Is it hard to learn how to snowboard? Well, the short answer is, it depends. Your previous experience with other sports may change this answer. If you want to learn snowboarding, you may have been curious about the sport for some time. The long answer is that if you have already mastered other similar sports such as skiing, skateboarding, or surfing, learning to snowboard will be much easier. But if you’ve never ridden a board before (either on water or on dry land) you can also learn how to snowboard by simply being patient and applying some tips.
Here we will give you those practical tips to help you understand the basics of snowboarding.
How long do I need to learn to snowboard?
If you’ve never snowboarded before or have never surfed, skated, or skied before, don’t worry. The average time to really start enjoying your board is 2 or 3 days of practice, although this of course depends a lot on each person!
In this time, you will learn the basic movements and maintain your balance. If you spend that time learning snow with a professional, so much the better. Enjoying your snowboarding lessons will give you more knowledge and you will also learn faster.
Learn snowboarding step by step
The classic mistake when it comes to learning snowboarding is to go to the top of the mountain on the first day, skipping all the previous steps you have to learn. In the snow lessons, they will explain to you that the first thing you must learn is to put on your bindings correctly. Then, they will help you choose which foot you put in front of you. To do this, the best thing to do is to go to an area as flat as possible, where there are few people, preferably in beginners’ areas. Here you will have to get into position to run. The foot you put in front of you is the one you should put in front of your board.
How to learn snowboarding step by step
The first steps should be taken with the board tied to one foot. This will promote balance and allow us to start sliding without falling every second. When we start to slide it is important to look forward and not down. Our natural impulse will be to look at the ground, but it is important not to do so in order to stand upright and not fall forward.
The foot that drives us, as if it were a skateboard, will be the one behind, but not on its natural side as with a skateboard, but on the opposite side, behind the other leg.
The next thing we must learn is to “drift”, which is the method of braking. On a very slight slope, we will first learn to skid with our heels. We will look down the slope in a forward position and let ourselves fall at a very low speed so that when we push our heels back we will see how the board is braked. Once we have mastered this we will do the same but looking at the top, letting ourselves fall backward. We will brake by sliding with the tips of our boots.
If you have reached this point without the help of a snowboarding class, you have a natural talent. The next step will be to learn how to do diagonals by sliding. When you’ve done that, you’ll be on your way to becoming a real snowboarder.
Snow lessons to become an expert
We hope that all these tips will help you to become a real expert, but we insist again on the importance of learning snowboarding step by step with the help of some lessons given by a professional. We recommend this even if you have mastered other board sports. Each sport has its own particular characteristics, and not everything can be learned intuitively.
A few simple snowboarding lessons can shorten the time needed to learn by less than half. In addition, it will allow you not to pick up vices on the board that can lead to injuries or to not progressing properly. You can make your reservation directly on our website.