Amy

I really want to learn to snowboard in January (2009) to see if I still enjoy it (did it about 7 years ago but for only a week) and hopefully take it further and get awesome at it.

Have no idea what resorts (in either Canada or Europe) would be best to go to for beginner lessons...thinking maybe BC as it's such a beautiful place, and also how many lessons i'd need. Any advice would be really welcome!! Was thinking a week or 10 days of lessons and a few days to myself? - would this be enough to get me up to about level 2 or 3 of snowboarding or am I way out with that?

Am relativly fit as I do quite a bit of sport including surfing which i'm not sure if will help me but thought i'd mention it incase.

Thanks guys!! Amy

sweeney017

Hey Amy!
I am from BC and I could not agree more (most beautiful place) All the mountains I have been to here in BC offer fairly good lessons. My recommendation is to take a few lessons until you get the hang of it then just practice on your own. Once you have the basics down you should progress fairly fast. My buddy and I taught his girlfriend last season and by the end of the season she was almost keeping up with us, which isnt bad seeing as we ride about 4-60 days a season. If you are going to go for 10 days or so you should be able to pick it up really quickly as you are boarding every day. The fact that you do other board sports will help with the learning curve and you should be able to pick it up quicker. Where in BC were you thinking about going? The best advice I was given and I will pass it on to you is not to get discouraged... you will be sore from falling and using muscles you never knew you had, but just keep on going and you will get it. Cheers!!! I hope this helps

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Simply^Ride

If you are still there let me know and I will add more info...

Just don't feel like writing a lot for nothing.

Amy

Hey!! Thank you for the advice, was really useful and even more determined to go now I know there's a good chance of me picking up the skill! You are sooo lucky to live in BC!!

Yeah, I am still reading the messages - the more advice the better!

Many thanks!

Amy

Oh, and I was thinking of going to Big White in BC, near Kelowna? Is it known to be a good place?

Simply^Ride

Ok if you are beginner it really doesn't matter what resort you pick, as long as conditions are acceptable. At this point I would choose something that it's the most affordable to you (unless you have lot of $$$, in that case go to Whistler, BC).

As for 10 days of lessons that seems an awful lot to me. this is what I recommend a couple of days of lessons and see where you stand after those days. If you feel that you need more time with instructors go ahead and do it, if not, go out there and have some fun. 10 days are a lot of riding, enough to give you a feel of what you're going to enjoy the most and a lot of time to improve on your own. You could even take an intermediate course towards the end of your trip to correct your ridding.




Where are you located at?

Snowolf

Amy, Big White is a great place for a person to learn or in your case re-learn to ride from what I hear. If Paolo is reading this, he can chime in as he has ridden there. I hear it is a fairly gentle slope with a lot of area and has a family oriented atmosphere. Kelowna is a fun town and the weather there enjoys a lot of bluebird days. The snow tends to be a drier continental type of snow than we have here in the Cascades.

My thoughts about lessons: I am an instructor and it is my opinion that you should not do 10 straight days. A big portion of learning to snowboard is practice and repetition. In about 90% of cases, it works the best to take a beginner lesson or two to the point that you know how to properly link turns on the bunny hill (you may not always do it, but you will know how you are supposed to do it correctly) Take a few days just riding and practicing. In this time you will become more comfortable with everything from skating to getting off the chair as well as making turns on gentle terrain. Also what will happen is you will begin to notice trouble areas where things just don`t work like they should. Then it`s time to take another lesson to iron out these tough spots.

Once you are riding reasonably well and can consistently link turns correctly in good form on easy terrain, it will be time to step it up and take intermediate lessons to learn more advanced techniques for doing steeper terrain and exploring some off piste riding. From this point on, you can progress onto more challenging riding and take the appropriate lessons.

I think committing to 10 days of lessons is not money well spent and you will short cahnge yourself by doing so. A 3 day learn to ride package is great, then pick and choose your follow up lessons. Also, make sure to plan for a private lesson or two to focus on your specific needs. It is more expensive but well worth it.

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