 Poster: A snowHead
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Sig. other and myself learned to snowboard last weekend, at Landgraaf in Holland. A couple of people were interested in a bit of a trip report, so here goes.
Bit of background. We're decentish (anything pisted and not too mogulled) skiers and fancied adding a second string to our collective bow. Snowblading is rubbish, and telemarking plain weird, so snowboarding it was to be. We mulled over the respective merits of a 'board in a day' course at either Tamworth or Milton Keynes, and finding ourselves with a random Friday off work decided on neither. We reckoned we could squeeze in a day of snowboarding at Landgraaf alongside a couply weekend strolling around Brussels and Bruges, drinking Affligem, and eating Carbonnade.
At this point I'd like to say a massive public thank you to Bruski who gave us some indispensable advice about how to park up for free in Brussels, and situate ourselves well for the commute to Landgraaf. Couldn't have done it anywhere near as straightforwardly without you, mate, thanks so much for the help.
We had booked, in advance, 5 hours of private 2-on-1 tuition, starting at 10am on the Saturday. The lady at reception looked at us like we were mental, as did the instructor. "Five hours?", he said. "People come for 90 minutes as beginners and nearly collapse from exhaustion". "We're hardcore", we assured him.
The Dutch instructor was a near-perfect English speaker - a far cry from the traditional ESF experience where you find yourself conducting conversations that sound like the policeman from Allo Allo. Anyway, he got us to do a few warm-up exercises, strapped our front feet in, and wobbled around straight-running and skating around on the bunny slope. He also taught us how to fall over properly - a skill which we didn't exactly master during the rest of the day.
These initial stages of learning were skipped through worryingly quickly, and up we went for a bit of heel-edge tomfoolery. With both of us clinging for dear life to poor old instructor's arms we made a first cautious descent, the first proper fall of the day occuring shortly afterwards, to me, thus earning £5 for the missus. Progression from this to some diagonal side slipping, and then to very slow and cautious falling-leaf, was pretty rapid. We had a quick go on the toe edge too, but it didn't go well.
Again he seemed pretty keen to get cracking with something a bit more substantial, and surprisingly early in the day (about 12:00) we went up the chairlift - carrying the boards rather than wearing them thankfully.
We did a couple of runs top-to-bottom, just using heel-edge falling leaf, and broke for lunch a little early at 12:45, to meet back up again at 14:00 for the remaining 2 1/4 hours.
By about 13:15 we were raring to go so we snuck up for a quick practice, and got a bit more practice on our heel edges 
2pm and we went up again, and had a second shot at some toe-edge action. Something had clicked by about 2:45, and the falling leaf on both edges was decent enough, so we had about an hour and a half left to try a bit of linking.
This really didn't go well.
Well, it went half well. Starting out on toe edge, and turning onto heel edge, was easy. Like, we got it on our first go. But snowboarding's inherent assymetry was about to deal us a bad card. Neither of us, when trying to turn from heel edge onto toe edge, could manage anything other than landing, hard, face first. Thankfully my testicles usually broke my fall.
We did this over and over and over again. Toe edge, straight, heel edge, straight, FACEPLANT - for the next 45 minutes. But suddenly, and without warning, she made one stick. And another. And another. I was still in faceplant-mode, so she scooted off to the bottom all pleased with herself while I spent a bit more time with the instructor. About 30m from the end of the slope I finally managed it without falling. This was, no question, the single greatest feeling of achievment that I can remember. I definitely don't recall any analogous moment whilst learning to ski.
So, by the end of it all, we could link turns - and do the run top to bottom with only a couple of falls along the way. Knees, wrists, shoulders, in fact everything, all black and blue and sore as hell, but we'd done it
The lessons were over. So we thanked our instructor for the great job he'd done, and went for a well earned sit down in the caf.
But of course we couldn't resist going up for just one more Well, two.
And, as is traditional, the last run of the day was our undoing. I fell off the chairlift really hard, which then swung round and hit me in the back of the head, and sig. other's legs were so tired that she fluffed loads of turns on the way down, and it took us both ages to get to the bottom. C'est la vie.
So, Landgraaf then:
Great surface. Loads better than I expected. An occasional patch of ice, but nothing that you wouldn't find in the average resort anyway.
Perfect gradient for learning - not too steep, not too flat - served by a chair rather than a drag - important in terms of conserving the energy in your legs, and also being able to do reasonably rapid reps. Ideal.
Excellent tuition, amazingly priced.
Horrible overpriced cafe with inconvenient opening times and mangy food.
And snowboarding?
Not as difficult as people sometimes try and make out. It's just that the penalty for fluffing a turn when you ski is usually that you put a pole down, or lift a foot, or back out from being parallel and do a little plough - and you, most of the time, remain upright. The penalty for fluffing a turn on a board is landing - hard - on your face. I was sceptical of 'learn in a day' claims, and was expecting to go in with the intention of linked turns by the end of the day, but only come away with falling leaf ability - but a combination of amazing tuition, and no small amount of sheer bloody-mindedness on our parts, meant we achieved what we set out to.
One day. Never strapped in to a board before. Linked turns by home time.
Ear-to-ear grins for the rest of the weekend.
Landgraaf = awesome.
Sorry if that was a bit long.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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paulio, excellent report, thank you 
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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paulio, Ditto
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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paulio, great report. Sounds like the trip was well worthwhile. 
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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great report and you actually make it sound tempting to switch to the other side
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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| Quote: |
crossing the fall line from toe to heel seems quite natural when learning but from heel to toe is not so natural,
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was the other way round to me; I had (and still have) a much better feel for a variety of balances on the toe edge than on the heel edge. When my sons learnt, one constantly face-planted, the other constantly back bottom-planted. I have to say that the face planter became, very quickly, the best snowboarder and is now really quite impressive.
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paulio, nice report, much better than 5 hours in the snowdome with fake snow and no view 
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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| DebbiDoesSnow wrote: |
| paulio, nice report, much better than 5 hours in the snowdome with fake snow and no view |
Ummm. Landgraaf is a snowdome with fake snow and no view.
Thank you all for your kind words.
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paulio, dumb blonde comment 
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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DebbiDoesSnow, dumb blonde snowboarder comment. 
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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sounds like you had a cracking time
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You know it makes sense.
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paulio,
Great report.. Welcome to the multi-skills tribe! 
How did the channel crossing go?
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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| Kruisler wrote: |
| paulio, How did the channel crossing go? |
We were scared Dover was going to be chocka, with the tunnel on fire, so we left extra early.
And we needn't have bothered. The M20 was shut coastbound, but the detour was straightforward, and we got there with time to spare. The ship was half full at most, and the sea was nice and flat.
Bit of a blunder at the other end though, where I decided in my infinite navigational wisdom to head, from Dunkirk, toward Calais...
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Poster: A snowHead
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Hi Paulio, Glad (and a little relieved) to hear your trip went well. Big congratulations are in order for you and your better half on actually learning to board in a day. Sounds as though you'd fully earned a few scoops of Duvel by the end of the day!
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Affligem ended up being the tipple of choice, more by accident than design. Yes, we sank a few.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Fantastic report - great reading, paulio. Glad you and the SO had such a great time on a board
Will have to remember the Landgraaf option whenever I'm next in Holland. My little bro went there for his "learn to board" experience earlier this year and had a similar experience to yours - he's now looking forward to joining me in Canada for some more serious boarding!
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FAQ
