I might get back into skiing when I'm old 😉 Probably ski-touring tho.

I like skiing, it's just that I like boards in general and want to try and transfer some of my skills (not skillz… not yet) to the slopes. I would not feel that comfortable doing rails and other stuff on skis, but for some reason that doesn't bother me on a board of some sort.

The only thing that worries me is the turning… Since I ski infrequently, turning on a snowboard is something that I can't seem to get my head round. With skis, it's just snowplough round if I get stuck…

Willard – definitely consider having a lesson when you get to Banff if you're struggling with initiating turns on a snowboard. If you learn the correct technique early on it's much easier than having to 'un-learn' bad habits later on.

In a nutshell it's all about the feet and the knees – which is where the binding angles and stance width come into play. You need to be able to pressurise the outside edge of your feet to intiate and complete the turns whilst maintaining a relaxed centered 'stacked' body in line with the board – looking in the direction you want to go whilst keeping a 'quiet' upper body.

Make sense? I hope so.

Those Arbors are beautiful but if you were riding one in Europe you'd get sick of people tramping their rental skis all over it in the lift queue.

I did a fair bit of touring on a pair of MSR snowshoes, if you're fit you will keep up with skiers on anything other than bottomless snow or extended flat sections.

definitely don't go for a Ride Yukon if you're struggling on the turns. I find keeping your shoulders parallel with lead shoulder pointing where you want to go really helps with the turns. Initiate shoulders before legs.

Initiate shoulders before legs.

Mmmmm … without wishing to get controversial, this is where bad habits sometimes start – it certainly did for me 😳 Whilst I concede that CASI do teach upper body rotation to beginers in order to get them started, intermediate turns avoid this as it introduces counter-rotation.

Although I do think that a degree of 'opening up' & 'closing' of the shoulder for turns can help – it certainly helped me with my switch riding.

Foot steering is definitely key though – especially for progression to riding in powder and steeper terrain.

I can definitely recommend Neil McNab's book 'Go Snowboard' which comes with a well made DVD – available from Amazon etc featuring the lovely Jenny Jones!

Having a lesson with a good instructor will mean they can observe your riding and make suggestions to improve your technique accordingly. We are all different and often require little tweaks here and there to help us ride with flow and grace.

I agree Digby, I have just found on those days when my I leave my boarding abilities at home if I continencely start using my shoulders first my turning eases up a bit.

Whippersnapper – yeah – I know what you mean! If I'm starting on my heal-side edge on really steep stuff, I have to 'dip' my leading shoulder in order to initiate the first turn.

I didn't mean that. Damn spell checker 😳

The word I am looking for I am so beyond spelling correctly that I can't find it, or it doesn't exist. I'll go for purposefully instead.

As luck would have it, I have a mate that's snowbording instructor. I have a plan that involves me giving him money every month to shout at me when I do something wrong whilst sliding down a slope.

What could possibly go wrong with a plan like that?

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