the end for me, I have done both for 15 yrs now and will say I am a far better snowboarder than I was in ever a skier.


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## ridethecliche

Snow Hound said:


> I take it you've never skied? The snowplough is useless and dangerous once things get steeper. Also at some point a skier has to turn - a snowboarder can just ride the heel edge all the way to the bottom. Trust me I was making it down slopes after 5 days that my wife wouldn't even consider after 5 years on her skis.


I took ski lessons before I ever touched a snowboard. Learned to do both in the same season and decided to snowboard instead. 

Sidesliding down moguls on your heel edge is difficult. Hockey stops on skis isn't that hard. I had my Christie turns down after about 5 days. Was significantly harder to stand up on a board. 

Also was harder to learn to pressure the edge properly on a board to be able to Sideslide, stop, or over extend and end up on your ass. Add catching edges to that from poorly timed maneuvers...


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## smellysell

Snow Hound said:


> a snowboarder can just ride the heel edge all the way to the bottom


If you don't mind side slipping at Mach 6 when you're on something steep.


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## Snow Hound

smellysell said:


> If you don't mind side slipping at Mach 6 when you're on something steep.


It's possible to hold an edge on even the steepest prepared runs, unless they're particularly icy.

The first things a beginner skier and snowboarder learn are the snowplough and falling leaf. Once a skier progresses they hardly ever use the snowplough, in fact relying on it is something intermediates often have to unlearn.

A little falling leaf however is a handy tool for the trickiest of situations on a snowboard.


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## Manicmouse

From what I've seen some people just can't make the progression from snow plough to keeping the skis parallel. That progression seems harder than falling leaf to skidded turns on a snowboard.

I think the first few days on a snowboard are way harder, but then skiing catches up in difficulty. To truly master it? No idea, I'm an incomplete rider with no chance of getting there


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## ridethecliche

Were all these people trying to teach themselves everything? I was doing Christy turns by day 5 with lessons. Zero chance id have gotten them by even day 10 if I was teaching myself.


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## Manicmouse

Who knows! I didn't interview each one 🤷‍♂️


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## Crusty

Manicmouse said:


> Who knows! I didn't interview each one 🤷‍♂️




Well can you get on that? We're having an serious arbitrary internet debate here!


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