Snowboarding lessons - bad experience

I took my family to Austria last year and we booked a course of boarding lessons for all of us. It turned out to be a disaster. The Crystal ski brochure states that board school is suitable for kids aged 4 - 12 years. My kids were 7 and 10 at the time, so we booked all four of us for 5 days worth of lessons. The instructor took one look at my kids and shook his head. He said my 7 year old daughter was not big enough or strong enough for snowboarding and my 10 year old may struggle. They're both average sized kids.

He was right, the warmup was to drag the board on the flat with one foot in the binding and my younger daughter was struggling to do that. I have to say both my wife and me found this bit really awkward and painfull. Neither my wife nor younger daughter could drag their boards up the slope to start the lesson and had to sit out within 10 minutes.

I carried on with the lesson with my 10 year old daughter, but it was very difficult. You had to pair up with someone to practice sliding on the toe and heel edge. The thing is although I could guide her down the slope walking backwards whilst she slid, there was no way she could support my weight. So I was on my own practicing this bit and found it impossible. The board kept turning and I ended up hurtling towards the other board school pupils that were sitting in a group at the bottom of the slope. One thing I did learn is that falling flat on your back is the only way to stop if you have no idea how to turn your board. It doesn't seem a good idea to me, sitting in the middle of a nursery slope with people coming down behind you with very little skill in stopping. This arrangement all seemed a bit dangerous to me.

After about 2 hours of this we decided to give up and talk to the rep about switching the kids to ski school. The problem was that ski school was full and there was nothing they could do. This left us with a whole week in Austria just trying to find things to do to kill time until we left. There was no snow in the village or on the sledge runs that week either.

I've always wanted to learn to board (my wife is not so keen), I was thinking about trying again on my own this year whilst the rest of the family ski. I can't see how you could do this without a partner though, to help you with your balance. Was this lesson typical of a first snowboarding lesson, is there another way to learn?

I have never boarded but took my girls (age 7 & 9 - average size)for boarding lessons to the snow dome in milton keynes.

They loved it and the instructor was great. My eldest was a natural after two hours, the younger on struggled a bit, but she will be fine after another few lessons.

Its sad that it was such a disaster for you all as it is a great family holiday and can be for the rest of your lives.

Go to an indioor centre over here and try again.

The good thing is that you have posted on here so hopefully you WILL go and try again.

From what I've seen of the boarding lessons at our local dryslope, the holding hands stage doesn't last very long at all until they are sliding their way down the hill on their own.

I would get some lessons over here to get that stage out of the way to make it easier to progress on your own should you have to.

Sorry to hear you had such a terrible experience. It is so hard trying something new when you are at the mercy of people who's job it is to make this a great adventure for you, if they are not good at it.

Snowboarding is great sport, but initially is very hard to learn, especially if you have no related experience (skateboarding, other motion balance sports). The first day is tough for most people, but still fun if the enviroment is good. The advise above is good, in that you can get over that initial hump of the learning curve without burning up vacation time or feeling quite so sore.

Seven is really the earliest age for most kids learning to snowboard, eight is normally better. Your kids should have been in seperate groups with age appropriate instruction.

I normally tell people who want to learn to snowboard, if you only intend to do it for one week a year, you'll have a better experience skiing.
If you surf, skateboard,etc, you may be the exeption.

If I were you, I would research a lot about learning to snowboard. There are hundreds of articles on the net detailing different peoples experiences learning to board. Read a lot and then decide if the sport is right for you.

Whether you end up skiing or boarding, good luck. The mountains are a great place to be.

Trencher

Oh and you should not need a partner.

Trencher

Thanks for the replies. I'm doing my research now, I've even watched a few youtube videos.

I don't like putting people down, but now I think about it the instructors were a bit rubbish. They didn't have any tips or advice for anyone. They just repeated the same thing no matter how good or bad people were doing. Maybe it was just a language problem. Also there was only one group for everyone, whatever their age.

I can't see how initially you'd be able to do this without a partner. I found it impossible to stand up once the board got moving. As soon as I hit a piece of snow that wasn't completely flat, I was on the floor. Especially sliding on the heel edge.

I'm going to book a few lessons at the snow dome in MK. I really hate to give up on things and this has been bugging me for about a year now.

good for you :!: Come back and let us know how you got on

From my experience instuctors can make or break a week trip, i had a basic lessons in uk before i went to bulgaria, after 2 days of lessons we stopped going as seemed to be a waste of time, likewise my girlfriend was skiing and after day 1 i hired her a one on one instructor for three hours.
Cost a bit but was money well spent as it ment i could enjoy my holiday. Got her on a snowboard the year after and she never looked back. 7weeks to go!!!