Snowboarding Lessons

We had another excellent lesson at the weekend and we were chatting to the instructor about why snowboarders tend to stop having lessons as soon as they can turn. It’s interesting since skiers tend to have more instruction every time they go on a trip.

My boarding lesson history is pretty chequered…

I learnt on the toothbrush at Yeovil Alpine Village with my friend Stuart, I think we had around 5 lessons (in hard boots!) before our first trip to the alps. The lessons consisted of the ‘instructor’ saying ‘this is how you heel edge’ and then disappearing to the bar, the second lesson was similar ‘this is how you toe edge’… However by the end of 5 lessons we could both almost do something you could almost consider a turn. I’m sure their instruction is better now, this was 10 years ago.

My second set of lessons was much more productive but with a similar level of actual instruction. We arrived in Meribel for our first ever snowboarding trip and decided we weren’t beginners (we could almost turn after all) so we signed up for the intermediate lessons. We spent our first day falling over in the rain before our lessons started the following day. When we arrived at the meeting  point we started chatting to the other people in our group. Much to our horror we discovered most of them had several weeks snowboarding under their belts (we had several hours at best),  we were starting to suspect we may be a little out of our depth. This fear was quickly confirmed when the instructor showed up and took us straight to the top of the mountain and down a red run.  Somehow we survived and ‘improved’ fairly rapidly, at this point kick turns were the only way…

The third bout of instruction came several years later when we discovered McNab we signed up for their Advanced Technique Clinic where we were taught to snowboard ‘properly’. The instruction was mostly excellent (especially from Tom (RIP)) and consisted of starting again from scratch and building up from J turns back up to carving thinking much more about weight distribution and boarding from the feet up rather than kicking turns and using our upper bodies to initiate the turn. It took me a long time to break all the bad habits I’d picked up and really get to grips with this way of snowboarding, in a lot of ways it felt like a big step backwards.

Following on from our McNab trips we had a number of lessons with Tom and Rob from RTM which were always worth while (and a bargain too), I highly recomend you check them out if you find yourself in the Three Valleys (Meribel, Val Thorens or Courcheval)

Recently we’ve been taking advantage of the various season ticket promotions and the Discover Whistler Days (40% off lessons). So far the quality of instruction has been superb!

Reasons to take lessons

• You can cut the lift lines (not to be underestimated on a powder day)
• Your riding will almost certainly improve
• You’re probably not as good as you think you are
• You’ll discover new places to find powder
• It works, the people I know who take lessons have progressed further and quicker than those who haven’t

Problems

• Finding quality instruction isn’t always easy (although I think North  America/Canada have a much higher average standard)
• It can be expensive

We’re certainly going to have more lessons as the season progresses, we’re thinking about doing a freestyle camp (2 days)…

Do you take lessons? If not why not? If you do, any recomendations??