Snowboarding for Beginners: Why It's Harder at First Than Skiing

There's a phrase that gets repeated a lot among people who've spent years on the snow, “skiing is easier to start, snowboarding is easier to master.” Like any generalisation it has nuances, but it points to something real: the first two or three days of snowboarding tend to be harder than the first days of skiing, and then, once your body understands the mechanism, progress speeds up in a way that surprises a lot of people.

Let's explain why this happens and what you can do to make those first days as painless as possible.

Why the first days are harder than in skiing

In skiing, each leg moves independently, which gives you room to correct your balance with one leg while the other does something else. In snowboarding, both feet are fixed to the same board, always moving together, and there's no room for that kind of individual correction, so your balance depends entirely on your torso and hips.

On top of that comes the hardest technical part of the whole sport: edge control. A snowboard has two edges, the heel edge and the toe edge, and practically all the technique consists of learning to lean on one or the other with precision. Until that movement becomes automatic, it's common to “catch an edge,” meaning the wrong edge digs into the snow and causes a fall, usually forward or backward depending on which edge catches.

It's precisely that stretch, understanding the edges and no longer catching them with every turn, that marks the difference between the hard first days and the rest of the learning curve, which tends to move much faster once you get past it.

Why an instructor matters even more in snowboarding than in skiing

We've already talked in another article about why an instructor makes a difference when learning to ski (“Learning to Ski as an Adult: an Honest, Realistic Guide”). In snowboarding, that difference is even bigger, for one very specific reason: the margin for physical error is smaller. Since you can't correct with an independent leg, a bad posture habit is paid for with more falls, not just a slightly less polished technique.

A snowboard instructor does, besides diagnosing and calibrating each step, something specific to this sport: they teach you to work one edge and then the other separately, instead of trying to link full turns from day one, which is exactly the shortcut most people try to take on their own, and the one that causes the most falls and frustration.

How to fall without hurting yourself

If there's one piece of advice to take seriously from the first minute, it's this: when you fall, and you will fall, a lot, especially in the first days, never put your hands out to break the fall. It's the most natural reflex in the world and also the one that causes the most broken wrists in snowboarding, precisely because with your feet fixed you can't use your legs to cushion the impact the way you would in skiing.

What does work is keeping your arms close to your body, crossed over your chest, and letting the impact be absorbed by your forearms or back, not your outstretched hands. For this reason, wrist guards aren't a luxury in snowboarding, they're almost as essential as a helmet, knee pads and, if you fall backward a lot, a lower back protector.

Goofy or regular: your first decision before getting on the board

First of all, you need to know which foot goes forward. If you lead with your left foot, you're “regular”; if you lead with your right, you're “goofy.” Neither is better, it's simply your natural way of keeping lateral balance.

To find out without ever having stood on a board, there are two quick tests that usually get it right:

• Run a few steps and slide on a smooth floor (in socks, for example): the foot you put forward as you slide is usually your leading foot.
• Have someone gently push you from behind without warning: the first foot you step forward with to avoid falling is usually the same one.

Neither test is completely foolproof, real confirmation comes on your first runs, so if you feel very uncomfortable at first, try the opposite stance before assuming “snowboarding isn't for me.”

What changes in gear compared to skiing

If you've skied before, there are several gear differences worth knowing:

• The board: standing upright, it should reach roughly between your chin and your nose. To start, a soft or medium flex board is better, it's more forgiving of mistakes than a stiff board designed for advanced level.
• Boots: more flexible than ski boots, to allow the ankle movement you need to control the edges.
• Clothing: usually a bit looser than ski clothing, for more freedom of movement, though the layering system (base + mid + outer shell) is exactly the same.
• Wrist guards: as mentioned, far more advisable in snowboarding than in skiing.

Your first steps: look for flat ground, not a slope

Your first contact with the board shouldn't be on a run, but on a completely flat area, where you can practice standing up, keeping your balance and getting used to the feeling of having both feet fixed, without the added challenge of moving downhill at the same time. Only once that no longer feels strange does it make sense to move to a very gentle slope.

To move around on flat ground (in a lift line, for example), you release your back foot from the binding and push like on a skateboard, keeping your front foot always strapped in. It's a small technique, but it saves you a fair amount of unnecessary clumsiness in the first days.

Impatience costs you more in snowboarding

The importance of not rushing the pace, which already matters in any snow sport, applies here even more. The combination of “it's harder at the start” and “impatience causes more falls” makes this precisely the snow sport where most people give up in the first two days, right before the point where most people start noticing everything getting easier.

Give your body those two or three days. It's, by far, the patience investment with the best return of the whole season.

From reading to riding

Reading about edges, falls, and goofy or regular is fine, but none of it replaces actually getting on a board with someone who knows how to correct you in the moment. The sooner you find that person, the sooner you'll leave the hard first days behind.

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