NoOtherOptions

Nice, you got season passes? I can't bring myself to buy one for the area since i usually wind up going mid week and using cheap passes from promos and stuff locally.

snajper69

Since I am a noob I can tell you that snowboarding is kind of hard to start off. But once you put the time in it just starts to come together. I am a big guy so starting was even harder for me and first 2 runs I though there is no way I will ever snowboard, not flexible enough, not very good balance. Than out of nowhere after reading and watching many snowboarding videos (snowprofessor, snowwolfs and Snowboarding Addiction learn to snowboard) everything start coming together. I learned that once you commit you will progress very fast. Will I ever be good snowboarder? Probably not. But I have a lot of fun snowboarding and don't fell a lot anymore (maybe once/twice per trip). I found that having good protection (helmet, crash pads etc.) helps and makes learning more enjoyable. BTW I have friends that do both. And I start in snowboarding based on their recommendation, all agreed that snowboarding is harder at the beginning but more fun and easier to progress.

JeffreyCH

At my age, I wouldn't even try, my knee's would scream bloody murder, and I'm sure my feet would full on revolt being jammed in those awful looking boots. I didn't really find snowboarding all that hard to pick up, but I come from a heavy skate and wakeboard background. I gave up water skiing because my knee's hated it, plus it was boring.

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poutanen

Here's me trying to slalom waterski and take a dump at the same time. Damn constipation...

JeffreyCH

I was a pretty good slalom skier in my early 20's, gave it up for about 10 years, by the time I got back to it I was to heavy to pull up on a slalom. I could still pull up on 2 and drop 1, but had a bad crash that almost screwed my left knee for good. Took up wakeboarding the next summer and never looked back.

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poutanen

Yeah I haven't been able to get out of the water on 1 for a few years now. I usually dock start on two, and drop 1 about 50 feet out. We only have a little 90 HP motor on a 15'6" boat so it's gotta get up to speed before I can drop!

We wakeboard behind it too, but I only get back to the cottage once a year now so I get one week of waterskiing or wakeboarding a year. Hence the taking a dump look, it takes everything I've got just to get some good turns in on the ski!

Took a wakeboarding lesson about 7 years ago, and the boat was a full inboard (not an I/O) that just popped out of the water. And the loop bringing the rope so high up made me just want to pop out of the water on the jumps! Was a blast!!!

t21

just wondering, as we know "snowboarding is harder to learn bur easier to master, and skiing is easier to learn but harder to master." i've skied/skiboard for a few years(7) and what part of skiing is harder to master? carving edge to edge? moguls? skiings pivot turns is like our dynamic skidded turns. their edge to edge turns is like our cross under turns in about the similar fashion(snake like turns). must be mogul, but i think snowboard is harder to master in this aspect, facing sideways and manuevering on moguls is a different tecnique to learn than just face forward and point down with a more narrower skis to just run over in between troughs. soooo which one is harder to master?

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2011 Ride Antic 163
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Toecutter

I think the biggest challenge with skiing has to do with getting your lower extremities to act in a coordinated manner. If your feet and legs are not coordinated, the skis do different things and you lose control. Those of us who have been skiing awhile can do it subconsciously, so it seems like not too big of a deal, however if you look at the beginner slope you can see people's feet doing all kinds of weird things.

In the past, it was also very difficult to get the skis to float in powder because the skis were relatively narrow and cambered. It took a lot of refined technique to be able to ski powder worth a damn, but with today's modern rockered fat skis, floating in deep powder is pretty easy.

I think moguls are challenging whether on skis or snowboard.

Sick-Pow

To the OP, skiing sucks. making turns on a board down a mountain is better than many things in this world. Soul Turns brother.

on another note, I think i am going to rent some X country skis for a day out and a nordic track to learn my glide for splitboarding.

jojotherider

I was on skis for 13 and am now on my 13th year of snowboarding. My daughter is learning to ski so I picked up a set of skis last year so I could ski along with her. I can comfortably say I enjoy both but will reach for the snowboard more often then not. I am more relaxed on a snowboard and like to have more fun standing sideways. When I get on skis I tend to get analytical about my form. When I learned to ski I had lessons for a few years. When learning to snowboard it was all about feel. I think this is why I'm more relaxed on a board. I was never told how to do it except to keep the downhill edge up. I learned by figuring out how my movements translated to the snow rather than techniques to take me from wedging to wedge-christies to carving on skis. For me, snowboarding is more 'doing' and less 'thinking'.

I think the current crop of skis is making things interesting though. The way they've introduced rocker and hybrid rocker profiles. I've got a set of skis with camber in the middle and rocker out at the tip and tail. They're also getting pretty wide now too. I acutally stopped skiing right as shaped skis were gaining popularity. It was a whole new world when I clicked into these.

I also tried riding some pow on my skis. Snowboarding the pow is way better. You float a lot more (especially considering i was on a pow board earlier the same day ). On my board the snow was about mid shin and felt bottomless. On the skis it was kneed deep but I was getting to the compact snow underneath. I also can't ski pow very well so there's probably some technique to learn.

Oh, ski boots still suck. That much hasn't changed.

-joel