PaoloSmythe

i married into a family of skiers.

christmas came round and i didn't want to be bored when they all buggered off with sticks in hand, so i forked out on the whole board, boots and binders set up and for 3 solid days i left imprints of my knees and arse in the nursery slope snow.

but by day 4 i was chasing them all over the mountain. RAH!

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Just coz you don't understand it
Doesn't mean it makes no sense!

T.J.

i went with a friend. he took me to the top and he said "ok, see ya at the bottom" and he left me. i did terrible that first day but i was hooked. took a couple lessons that season and the one after.

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Passion Over Fashion

Gustov

i read as much stuff as i could find on the net (including this site) and then went by myself for the first time. i was linking turns within 2 hours or so... been hooked since

01NST5

I grew up skiing and skateboarding. Friend got me up on the mtn to give boarding a try.. showed me a few things and I haven't been back on ski's since. Mostly learned by watching others... growing up skateboarding didn't hurt either

Gnarly

When I learned, Loveland was having board demo days, so we got all the gear we needed for free...And they were allowing everyone that was there to take a 1/2 day "Learn to Snowboard" lesson for free. 1/2 day lesson later and my friends and I tried to make it down a green run, which we all failed at.

After the 1st day, I was so sore that I swore I'd never go again...But a week later, I was basically dragged up to Keystone by another friend of mine. The second I exited the lift at the top of a green run, it all just clicked & I was linking turns.

zakk

Some friends invited me on a gambling trip that included snowboarding. I stupidly just rented gear without looking into what I needed so a big guy with size 12.5 boots on a regular (not wide) board was fun. I skateboarded and BMX’d for years in my youth so I had a good idea about leaning, gravity, leading with shoulders, how to fall, etc.

We did a group lesson, which was the biggest waste of money and time ever. The “instructor” would “help” the girls, and most of the guys got a “how you doin’?” comment every 20 minutes.

Everyone was laughing at the fat kid that couldn’t stand up on the board, even with one foot in. After I strapped in both feet, I could feather down the bunny slope no problem, past those laughers who now had not ejection seat!

After that trip, I went and bought a board (right size and width) and was linking turns my next trip out. I can hit the small jump now and usually land them. My goal next year is to pull a method air off a bunny jump.

SpAcEmAn SpLiFF

i took a lesson but it didnt really teach me a thing. i pretty much figured it out for myself. took a ton of practice (im a pretty unathletic guy haha) and cost me two good wrists, but im decent now

Njoynit

I took a lesson my first time out and picked it up fairly fast...or so I thought. Second season out I learned the hard way not to catch an edge. I may have craked a rib. During the off season I did a lot of reseach on what I did wrong. Found most of my answers on this site. This was my third season out and I did well. Even shared my knowledge with my 9 year old son.

Bones

Skied for several years without ever taking a lesson and got some bad habits totally ingrained and nearly impossible to fix.

When I switched to boarding, I decided to take lessons right from the start so any bad habits got fixed before they got too ingrained. I'm sure I could have learned without an instructor, but I think it would have taken a lot more time, effort and falls.

I guess it's all up to how you want to spend your time. If I could only get out on the weekends, I don't think I'd want to spend a significant portion of my time in a group lesson. So I take night lessons at a little hill 30 minutes away. I know that I wouldn't be able to organize my boarding buddies to night ride every week so I don't feel like I'm "wasting" my riding time in a night lesson. The group lesson price is dirt cheap and, from my observation, the better you are, the less people in your class.

schmitty34

My freshmen year in college I decided to make the switch from skiing to snowboarding and my roomate and I rented gear and hit the slopes for the first time together...no lessons, no research, just a lot of falling, cursing, laughing, bruses, and snow filled jackets and pants.

We actually picked it up pretty well...maybe all the wakeboarding we did every summer helped a little. By our third day up we could at least keep up with our friends that had been riding for a while.

It has been a slow an steady progression for the last 10 years, but I am thinking about taking some advanced lessions next year to see what I may be doing wrong and what I can learn.