Cycle4Fun

You want lessons. It will make sure you don't start learning bad habits. A good foundation of skill will let you learn everything else at a faster pace. Yes it costs money, but think how much money you've already spent on gear and will spend in the future on travel and lift tickets. One or two lessons will improve your skill dramatically.

You want a private/near private lesson. You'll get individual attention and progress faster. The instructor also won't spend most of his time with one person who can hardly stand up. My first lesson was like that. To get that private lesson at a group rate, take a lesson in the middle of the day in the middle of the week.

For the best private lesson do what I did at Killington. Talk to some locals at the mountain you're going to go to. If you don't know a local, call a snowboard shop in the town. Ask to get a lesson from the person they recommend. I asked a Killington local on this forum who got me a personal lesson with an outstanding instructor. She was also cute. The private lesson was worth every penny.

I learned to snowboard last year. First lesson was a group wash. Second group lesson was a "private" lesson and had me linking turns. Last private lesson at the end of the year tweaked my form which I didn't even realize I was doing wrong and had me doing true carves and true dynamic skidded turns.

My goals this year: dynamic carved turns and dynamic switch skidded turns.

Donutz

I can't claim to be an expert, but I can tell you how it went in my case. I was self-taught, then took a lesson midway through my second season. Discovered I had developed a HUGE list of bad habits, plus was simply unaware of some techniques. One two-hour lesson (group lesson but I was the only student, so effectively a private) made an incredible difference. I managed to unlearn all my bad habits and am a far better snowboarder for it.

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Illegitimi non carborundum

I hate the parts between winter...

IdahoFreshies

Now THAT looks like proper skill devopment and progression of the sport, props man. Its not the " omg I've been boarding 4 times and I can carve perfectly and hit every box in the park with mad steeze and throw back 3s. Guys how much of a bad ass am I! I wanna get sponsored next year, how do I make tons of money while not having to work hard or know anything". <----typical narrative of someone explaining their progression

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If you don't like the way I drive, stay off the sidewalk.

KIRKRIDER

Self taught. Watch many videos, buy protections before you get hurt, follow other riders and imitate them, work on one thing at a time. ride as much as you can in all conditions, don't get hurt, have fun!

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2012/13 -12- Kirkwood days
Arbor A-Frame 158 2009-10
Jeremy Jones Hovercraft 156, 2011/12
Burton Driver-X
K2-Cinch-CTX
Subaru WRX 06

Cycle4Fun

Thanks. Last year was a tough year to learn in the East. We had as much rain as snow with temperatures that even hit 60. The local hill only has 250ft of vertical. I can hit a measly 700-800 at various places in PA and NY in 3.5 hrs.

It helped that I had 10 years of intermediate level skiing. A proper toe-side skidded turn was a challenge though. My mind kept going, "Wait, my shoulders aren't turned where I want to go? My back is to the fall line? This isn't right."

IdahoFreshies

ya, most people think that these skills are mastered in a couple trips to the mountain, and they aren't. Then the more difficult the terrain is the longer it's going to take to learn to apply those skills to all levels of increasingly difficult terrain.

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If you don't like the way I drive, stay off the sidewalk.

dopamean

Just go ride! You have all your own gear now and already feel way more comfortable. Throw on a smile and you'll kill it!

-relk-

I was self-taught when I first got "into" snowboarding. My view on the subject, lessons will definitely help you progress faster, but teaching yourself is not the end of the world.

The single biggest way I progressed was by going with friends who were much better than me. They pushed me to try harder terrain, which I did slowly and under control, which in the end made me progress much faster than I had originally thought I would. An instructor would be even better than this, but not necessary.

Ridethesnow80

What do you mean?

Cycle4Fun

Some people never progress beyond the falling leaf. They learn the falling leaf on the healside which teaches them heal edge control. They weren't forced to do the same falling leaf on toe-side.

The toe side is typically the more uncomfortable edge to learn. Your back is to the fall line.

With no toe side comfort the occasional snowboarder only turns on their heal edge or will do the "turbo leaf" bombing down a steep run on nothing but their heal edge.

Sad to watch as they scrape all of the snow off the good runs!