Snowboarding/Skiing First Timer

[Britishshooting]

Going to Tamworth Snow dome this afternoon as part of a work outing and we have a group lesson 6 of us that are new snowboarding for 2-3 hours. There are a few experienced guys that go on a lot of skiing trips but they all seemed to be naturals which I know i'm not gonna be.

I have never been good at rollerblading, skateboarding or anything strapped to my feet that seperates me from the grind. Except for bicycles.

Is there any hope in hell after 2-3 hours of lessons i'll be able to do any level of boarding, say 5m before falling over?

Are golf waterproofs suitable for such an event also to prevent getting soaked as i'll be on my bottom or face for most of the lesson I assume?

 

[Cake]

Going to Tamworth Snow dome this afternoon as part of a work outing and we have a group lesson 6 of us that are new snowboarding for 2-3 hours. There are a few experienced guys that go on a lot of skiing trips but they all seemed to be naturals which I know i'm not gonna be.

I have never been good at rollerblading, skateboarding or anything strapped to my feet that seperates me from the grind. Except for bicycles.

Is there any hope in hell after 2-3 hours of lessons i'll be able to do any level of boarding, say 5m before falling over?

Are golf waterproofs suitable for such an event also to prevent getting soaked as i'll be on my bottom or face for most of the lesson I assume?

Too late to help you I guess as it is already afternoon, but might be useful others, or you if you go again.

I’d say it is unlikely you’ll get massively far in 3 hours, but snowboarding was very much a “I can’t snowboard... I can’t snowboard... oh, now I can snowboard!” kind of thing for me, with much less gradual progression than learning to ski.

You’ll most likely find that you just learn how to go down slopes on the back edge of the board - once you can do that you can get down ANY slope, which bails you out at any stage if things get too steep/scary while you make progress with learning to turn etc (turning can be scary as on a snowboard you WILL end up pointing straight down the slope as you make every turn so there is potential to speed up substantially).

Being a decent cyclist may be useful - I found a key part of snowboarding to be finding your balance point and I think cycling helped with that awareness as it is one of those instinctive things on a bike (I suck at rollerblading/ice skating by the way).

The other advice I’d give, if you were to enjoy it and want to do more, would be to invest in some padded shorts to go under your trousers - EASILY the best £30 I’ve ever spent. You will be sat on the snow as you can’t rest standing up like skiers, so they help keep your bum warm, and you will fall over a lot in the “I can’t snowboard” phase! Not being so bruised for day 2 or 3 of a trip helps with learning, and the padding helps mitigate a little of the fear of crashing also.