Skiing or Snowboarding for a nine year old

Taking my 9 year old niece skiing, it be her first time.

Questions to you people is do I start her off on skis or snowboard I can only ski

Different skills for each. Why not get her to do skiing, then you'll have a shared interest? Unless she feels strongly that she'd rather board.

First questions should be, what does she want to do? Does she have friends who snowboard?

I generally think that if you only get on the snow one week a year, skiing allows a fuller mountain experience sooner, with a faster progression to low intermediate skills. However there are exceptions and if she spends all her time in the local skateboard park at home, she might be one of those exceptions. With skiing, she can inline skate at home and be honing skills that that she can take to the mountains with her.

Another point to consider is that they no longer make step in snowboard bindings, so you will be waiting around on every run for her to strap in to a snowboard (kinda selfish, I know).

FWIW she may be taught to ski a different way to the way you learned, so you may need some lessons to know what she is trying to achieve.

Good points but does anyone skate these days?

Another question, learn to ski at the resort or UK. How much will ski school be at the resort, how much will a private ski instructor be?

Basic lessons here in the UK - that way she won't waste too much time on the basics in ski school and will be able to ski with you when ski school / lesson has finished.

Definitely skiing, not snowboaridng. Snowboarding became very popular because it let people ski powder, but now there are fat skis for this purpose and I see less and less snowboarders. Ski school at the resort in Switzerland costs about 500-600 CHF for a 6 days of half-day tuition in a group. Groups are usually small and I think for a 9-year old a ski school would be an ideal place to learn. In France and Switzerland there are similar points systems (awarding snowflakes or stars) which helps to measure the progress and when she's next up she'll be able to pick up where she left.

i agree with Trencher. let her choose. it makes no difference to you

In a word ski!!

OK I'm slightly biased as I started out skiing and given the choice will take my skis every time, but I can board/teach to a decent standard (makes you a bit more employable back when I taught).

Learning wise essentially 2 different learning curves but BASICALLY take a complete beginner, clone said person and put one on a board and one on two planks and I'd expect to see the following after a week.

Skier at the end of a week will be able to get around the resort on blues and some reds and hopefully at the stage where they enjoy themselves (ie not failing every 2mins).

The boarder will most likely spend allot of time on their backside in that first week and maybe just get to the stage where they can handle some easier blues.

Any lift you can name is easier on skis, infinitely easier when you're starting out. Proficient boarder can re-bind up while on a lift.

The learning curve then changes, you can get from the pain stage on a snowboard to a pretty decent level quicker IMO than skis. On skis most people progress form plough to parallel pretty easily but then plateau-allot of people spend their entire ski careers at this level-a lower to mid-intermediate recreational level-nothing wrong with that though. I found once you have the basics you can get down pretty much anything on a board you just stand on you heel edge-this annoys skiers as boarder scrape off any nice fresh layer of snow. Other than the obvious i.e. in the park on the slopes you'd really have to know what you were looking for to compare a very competent boarder with an intermediate boarder IMO.

Tis true that boards were the folly of those seeking an entry to the powder, but as Verbskibum says fat skis have changed the game again. Snowboards aren't a great deal of fun on piste when it's boiler plate I'd much rather have my skis. You can go faster on skis than a board, and those poles do come in handy with skis. Although attitudes have changed in recent years ski resorts, lifts etc were designed with skiers in mind, flat tracks are one of a boarders worst nightmares and if you don't have the confidence to maintain momentum they can be very frustrating.

Snowboard boots are very comfy, but so are my ski boots. I'd happily spend all day in my ski boots as they fit well, but many newcomers with hire/ill fitting boots struggle with the comfort at times, board boots are easier to walk in.

So there are just some sweeping generalisations to give you an idea. What does she want to do? If she has no incline either way point in the direction of two planks, when I frequent the Glasgow indoor slope I tend to see more people taking the introductory board lessons far more than skiing-maybe it still seems to be the 'cool' choice?!

Boarding can be a good laugh. But IMO it's no skiing!!!