KeAnZu

On my recent trip to Niseko’s Hirafu resort I posed this question to a wide variety of people and of those who had tried both the results were unanimous:

Skiing is easier at the start and the fastest way to get enough skill to go on the lift.
Progression in skiing is very slow and it will be a long time before you ever get to any tricky slopes.

Snowboarding is harder at the start and you will take more time to get the basic skills which allow you to go on the lift.
Progression in snowboarding is fast and you can be on the tricky slopes much earlier than with skis.

People polled included beginners, experienced people and instructors. Surprisingly, everyone said a version of the same thing. Only those who had tried only one differed in opinion but experience is more relevant so I ignored their speculations.

My body survived the snowboarding (barely) but my pride and dignity died on the mountain as I spent an untoward amount of time gracefully sliding on my butt. Apparently to actually qualify as legitimate snowboarding the board itself has to contact the snow rather than your knees, hands and butt. Not sure what I ended up doing is really called, there was snow and a board involved … also pain, perhaps - “Uncoordinated goofy white guy sliding down a (rather flat) hill with board attached”. You think they’d name the hill something macho like “White Hill of Snowy Death” so you could at least salvage some pride by saying the name of the place that almost killed you, but no, they named it “Family” and it is serviced by the “Ace Family Pair Lift”. The tougher run up the mountain a little is accessed via the “Ace Pair Lift #1″ and is deceptively named “Slope for Family”, personally I think “Vertigo” would have been a more apt name. Anyway, the people were friendly, the instructors great and the lift tickets brutally expensive. Paying for those almost hurt as much as bouncing down the mountain.

If you are going to try snowboarding I would recommend knee pads, a butt pad and maybe even full body armour.

The exact lesson format will be different at each resort but you can expect to learn the following skills:

Skating or Scooting - Put your front foot into the bindings and push yourself along with the back foot. Keep your weight on the snowboard and allow it to glide. Learns what it feels like to have a big piece of wood strapped to your foot. Important skill for later when you start using lifts.
Straight Running - On a very gentle slope strap in both feet and slowly glide down the slope. The goal here is to learn the basic stance which is used for all advanced techniques. You should watch where you are going, hands slightly away from your body, knees bent, upper body facing same direction as front foot, weight distributed evenly and stay relaxed. Try bending down and standing up while gliding.
Standing up on the slope, heelside - Make sure the board is across the slope, you should be sitting facing down the slope with the heelside of the board in the snow. Put one hand on the snow close to your body to push off from, put your other hand out over the board and roll forwards to stand up. Make sure not to overextend and keep the heelside of the board dug in to prevent slipping.
Side slipping, heelside - Stand up facing down the slope with the board across the slope and the heelside of the board firmly dug into the snow. Slowly push down on your toes to flatten the board to the snow and get it moving down the fall line. Smoothly roll back onto your heels to slow the board or onto your toes to speed the board up. Relax and stay smooth!
Side slipping, toeside - Stand up facing up the slope with the board across the slope and the toeside of the board firmly dug into the snow. Slowly push down on your heels to flatten the board to the snow and get it moving down the fall line. Smoothly roll back onto your toes to slow the board or onto your heels to speed the board up. Relax and stay smooth!
Falling leaf, heelside - Start doing a normal heelside descent and then put pressure on the toes of one foot to cause that end of the snowboard to turn down the slope, let the board run a little and then roll the same foot back onto the heel to stop the slide. Try the other foot. Alternate feet crossing back and forth the slope in a falling leaf pattern.
Falling leaf, toeside - Start doing a normal toeside descent and then put pressure on the heel of one foot to cause that end of the snowboard to turn down the slope, let the board run a little and then roll the same foot back onto the toes to stop the slide. Try the other foot. Alternate feet crossing back and forth the slope in a falling leaf pattern.
Garland, heelside - Same as falling leaf heelside, press down on the toes of one foot to turn the board but this time allow the board to turn until it is pointing directly down the slope before rolling back on the heel of the same foot to flatten out. Also known as J-turns.
Garland, toeside - Same as falling leaf toeside, press down on the heel of one foot to turn the board but this time allow the board to turn until it is pointing directly down the slope before rolling back on the toes of the same foot to flatten out. Also known as J-turns.
Linked turns - Same as the garland but instead of recovering and turning back keep the turn going right around. Start out heelside - end up toeside. Start from both heelside and toeside.
Leg turning - On heelside turns turn the front leg into the slope to turn better and on the toeside rotate the front leg away from the slope.
Flat-Basing - This is where the board is flat on the snow. Whilst flat-basing it is possible to ‘catch an edge’ which will usually put the rider off balance. The primary cause of this is attempting to flat-base where flat-basing is not suitable e.g. a transitioned piste. It is the fastest position snowboarder can assume as there are no forces actually against the snow (as with carving) just a little friction on the bottom of the board.
Carving - Aggressively pitch the board hard over onto its edge to carve, keep transitions short and as you pick up speed start your transitions earlier and earlier. In carving the board is always either on one edge or the other and carves a track in the snow.
Powder - Snowboards were designed for this, powder is easier on a snowboard than on skis but keep your speed up, keep the nose of the board up by putting more weight on the back foot than normal and don’t edge over too hard.

Top 8 Tips for the beginner snowboarder

• Keep your knees bent, especially when slowing down, to absorb the bumps.
• Snowboarding is mostly done on either the heelside or toeside edge of the snowboard. You have little control when the snowboard is flat.
• Turn the board by pressing down with either your heel or toes, don’t throw your upper body around. Try boarding with your hands on your hips to force you to use your feet to turn.
• Keep your head and shoulders facing downhill with your center of gravity over the center of the board.
• Relax and stay smooth! Nervous, jerky movements will result in frequent falls.
• When not strapped to your feet keep the snowboard bindings side DOWN in the snow to prevent the snowboard from sliding down the mountain without you.
• Keep the snowboard perpendicular to the slope when sitting or getting up to prevent it moving.
• Keep your hands over the ends of the board for balance (”tip and tail”).
• If you remember nothing else, remember this: Knees bent, relax!