[Closed] 1st Snowboard lesson tonight....

Its like biking, keep your head looking ahead and you'll be fine.

Real snow or dryslope?

lesson 1. learn to fall. DO NOT UNDER AND CIRCUMSTANCES EXTEND YOUR ARMS FULLY TO TAKE THE IMPACT. falling on your ass will hurt but i've never seen a broken ass from snowboarding. that's my top tip, the rest is easy!

enjoy!

i've never seen a broken ass from snowboarding

I have.

It's 'real' snow - chill factore in Manchester.

plenty practice falling from riding 🙂

cheers

Broken Coccyx is one of the most common injuries from snowboarding.

you will fall.

wear knee pads.

On snow or plastic? Either way, bend ze knees! Like biking, if you listen to the instructor and are able to visualise what you want to do, you should be fine. Have a Google around for Neil McNabb's video and book - he has a useful four-points theory that works well in practice.

Knee pads are also useful, although mtb ones with shin guards will not fit under your boots (my 661 Evos have now replaced my snowboard-only pads though). Your arse will be sore tomorrow. The irony is, if you get into it you'll decide to buy arse-padding when you begin to least need it.

I offer this to you : You will probably HATE the first few lessons if you are a skier - dont give up at this point... it will take time - I hated my first few lessons with a biblical passion - that was 10 years ago and I then went on to do 6 seasons all on a plank all around the world - go for it !

wear padded shorts and wrist guards...

paul

Sweet. You'll be fine.

Relax. Ben' ze' knees. Look where you want to go. Keep your weight on the highest edge of the board.

I don't see why it would stop you riding at the weekend providing you don't break something.

Don't listen to any advice on here regarding technique - just concentrate on listening to your instructor - there are as many ways of instructing as there are of riding so you could just end up getting confused.

I WOULD recommend getting another lesson in quite soon after though - you will get home and go through all your falls and start to work out for yourself what you should do next time.

Have fun 🙂

If you are worried about your ass then buy some of these:

[img] [/img]
http://www.ss20.com/pp/Snowboard_Hardware/Protection/RED_PADS_TOTAL_IMPACT_SHORTS_09_Black_rrp_50.00.html

Oh and join these guys: http://www.snowboardclub.co.uk/

and you'll get "10% discount off all slope time at Chill Factore including lessons, coaching sessions and hire of boots, skis, board (not clothing hire)." which along with the other discounts they give you soon easily covers the £15 for membership.

Off to Xscape in Glasgow myself tonight. Fun fun.

Don't think it will stop you ridind. Your arse may be a bit tendor if you fall alot!

Bend the knees, keep most weight on front leg and turning kinda comes naturally...ish!

Wear a helmet, catching an edge when learning is so easy to do!

Now you have just maid me want to go snowbaording! Dam you!!!

When you get to the point where you're trying full turns from one edge to the other, force yourself to keep your weight over your front foot - really concentrate on it. That's the bit that scared me when I was learning.

Would recommend padded shorts, kneepads, wristguards and helmet and keep relaxed

Katie ended up like this even with wristguards

[img] http://images.fotopic.net/?iid=yn2tr4&outx=600&quality=70 [/img]

Wont take you long to pick up the basics, biggest thing we found to master was getting of these

[img] http://images.fotopic.net/?iid=y07vyr&outx=600&quality=70 [/img]

Tracey

Yup, you'll have a fir bit to concentrate on, but when he/she/heshe says keep your weight on your front foot, keep your weight on your front foot!

It's tricky, because if you're feeling cautious/scared, it's natural to lean back, but that's when you WILL fall over!

Weight over the front foot = easy turning, more confidence, upwards spiral of fun, improvement and good times.

Weight over the back foot = difficult turning, falls, downwards spiral of hurty wrists and bum, fear, more leaning back and bad times.

Other than that, if something isn't working and you're getting frustrated, try and clear your mind of everything you think you're doing and try and follow exactly, as if for the first time, what the instructor's demonstrating.

Have fun!

You will probably HATE the first few lessons...

Every girl I know that has tried to learn boarding has cried within the first few lessons. And several grown men have thrown tantrums.

Keep at it and it will click.

Traceys right I remember me and my mates first tackling a chair lift, got on ok but on the off ramp we all ended up clinging to each other for balance and falling over in a big heap (and my mate was hit in the back by the chairlift on his second go) Happy days.

Wrist guards defo, your forearms [b]will[/b] be frigged next day without them, knee and ass pads are for the less common big falls, but you'll have lots of little falls onto your hands.
It's not bad with weekly lessons, you don't over do it and you get a few days restbefore the next time. Learning on a holiday it's a bit difficult dragging yourself out of bed for more pain and suffering (3rd days the worst) but once it 'clicks' boardings pretty effortless and pain free (unless you stack)

Keep at it and it will click.

Or crack...

😉

I did 1 lesson in a snowdome thing, spent the whole night just scraping down on 1 edge, whe I sugested maybe we could scrape down on the other edge for a bit, or heaven forbid actually do a turn and scrape the other edge they laughed and said that would be 2 more lessons!..... Yeah Right.

So I just went on hols, strapped my 2nd hand kit on and linked turns on the first run..(obviously just the nursery run mind you) Rekon it depends if you have skated and surfed and stuff mind.

I bought gloves with built in wrist things, rekon they was a godesnd.

I'm just a beginner, but have booked my 40th birthday bash in a Bulgarian ski resort in the spring. Woohoo! Best advice I've seen on here so far is to take another lesson really soon. At least within the next couple of weeks or you'll have forgotten everything. I loved my first lesson at Xscape in Braehead. The music was pumping out and I had a great laugh. The biggest mistake I made though was to leave it way to long for my next lesson, and then I tried to do the 'learn to snowboard in a day' thing. I have never been so shattered in my life! 😯

Have fun, relax and look cool!

B. 🙂

wrist guards are $hit. complete waste of time.

Goan - Member
Broken Coccyx is one of the most common injuries from snowboarding.

i've done 2 seasons and never seen a single case of a broken coccyx. have heard of it but never known anyone to have done it.

broken wrists on the other hand... 🙄

I almost quit after my first lesson, it seemed impossible.

Couple of weeks in the Alps sorted me out though

One of my mates cracked her coccyx while learning a couple of years ago.
She didn't enjoy the turbulence on the flight home very much. 😯

Or the landing. 😯

Or sitting down for the next month or so. 😆

But yeah, wrist injuries are more common. I never bothered with wristguards though - don't find them comfy - just don't extend your arm when falling.

Peachos - my wife has done it, my cousin has done it and a number of my riding mates have done it. tends to come from losing a heel edge at speed, sliding and hitting a rock. We get rocks just under the snow up here.

just don't extend your arm when falling

wrist guards are designed to redirect a breakage away from the small bones in your wrist and onto the radius and ulna.

Goan - Member
Peachos - my wife has done it, my cousin has done it and a number of my riding mates have done it. tends to come from losing a heel edge at speed, sliding and hitting a rock. We get rocks just under the snow up here.

maybe it's hereditary then 🙂
tbh the vast majority of my riding has been in the alps so very few rocks to be found until late spring, which for the best part of, was spent in the park. must hurt like ****.

Goan - Member
wrist guards are designed to redirect a breakage away from the small bones in your wrist and onto the radius and ulna.

...where there is no form of shock absorption at all. which is why they are so bad because lots of people think they can fall on them and not get injured. which is why learning to fall is always the first thing i try to teach people.

Eh - you saying they are all a bunch of inbreds?

I would imagine that i does hurt like ****. I bruised mine when I screwed up a landing in a kayak and I couldn't sit down for days.

dunno, depends where you're from...

Ah right, thats why some of you don't like wrist guards, ok

...where there is no form of shock absorption at all. which is why they are so bad because lots of people think they can fall on them and not get injured. which is why learning to fall is always the first thing i try to teach people.

wrist guards are $hit. complete waste of time.

D0NK - Member
Ah right, thats why some of you don't like wrist guards, ok

...where there is no form of shock absorption at all. which is why they are so bad because lots of people think they can fall on them and not get injured. which is why learning to fall is always the first thing i try to teach people.

is helpful

wrist guards are $hit. complete waste of time.

isn't.

yeah...sorry 😳

no probs, this is STW tho, uninformed opinionated twoddle is not in short supply 🙂

Keep your thumbs tucked in (preferably on the inside (rather than the thumb bits) of some mitts).

Ohh, and don't ride with scissors in your hands.

Have a Google around for Neil McNabb's video and book - he has a useful four-points theory that works well in practice.

+1

Better still, read the book and then book yourself on one of his tech clinics in Chamonix next winter. Best snowboarding £££s I ever spent!

You could read this for the basics:

http://www.snowboardclub.co.uk/learn

Oh and don't show up with goggles, a big ski jacket, a scarf or thermals.
It ain't that cold in the indoor snowdomes.

Hoodie, t-shirt, boardin trousers (or whatever you have), gloves and thickish socks will be fine.

I had a bad - non break - wrist injury on my 3rd week. Then I realised that everyone was wearing wrist guards - no one told me!

Skate ones help prevent messing up you tiny wrist bones which never really recover, but I've seen snapped lower arm bones, but these heal well with pinning. You can get longer ones that are probably much better.

Early lessons can involve much crash bang wollop - pad up and stick with it because it is worth it.

Are people more "risk averse" these days or are we just more aware of dangers?*

I learnt to board on icy heather and rocks in Scotland. No helmet, wrist guards or impact shorts in those days.

Conversely I was told tonight at Xscape that they get arsey about folk boarding in t-shirts because they need to have their arms covered in case they fall!?! 😯

And I've heard that jumps have been banned in Canada and I'll have to sign a release (and pay an insurance fee) to be allowed into the rail park.

(* Genuine question: I wear impact shorts and a helmet myself these days, so I'm not claiming to be immune)

Oh and can the OP please report back (once he is back from A&E obviously).

GrahamS and the rest:

Firstly, cheers for all the help, and horror stories... 😆

I'm here, in one piece, and surprisingly unbruised... to be fair I don't think I got up enough speed to do any damage!!! Just the basics last night, bindings, moving along the flat, using edges to climb, using a stomp pad rather than both bindings, small slope for practicing balance, posture, etc.

Really enjoyed it though, so I think I can add yet another expensive hobby to the ever increasing list.

Now where's my card for these lessons, pants, protection, boots, board, bindings etc!

Oh and cheers for the link to snowboardclubuk too further up the thread. Will be very handy I'm sure.

Keith

was it a big group lesson or something? i'd expect to have learnt a bit more than that. but glad to hear you enjoyed it. the thing which is so captivating about the sport is that it is in fact relatively easy. the learning curve starts off quite slow and flat (what's this weird piece of wood attached to my feet?!) but once you get the hang generally you'll see vast improvements very quickly. so 720's next week keith?

Yeah, it was a group thing, taster lesson, to see if I fancied coughing up a bit more money, and I do... Didn't expect to learn much to be fair, we were all 1st timers.

I'm sure the learing curve will get a lot steeper, just like the slopes!

720's in two weeks, don't want to rush it 😉

A helmet, padded shorts and don't put your hands down in you fall - drop onto your bum or forearms instead and you won't break anything.

If you get into it you will love it. I had the luck to live in switzerland for 5 years (and now Norway) and i got hooked. Even breaking my wrist (not wearing guards) and breaking my collarbone (doing a rather fabulous jump) hasnt put me off....

Ace!

SCUK is a great site. If you like the "getting out there" aspect of mountain biking, this one might be worth a gander to get a different slant on what you could be doing in a few years:

[url= http://www.splitboard.com/talk/ ]www.splitboard.com/talk[/url]

North America based, but quite a few Euros and everywhere else on there too. Some of the Trip Reports on there are incredible. I'm pretty jealous of the guys who can start skinning from their back door!

hp_source: nice one, glad you enjoyed it! Once you start linking turns there is no going back 🙂

Now where's my card for these lessons, pants, protection, boots, board, bindings etc!

Definitely worth looking at the SCUK membership before you buy any gear. 10% off gear can easily pay for the £15 membership price itself.

Don't jump straight to getting a board. But getting your own boots will help a lot. Getting your own helmet will avoid other peoples head stink!

Also worth bearing in mind that all next seasons kit is about to be launched.
If you can then it might be worth getting along to [url= http://www.snowboardshow.co.uk/ ]The Big Bang Snowboard Show 2009[/url], if there is one hosted near you, because you'll get the chance to try out a whole bunch of kit.

i got my board last season (v sexy forum destroyer :D) from here. it's the snowboard asylum's outlet store and if you are in the NW you can pop along to their store under ellis brigham in castlefield. very healthy prices!

http://www.snowboard-clearance.com/

Excellent Peachos, I am indeed NW based, infact I work in Manchester city centre, I feel a lunchtime wander coming on!

Cheers

I was taught to fall onto my forearms, so my wrists dont usually hit the ground.

After my first lesson I could hardly walk the next day, not from falls, but from using all the little used muscles to stay on my toes for an hour!

Catching an edge is usually painful.

Glad you liked it, but you have all the fun bits to come yet. 😀

To the OP - If your instructor's name is Adam ask him if he's sorted out his back leg tic on his heel-side carved turns yet.

Are people more "risk averse" these days or are we just more aware of dangers?*

Mix of the two I'd say. I learned to ski then to snowboard with no protective gear at all, but then I've not (seriously) hurt myself doing either.

Picked up a cheap helmet though for indoor sessions (to save using the nasty hire ones) and took it with me for the first time last winter. Didn't really mind it, kept my head nice and warm and didn't get in the way.

I wouldn't consider it essential, I'll still go out without one, but certainly on days where I'm pushing myself a bit harder I'll take it.

Padded shorts, wrist protectors and the like? Maybe worthwhile if you're a beginner and falling over all the time (I remember the aches and pains from my first week away!) or if you're getting into jumps/rails but I wouldn't bother the rest of the time.

I wouldn't consider it essential, I'll still go out without one

i always wear one; seen so many people knock emselves out on ice and even just hard-packed snow. more essential than a helmet for mtb imo

The last week I had away, the only real injury someone had was a jarred neck after hitting the back of his head really hard on the piste... The cause - a skier and his instructor jumping back onto the piste from some trees and caught him square-on...

Personally after seeing that I wear a helmet all the time... I rarely fall myself, but you can't legislate for other people...

I do wear padded shorts though as they make a little bit less unpleasant sitting in the snow waiting for people!

RE wearing helmets - It's not me I'm worried abou it's everyone else!

I saw a lose board flying at about 100kmh down one slope just missing the people at the bottom and coming to rest by slamming into a barn.
Heart in mouth moment watching it and it wasn't even mine.
My mates helmet has a massive scar where his friends board hit him in the head on a dual run.

I'll wear my helmet and take the hit on the style points thanks.

FFS I took so long to type it everyone has already covered my points 🙄

I'm [u][b]NOT[/b][/u] asking if helmet wearing is right or wrong. God knows there have been enough discussions about that on here.

I'm just questioning why it is that these days someone asks about snowboarding and the discussion quickly turns to helmets, wrist protectors and impact shorts.

5 years ago no one was wearing a helmet. Back in '93 (when I was learning) we were on awful cheap boards, crap boots, and no protection at all. We all survived.

So what has changed? Has the sport become more dangerous, are we more aware of the risks, or have we become more afraid of injury?

In terms of the helmet debate, I think most people would agree that as a learner it's a good idea to wear one, then as you get more proficient you'll want to be stepping up your skills so will probably prefer to wear one again incase you come unstuck in a bigger and more spectacular way. Then when you're happy with that level, you'll move on again (off piste, steeper, bigger drops, etc) meaning you'll probably opt for a helmet again...

It's the same with biking, most people on here would class themselves as more than proficient, and can manage from month to month without any serious off, but would you ever go without your helmet 'just incase'.

that's my 2p anyway

Are people more "risk averse" these days or are we just more aware of dangers?

It's bloody insurance isn't it!? When you get the hang of it, you'll find yourself riding in places and at speeds when you can get really messed up. But I think people should be free to accept whatever level of risk they want but be responsible for the possible outcomes e.g. 3rd party costs, rescue and medical costs and not feel they an $ue resort owners unless the resort is genuinely negligent.
Snowboard is not a risk-free activity, but I hate lay-offs caused injuries and dislike unnecessary pain. So tend to pad up because I've been knocked out, damaged wrist and elbow etc. Injuries are boring!

Hope you have fun.