11yr old learning Snowboard or continue to ski

A snowHead

After a few opinions on this.

Like a lot of families we have a single week long ski trip each year, i have 2 daughters 11/13. Both ski to a similar level - comfortable on blues and reds if well groomed and get around fine. We had them in group lessons for the first few ski trips but the past 2 for various reasons we had a few private lessons for them both to share. This has worked fine and other than missing out of the 'making ski friends element' i think the private lessons have worked well.

My 11yr old wants to try snowboarding but as the time on the slope is precious I've tried to put her off until her skiing is at a better level. I snowboard most of the times as I prefer it (I am a much better boarder than skier) which i think has made her interested. The 13yr old wants to continue to ski. Options i think i have:
- book them as normal with their shared lessons and get an afternoon session for a snowboard lesson- though a private board lesson seems extravagant bearing in mind she probably wont get past a bit of edging on snow.
- book them both into ski/board school seperately - eldest could now probably join a 'teen' group which might be more fun and the youngest gets to learn to snowboard. Frustration though is afternoons will be spent learning snowboarding rather than joining up with the rest of the family so could be restrictive
- keep her skiing and when she is old enough to look after herself she can endure the learning curve with friends and we can go off until she is up to level.
- teach her myself (im not sure this is a good idea having seen husbands give wives 'lessons' in the past,i think would be similar outcome!)

Also thought about a snowdome session but i think that will just fuel the idea even more.

It maybe that she is flying after a few days, she is reasonably sporty but I wouldnt say she is a particularly quick learner etc

Just after a few thoughts

A snowHead

let the kid choose.
Nothing worse than a pushy parent. She may end up not enjoying it & want to back to skiing, she may take to it like a duck to water.
Push her to skiing & she may end up hating all winter sports & causing you problems further down the line.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

I was in much the same boat. My Eldest (Daughter), then around 12, had no interest in Boarding. My Son, who was 9, wanted to try it. Both were a similar standard to your kids and had skied from a young age.

We decided that he should give it a go - and if he didn't like it, at least he would have "Got it out of his system". In his case, to give it the best chance, we did book him some private lessons.....but in hindsight, a small class might have been more fun. He enjoyed the experience, but went back to skiing after that holiday.

I think the Snowdome route is a good idea, as it should highlight whether the experiment is likely to be a success and teach the basics.

The fact that you are a Snowboarder means you will be able to give better support. I wouldn't however, take on the teaching.

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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

Could the 13 year old be persuaded to learn snowboarding with her sister?

Depending on how they get on, as siblings, you could tell them that you'd prefer them to do the same thing, but they can decide between them which they want to do!

Give them each a "tuition budget" of 50% of what you would be spending booking them both into some ski lessons. They will get better value by combining - but that's up to them.

A keen 11 year old could make a lot of progress boarding in a week. The 13 year old will only make a marginal improvement to her skiing......

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In a private snowboard lesson, I generally get reasonably sporty people making their first turns after a 3 hour lesson. In two such lessons, we would generally go up a chairlift and ride a blue run. By the third lesson, we would be out exploring the resort, trying an easy red, etc. Everyone is different though. I've had a young skateboarder who could already ski be hitting park jumps on his second lesson. Equally, I've had people be stuck on the nursery slope all week. A decent number of people would fall into the pattern above though.

Separate group lessons would seem to make the most sense in this case though. She could always ski with the family on some of the afternoons. Be aware though that, as a snowboard instructor, it is somewhat frustrating when clients do this every day. It means they have no snowboard consolidation time between lessons and therefore progress slower. It also means they never fully commit mentally to snowboarding and fall into the "I'll just go back to skiing" trap when it gets a bit hard.

Don't teach her yourself!

A snowdome session in advance is a great idea. A snowdome lesson or two, followed by a private lesson in resort at the beginning of the week could easily see her out making turns around the resort on the first day.

Why would you not want to "fuel the idea even more"? Puzzled

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After all it is free

Both of mine took to snowboarding, but the eldest decided to stick with skiing as he was more comfortable and was hooning around with other SH mini-maniacs. Younger has stuck with the One True Edge and become a very nice little rider.

With regard to lessons, book regular lessons in a group, preferably with a good school and instructor who specialises in snowboarding, most snowboarding groups are smaller than ski groups so you do tend to get good interaction rather than just 'Follow me and do what I do'. If at all possible avoid ESF who normally just dump in the instructor who happened to lose last night's après game of 'la brioche détrempé'.

Snowdomes... hmm. Yes and no. Good enough for learning the very basics of scooting, standing, heel and toe slipping and early turns, but you rarely have enough space to get a proper rhythm going and linking too much together.

My daughter had dry slope boarding lessons, on 1st day of ski holiday booked a snow board, by lunch time she had switched back to skis.
My son who snow boarded until 16 switch to skiing, actually telemarking and is now UK tele champ

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Yeah - but what fun for you and the 11 year old to have that special thing between you, if she really gets the bug? If you have to stay on easier slopes for a bit, for the sake of the little boarder, could the two skiers not entertain themselves with some tricky exercises, skiing backwards, stork turns, etc and you board switch (unless you've already mastered that)?

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@therock, I can only relate what we did with ours which may help. After skiing a couple of weeks for 4 years (parent taught) after skiing day was pretty much over we hired boots and board for our eldest (a boy, by now 8yo) for a couple of hours. There was one of these carpet lifts that ran until 6 and then he walked up for a bit longer. Neither of us are snowboarders but know enough to get him started. He quite like it so we got a second hand pair of boots and a board for the next season. And basically would do the same - going out late afternoon for a couple of hours. Then he'd do an afternoon. An eventually he would do a day at a time. Sometimes it would depend on conditions - like if there was no fresh and a lot of pistes were hard packed he would ski. We upgraded the board/boots a couple of times and he passed on to the younger (daughter) who did a similar thing (late afternoon, building up).

At one point our son got to the point were he could ski any piste and off piste with us. But a couple of years ago (when he was about 16) he just kind of stopped boarding. Don't really know why, it wasn't on our say so. Our daughter did get to a reasonable point but she seemed less keen and she hasn't really boarded for a few years (she is currently 16).

I guess my take is to let them give it a whirl. It can be a bit of a pain in the butt changing gear mid-day, later in the day (need ski in ski out convenient accommodation) and as parents it's a bit boring helping/chaperoning but equally satisfying to see them pick up another snowsports discipline. Do whatever works for you lesson/learning wise. As you are a boarder personally I would teach them myself. But it's not for everyone. As I say we are not boarders but still taught ours. If anything it was easier than skiing as they were older and arguably simpler/more intuitve. But would have a much better understanding than we.

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Sorry, maybe I misread - are none of your party snowboarders?

If nobody is a snowboarder, then I suspect that Jnrs enthusiasm will quickly flag, mainly as they'll be stuck being tail-end charlie with nobody to - for want of better words - encourage and inspire them.

You know it makes sense.

@therock, personally I think a snowdome lesson is the best way to go. Snowdomes aren't always the best for lessons, but in this case it could serve the purpose well. It gives your 11yr old a taster session, and then at least at the end of it she'll be able to make an informed decision on what lessons she'd want to do on the actually holiday.

There's a strong chance that she realises that starting back at the beginning on a board is hard work, and then chooses to go back to skiing for the hols. Or she might find she loves it, and at least you know there is a real passion there. But either way she's making a commitment to one of them for the hols. That way you can plan lessons accordingly. Chopping and changing when you're actually out there feels like a recipe for disaster - and may not even be possible if you're going in school hols.

Also, if they choose snowboarding, why would they then have to have lessons in the afternoon? Could they not have morning lessons and then everyone gets to ski/board together in the afternoon?

EDIT: re-reading the post, I see it's because you'd want to be exploring in the afternoons, and even if they had morning lessons then they'd still be on the beginners slopes on a board.

I guess you could either invest in more snowdome lessons (some do a full day extensive lesson) to try to accelerate their learning. Or say, for the hols, it's snowboard lessons in the morning and skiing with the family in the afternoon (and maybe after a few days could migrate to full days of boarding depending on progression). Both options would cost a bit more but could maximise holiday enjoyment.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

This year my 11 year old granddaughter is pleading to "do boarding".
I'm a bit dissapointed as she is a pretty tasty skier already, and would love it if she moved on up.
Her dad was a self taught border but now he's a very brave self taught skier.

After reading this thread I think mum and dad should probably indulge her whim.

I remember my son learning to snowboard in Kitz when he was about 12 ...
He spent the week being shepparded about by a NZ boarding bum.

He not only learnt to board but also had a surprising range of New Zealand phrases.
Plus seemed to know all the barmaids in Kitzbuel.
"Sweet!" for a 12 year old.

It was pretty impresive for him when they went on the School Trip to Kitz area a couple of years later.

A snowHead

A snowHead

Our daughter (16 at the time) decided she wanted to learn to board being a damn good skier. We plumped for a learn in a day session for her at Tamworth and followed that up with a few hours at Milton Keynes so that she got the basics.
On our following ski break she skied with us in the mornings and then our friend who is a boarder took her on a few runs every day so she is also now quite competent on a board…mixing and matching skiing and boarding worked well for her as full on boarding lessons are quite hard work and tiring I believe.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

I agree a session, or a few sessions, in a fridge would be a good idea if it's convenient. She would probably know then whether she wanted to continue with boarding or not.

It seems a shame to discourage any child who wants to learn a new skill (especially a girl as some girls become so resistant to the idea of physical hard work!)

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My two wanted to try boarding. Both were reasonable skiers at the time, aged about 8 & 10. They did a course of lessons on a dry slope and never wanted to try it again. I think it might have been different if they'd had a week on snow.

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Thinking about it ...
I think I'm going to have a go at boarding myself.

Then I can "get down with the dudes", plus I've got a baggy pair of pants that will make me look Cool.

I'll get a course of lessons at the Fridge, perhaps next year.

The boarders are wearing less grundgy gear this season.

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After all it is free

My opinion; warn her there will be a fair few bumps the first 2-3 days but she should get it by maybe end of day 3 (provided instructor is good). Say she has to stick with it for the week, one afternoon is no way to judge a taster. And you go with her outside classes.
After a week she’ll know if she wants to continue or leave it. But when they’re pretty good at one thing, going back to beginner can be disappointing.

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I had this same experience. Middle son wanted to have a go at Snowboarding, after a number of years in Ski Lessons and being competent on reds and handling blacks. I also snowboard over skiing.

I was intent that my boys learn to ski and that if they want to snowboard, then they can do that when they have got to a sufficiently proficient level of skiing.

But, it’s also pretty cool to snowboard rather than ski with your kid, right?

So a few years ago, around the same age 11 or 12 perhaps, I agreed he could snowboard but would have to keep up his ski lessons.

I put him through learning to snowboard at Hemel to the point where he was main slope capable.

When we got to resort we hired a board and went out a few afternoons.

And that was it. He came to the realisation that he was back on the gentle blues, not getting around as quick and generally feeling like a noob again.

So he’s parked it. And since then has stuck with skiing.

I am sure he will return to it at some stage.

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You know it makes sense.

@therock, l started a similar thread a few weeks ago. Will find and reference it for you. Basically we have similar age kids and in our case we ski with another family and their daughters 13 and 10 years old wanted to try snowboarding this year and our sons were up for it too… but that would mean that we would not get to explore the resort together and generally logistically difficult, also because of our the resort we booked this year (La Thuile) not the best for snowboarding… so we decided that they will all stick with skiing this winter and perhaps plan next year holidays around snowboarding

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

https://snowheads.com/ski-forum/viewtopic.php?p=5189980&highlight=snowboarding#5189980

This is the thread

A snowHead

@Bella2015, I saw your thread at the time but didn't get around to replying. La Thuile is a perfectly decent place to learn to snowboard, I have both ridden and taught there many times.

A snowHead

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

@stevomcd, ah interesting because lots of people said it wasn’t the most suitable resort. I think it was more about us wanting to ski altogether..thinking maybe we can next year go to some small cheap resort and focus on snowboarding for a week

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I've also started a thread on this previously as Son1 was making noises about it, but like you, we value the afternoons to be able to ski together and go further afield. We never did find a resolution as he decided independently that he didn't want to go back to basics. This coming season he's moving into SuperYeti so will be exploring more off-piste as spending more time on blacks, so he's excited about those new levels of challenges.

I'm also interested in learning to board, bit haven't for the same logistical reasons. The only solution that I can see is for Son1 and I to go on a snowboard holiday together and spend a week doing that. We're in the SouthWest so nowhere near a fridge. Just need to get it past the Chief Financial Officer now.

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It depends on how your kid learns. Our daughter decided at 9 that she wanted to be good at skiing and snowboarding - the dream of being able to decide what kind of day it was.
We took her to the snowdome- nothing wrong with the lessons, she just didn’t click. We put her in group lessons on the mountains and she ended up with a group of late teens who were late every day and more keen on looking the part. On the second day, one of them took out the instructor and they spend an hour waiting for a replacement. It was then difficult to get her back on day 3..
Her dad certainly couldn’t teach her (being of the ‘try harder’ school of teaching) but she wanted me to give it a go. We went to a gentle slope with a good chair and started going through the drills she’d done in the lessons (the ones I’d down, we’d all done). Couple of runs in and set was bored senseless. It just wasn’t fast enough for her and it was time for a rethink. Next run I said ‘follow me, try and turn when I turn - you will fall and fall but eventually you’ll get it.’ I just thought she’d learn it intuitively and she did. By the 5th run, she’d got it and was buzzing.
Some kids learn well in lessons but if you understand the technique (I found learning difficult so have had a lot of lessons….), have patience and your child responds, there is no reason why they can’t learn with you. Lessons were an expensive waste of time for our daughter with snowboarding - not so for skiing, maybe because we can’t ski.

After all it is free

My son switched to snowboarding at age 13, but went back to skiing last year at age 16. The issue is that snowboarding is much more fun in hors piste or in fresh snow, whereas skis are more versatile. And he understandably was sick of trying to navigate the flats. That said, he got pretty good in a few weeks and had no problem switching back.

One huge plus for boarding is the boots are comfortable…

I’ve taught my son to snowboard myself without any problems and whilst he’s not very good, he can heel/toe turn down a red run easily enough. Whilst he enjoys it, we only devote one session of 2 to 3 hours to boarding per season, so he doesn’t enjoy it enough to choose it over skiing. But we have done our one session for 8 years now, so it’s a bit of a tradition.

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I suspect this is mostly about the logistical impact this will have on your holiday, and I completely get that.
I guess you have to ask yourself though, what's the point in these holidays, right? And to he answer is likely to be to spend quality time together as a family and to enjoy yourselves. I get that suddenly having a new boarder in the group could impact your afternoon sessions together, but equally, how much more fun will it be once she is adept? And that might happen this week.
Would it be an option to give her more intensive lessons for the first few days, including afternoons and then all go out together after she has reached her level?
I also think watching her develop and helping teach her/motivating her and giving her feedback will be fun in itself.
Ultimately I think it's worth doing, even if it does has a slightly negative impact on this holiday, it could be her new passion and she could end up enjoying it for the rest of her life.
Let her do it and find a way to make it work

Help!!

11yr old learning Snowboard or continue to ski

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