PNWRider

Thanks! I do have a helmet and wrist guards, but I am considering investing in hip pads and a butt cushion. I see now why my afternoon runs are better than my morning runs; I usually have a beer at lunch!

Yes, I wish I hadn't been on that stupid tow rope. It was two years after my first time on the snow, so I thought I'd start "easy" with a tow rope, rather than "risk" the chairlift. Falling while offloading a chairlift has never been too painful; just get back up again. But that stupid tow rope damaged me physically and mentally.

handscreate

Yes, literally grab your left pant leg (regular) at the thigh or knee, but don't grab your actual leg - just the pants. This will help put you in a forward leaned position without over doing it. It will also help keep your shoulders parallel with the board, which is proper riding stance.

As far as advancing to blues, I am an advocate for pushing yourself to progress. If you can link a turn, or even just do J or C turns on a green or on the bunny slope, you can do it on a blue. It may seem scarier because of the pitch of the run, but you can always side slip down to a flatter area & begin your turns from there. Some steep runs scare the crap out of me & I side slip down until I reach a place where I'm comfortable turning down the mountain & linking my turns to get down. Work on linking your turns on greens & blues before you become too concerned with bombing straight down. The skills you'll develop changing from edge to edge, as well as the speed you can easily pick up while doing this, will help you to feel more comfortable on steeper terrain. Going too fast & freaking out will surely slow down your progress. Your fiance can wait at the lift for you if she's going that much faster than you are (especially since it sounds like you're giving this a shot for her, which is awesome btw!). My friends & I all have an unspoken deal that you wait at the bottom or the top for everyone to catch up.

I agree with Mixie. The more protected you are, the less you'll think about the fear of injury. You've got a helmet & wrist guards, which is great. Get some decent padded shorts, like the Pro-Tec IPS Hip shorts, so that when you do fall on your ass it'll hurt way less if at all, and the memory of getting a bruised ass doesn't prevent you from pushing yourself to progress in this sport. Something else to consider is that we all fall. I don't care how good you are or get, you will eat it every now & then. Look back at what caused you to eat it & modify your moves so you can help prevent it from occurring again. In the earlier stages it's often catching an edge that causes this. Make your turns slow & fluid until you feel confident enough to make quicker turns while picking up speed - similar to pumping a skateboard.

And the biggest piece of advice I can give you is to psych yourself out of being afraid. It's natural to get scared when we start out & we're picking up speed, but most often people bail or freak out & start leaning back, which will cause you to lose control. If it's getting too fast for you to feel comfortable, put on the brakes, but keep your form & forward lean going the whole time, until you've come to a stop. Sometimes a beer, a shot or a toke off a joint/bowl can help you to calm down enough to just go with the flow, and keep you from over thinking things. I have friends who take an Advil or a Vicodine 30mins before hitting the slopes to stay loose. In theory this could also help you to be less sore the next day in the event of a minor wipeout or just normal muscle soreness. Just remember there's a fine line between loosening up & being buzzed/intoxicated - and I don't suggest anyone ride/ski intoxicated or tipsy, as much like driving drunk/buzzed, you put yourself & others in danger.

Donutz

QFT! I've seen far more carnage on the tow rope than on any chair lift, especially if the lifties aren't flattening out the track regularly. I hate the damthings and I was overjoyed when Seymour finally replaced theirs.

One other thing to remember -- you aren't snowboarding on pavement. We've got a lifetime of reflexes telling us that falling is painful and damaging. But unless you're on ice, or going Mach 2, falling on snow consists mostly of digging the snow out of your backside after you get up. Especially if you have protection (I have knee/shin pads, padded shorts, and a spine protector), you'll find that biffing hurts a lot less than you expect.

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Illegitimi non carborundum

Mountain Days: 30

Donutz

Longboarding

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Illegitimi non carborundum

Mountain Days: 30

appage

theres a lot of good advice in this thread already. i would just add that you shouldnt worry too much about the speed fear. that fear will eventually go away once your skills progress and you get more comfortable on your board. theres no reason to force the issue by flatbasing. keep working on your turns and you'll find your speed will naturally increase.

you said you're going to wait until your bored of greens and bombing them until you move to blues. i assume that your beyond the stage of falling on your ass every 2 seconds and can link turns on a semi-regular basis. if thats the case then i would really encourage you to try and mix some blue runs into your next day on the mountain. you don't need to be able to bomb a green to safely get down a blue run. just take your time and stay in control. after a few blue trails go back to some greens and you'll probably already see some improvement in your riding and you'll be shredding greens in no time. its good to challenge yourself with harder terrain (within your limits of course), this will help with your progression and expose the weaker aspects of your riding that you need to go back to easier terrain and dial in.

poutanen

Actually this reminds me of when I taught my brother in law to board about 10 years ago. We spent a run or two on the greens and got him used to standing up on the thing, then went to a blue where there was actually some pitch.

It might sound weird but I think it's actually beneficial to be on a hill with the pitch of an easy blue. You've got the keep you edge higher just to heel or toe slide, and I think it makes it easier to grasp the concept of keeping your downhill edge up at all times.

srdeo

Don't try to push yourself too much just to keep up with your fiance. You will end up hurting yourself. Go with what is comfortable for you. It will especially important for you since you already have bad knees. Until you feel comfortable going fast don't. Have your fiance ride switch. You will prob ride at similar speed.

Keep pushing yourself. Just don't try to keep up with someone well beyond your skill level.

Irahi

The OP is riding at Snoqualmie central, which unfortunately has no good terrain in between super shallow greens and impressively difficult blues with some really long flat sections that necessitate holding a lot of speed. She'd have to drive over to Alpental to do her blues, and the Sessel lift over there that has some relatively mellow blue terrain isn't always turning.

appage

Well that kinda sucks. But on the upside, long flat sections is where I first got really comfortable with speed. Knowing that if I didn't keep my speed up that I'd have to walk or skate for awhile was quite the motivator. Once she can handle the difficulty of those runs, maybe that will help cure her speed fear.

PNWRider

This sounds like a good trick. Can't wait to try it!

I understand what you're saying, but the only reason I was concerned with bombing straight down was so that I dont chicken out when attempting to do a toeside turn and the board is pointing straight down the fall line for a couple of seconds. I feel that if I cannot handle those 2 seconds of fall line on a green, then I can't really handle it on a blue either.

Thanks! I'm totally fine with doing the shallow greens by myself and working my way up while she's off on her own though, so I'm not rushing to try to catch up with her or anything.

Just bought the last medium size of these padded shorts in the greater Seattle area tonight on my way home