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Snowboard lessons at Hemel

 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
Apologies if this or similar has been asked many times …

In lieu of our Xmas trip that’s been canned due to a positive test, I was going to take my three children to Hemel in Jan (I say children - 16-20!) They are experienced skiers, but want to give snowboarding a try. With two years of surplus ski-spending, I can just about spring for an hours private lesson there (through gritted teeth) and was thinking they could do the lesson for an hour, then practise for an hour on their own.

However, will they be allowed on the main slope after that short a time of lessons - if not, are they still allowed to use the nursery slope, or is that just reserved for lessons?
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Pejoli wrote:
I can just about spring for an hours private lesson there (through gritted teeth) and was thinking they could do the lesson for an hour, then practise for an hour on their own.

However, will they be allowed on the main slope after that short a time of lessons


It's not based on time, but on standard of skiing/ boarding. They'd need to be able to control their speed and direction from the top of the main slope and use the button lift unassisted to meet the recreational standard. That's realistically not going to happen in an hour.

Quote:
- if not, are they still allowed to use the nursery slope, or is that just reserved for lessons?


The Nursery slope is only for lessons.

Adult group lessons at Hemel now have a maximum group size of 6, so a two hour group lesson might be more cost effective, and if you go during the day midweek you might get lucky and be the only 3 on it.
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Any near dry slopes to use instead?
Rule of thumb on dry slopes is if you can use the pull lifts……

Being skiers they should pick it up quite quickly. They (i assume) already have self awareness from skiers of the dangers around them.
I taught an old dog who went from skiiing to snowboarding in an afternoon. He was a good skier, so I did not have to bark orders about being aware of his surrounds. He could translate my snowboard instructions to ski knowledge
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Tubaski wrote:


The Nursery slope is only for lessons.

Adult group lessons at Hemel now have a maximum group size of 6, so a two hour group lesson might be more cost effective, and if you go during the day midweek you might get lucky and be the only 3 on it.


Thanks. So I see on the form I can either book a lesson for the nursery slope or the main slope. I take it I shouldn’t book the main slope if they are complete (snowboard) beginners? There doesn’t seem to be any guidance, so I wonder what they would do - turn them away or make them hike up?

If I want to throw more money at this problem, I wonder if a lesson on the nursery slope followed by one on the main slope might work.
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@Pejoli, For lessons you don't book the slope, you book lessons for the level you need. The level and the individuals/group development will dictate which slopes the instructor will use.

https://www.thesnowcentre.com/lessons/adultsnowboardlessons
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anarchicsaltire wrote:
@Pejoli, For lessons you don't book the slope, you book lessons for the level you need. The level and the individuals/group development will dictate which slopes the instructor will use.

https://www.thesnowcentre.com/lessons/adultsnowboardlessons


Thanks - that’s not how booking private lessons works though - it just gives you the option to book nursery or main slope (try it).
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If complete beginners you need to book training slope lessons. If they get good enough during the lesson to move to the main slope the instructor will take them there, and advise to book a main slope lesson in future. This wouldn't normally happen in the first 2 hours. 4 hours on the training slope would be a more realistic expectation, but it depends how they get on - could be more, could be less.
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 After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
Thanks everyone - two hours of privates was too eye-watering, so I took your advice and switched to a group lesson instead. We’ll see how they get on.

Hoping the levels they describe doesn’t reflect how they teach though - seems very glacial. When I took my first - and pretty much only- snowboard lesson, they started with teaching us how to turn front and backside, and side slipping was just incidental. It was a looong time ago, but I’m pretty sure we we’re just about linking turns after the two hours we’re up. Appreciate it’s a dome with less room, so perhaps there’s more focus on absolute control first, but sounds a bit of a dull way to learn.
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If i may be so bold, I'm going to suggest not doing it. You cannot learn to snowboard in an hour or two. The only thing the kids will learn is that its not as good as skiing, and you'll be wasting your time and money without the follow up few hours to turn those early day skills into actually learning to ride.

I suggest you float the idea that the kids try doing a freestyle ski session with an instructor instead, and leave snowboarding to when you can properly commit time to it.
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Richard_Sideways wrote:
its not as good as skiing


Wow, @Richard_Sideways has finally seen the light Toofy Grin Laughing
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@Tubaski, Amusing.... no, just being polite.


YEARS of meeting people saying "Ohh well I tried snowboarding for a morning once and its rubbish" If I came to you and said that my kids wanted to ski, so surely an hour with and instructor should sort 'em out then they can just pick it up, you'd laugh your back bottom off.

@Pejoli, I have no idea how good your kids are, maybe their mini-Franz Klammers maybe they ain't. You need days of practice and tuition to teach someone how to snowboard just like you need to with skiing. No shortcuts - or I'll guarantee you'll be seeing the inside of an A&E with a kid with a wrist fracture, or worse - the kids will just say "meh, snowboardings just a bit rubbish" and they'll have joined the above choir.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
@Richard_Sideways, good call.
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@Richard_Sideways,

That’s a fair point - we should be enjoying our first day on the slopes in Selva right now, so this is just a distraction activity, and I have suitably low expectations. I’m just putting this down as a bit of post-Xmas fun.

We snowboarded for ten years before flipping back to skiing (when the kids came along) so pretty familiar with the risks and early challenges, and have no expectations this will be of any real benefit longer term. Hopefully with their skiing background they’ll get enough enjoyment out of it to see if it’s something they want to continue (hopefully we’ll manage to get away at Easter). And we’ll be able to give them the context that the first two hours on a board - in a fridge- are always going to be like that.

And they’ll be geared up with wrist guards to mitigate the added A&E experience.
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 You know it makes sense.
You know it makes sense.
One consideration - and only you know your kids - is how they'll feel being gawky, hopeless, beginners in a fairly public setting. My two sons started snowboarding as teenagers. The younger one, who is a VERY good skier, kept at it, and is now pretty good (had several seasons working and done a lot of both). The older one just hated feeling like a beginner, and was much less tolerant of the inevitable pain, and gave up and went back to skiing - he's an OK holiday skier -nothing special, but sticks to what he can do, and very rarely falls.
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@Pejoli, Yep, I get it - we should be getting all the kit ready for Arraba.

I get you have a history with riding so fair enough - you know the game, but I do stand by my advice re getting your money's worth out of the time you have at HH, and if the goal is fun, then would definitely recommend the freestyle option on skis. They do a £49 2-hour Freestyle Academy Path session for juniors every thursday evening... and you could always have a go too for £59 for adults.
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@Pejoli, i've got some experience having done a 2 hour adult beginner snowboard lesson at Hemel, as well as doing a big chunk of my shadowing hours for my level 1 ski instructor qualification at Hemel.

Now you've booked a group lesson, there'll be a set list of criteria they're trying to tick off during the lesson. If the group progress fairly well, then you'll find they start introducing bits of the next level.

In our lesson we got used to walking around on the flat on the board, practised heel and toe edge slipping, and by the end of the lesson starting introducing a falling leaf style slide on heel and toe edges. i.e. as we went down we also moved left and right.

The way in which they teach you've said you think is a bit glacial in terms of pace, but if you take BASI as an example, they have a central theme with which they suggest how to teach snowboarding. Starts on page 48 of the below link.

http://www.qgdigitalpublishing.com/publication/?m=58719&i=551747&p=54&ver=html5

So Hemel will have their lessons structured in a similar theme, hence why there's a number of activities to go through before you start turning.

Fingers crossed for your kids the group is small and progresses quickly so they can start moving further along the techniques.

I'm sure they'll enjoy it, and as long as they don't go in to it thinking they're going to walk out as good as Shaun White, i'm sure they'll have fun.
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I was a fairly competent skier. Wanted to switch (sorry) to the tea tray so booked the full day beginner board lesson at Hemel. Brilliant idea it was and money very well spent. After the course the pair of us were proficient enough to go to Val 'Isere and fall off chair lifts for a week. But seriously, I'd recommend the board in a day course to anyone who's skied before and wants to give it a try. I'd also recommend a few weeks of sit-ups before hand. I really don't think a couple of hours is long enough to grasp it. It really took me until the 4th day of the holiday before I had a real light bulb moment (totally forgot I was on a board) trying to chase a couple of people I was with (on skis). Shocked
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Quote:

I'd also recommend a few weeks of sit-ups before hand.

and work on whatever muscles you use to hold your arms up. I did "learn to board in a day", many years ago now, and could scarcely move 48 hours later. Getting up onto my elbow to reach my water glass in the middle of the night was agony. Laughing
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gixxerniknik wrote:
I'd also recommend a few weeks of sit-downs before hand:


FIFY Toofy Grin
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
@Red Leon,

Ta!
As if there isn't enough sit-downs with the board!
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@pam w, +1 but not just kids.
Mainly adults.
I know so many have ragged it off after one morning of trying and gone back to their skis, because they couldn't do it straight away.
The BEST way to learn to board if you can already ski is to do it with 2 or 3 other people so you all feel the same pain / frustrations, and you can laugh at each other and learn together.
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@Pejoli, board in a day is what they should do. It's enough time to get a feel of snowboarding then they can make a decent decision. I would say if they completed the board in a day and then had some rec time on the slope they would love it.
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 After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
Thanks for the feedback everyone - with peoples availability, we’ve decided to stick with the two hours lessons on the 27th - maybe not optimal, but hopefully they’ll enjoy it enough. Then we’ll probably hold out for a holiday and let them learn on a proper hill.

On the plus side @Gainz, I had a quick look for the snowboard in a day package you (and others) mentioned - couldn’t find it on the website, but did spot that they were entitled to a 10% discount as they are all students! A quick web chat, and got the discount refunded. Which is nice.

I’ll report back on how they got on.
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Pejoli wrote:

On the plus side @Gainz, I had a quick look for the snowboard in a day package you (and others) mentioned - couldn’t find it on the website,


It's called Beginners Snowboard Day now.
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Tubaski wrote:
Pejoli wrote:

On the plus side @Gainz, I had a quick look for the snowboard in a day package you (and others) mentioned - couldn’t find it on the website,


It's called Beginners Snowboard Day now.


At Hemel ? See nothing on their website.
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Pejoli wrote:
Tubaski wrote:


It's called Beginners Snowboard Day now.


At Hemel ? See nothing on their website.


Yep, it's under level 1 beginner options...

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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
Blimey - it’s like someone put it in there as an Easter Egg! How on earth does anyone find that option.

Anyway, thanks for the heads up, I’ll take a look
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So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
Pejoli wrote:
Tubaski wrote:


The Nursery slope is only for lessons.

Adult group lessons at Hemel now have a maximum group size of 6, so a two hour group lesson might be more cost effective, and if you go during the day midweek you might get lucky and be the only 3 on it.


Thanks. So I see on the form I can either book a lesson for the nursery slope or the main slope. I take it I shouldn’t book the main slope if they are complete (snowboard) beginners? There doesn’t seem to be any guidance, so I wonder what they would do - turn them away or make them hike up?

If I want to throw more money at this problem, I wonder if a lesson on the nursery slope followed by one on the main slope might work.


This guidance video is on the SnowCentre website....http://youtube.com/v/TdTg9RH303Q
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 You know it makes sense.
You know it makes sense.
So it would seem the Covid gods have a sense of the absurd - even our Hemel trip has now been cancelled (my son testing positive this time).

Snow centre were very good though - happy to issue a credit note despite only being T-3 hours. And on the plus side I can now go back and revisit those options above.
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Just adding to this for others reference, my two teens did the Green level (beginner) “holiday camp” 2 hour group lesson over Xmas - it progressed much faster than I’d imagined and one of the kids was signed off level 3 by the end, the other, being more cautious, hadn’t quit cracked her linked turns and got level 2. 5 in a group, effectively 10 of them with 2 instructors in one big group. So much more progress than I had expected to be honest.
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@swoafs, that was a timely bump to the thread, we’re off for our Hemel trip this afternoon ! Will report our experiences too.
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How did it go?
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Thanks for the reminder (and gives me something to do while I wait for Randox to come back with my certificates - whoop, whoop, off to France tomorrow).

The experience overall was a great success - so thanks for all the advice. They were in a class of 12 with two instructors, and by the end of the second hour were doing traversing side slips down the hill. But they really enjoyed the whole thing, and certainly didn’t feel the pace was too slow (so proving me well and truly wrong!). Happily my daughter who was anxious about being shown up by her siblings was the best of the bunch, but all can’t wait to try it again. Given they aren’t going to be able to get away with us this year because of exams, we’ll blow some more money and do another trip or two over there, and hopefully set them up well for the proposed Xmas trip mark II.

Me and the GLW pootled down the main slope for a couple of hours - had to reassure myself that I’m always rubbish for the first morning until I get my ski-legs back, and a two year layoff clearly doesn’t help that, but my wife was straight on it again.

Wrapped it up with a visit to the local Five Guys down the road from the fridge, and then home - so a great afternoon, and we’ll definitely be back.
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