"If it were easy it would be called snowboarding"

[Guest Yukino]

Now I need a little advice from all you snowboarders and skiers out there. In January I'm taking lessons because in Idaho there is nothing to do during the winter except ski or snowboard.

So.

Which is better? Which is harder?

[Japan]

[COLOR=Navy]I never tried skiing myself, but my brother, sister, and dad do it. Hearing from them, and from others who ski and switched over to snowboarding, that skiing is easier. Skiing is easier to learn the basics, but hard to progress. While snowboarding is hard to learn, yet easy to progress once you get the basics down.

I snowboard, and it is pretty hard to be able to do your heel and toe turns, as well as stopping on either the heel or the toe. You just have to keep your back straight, your knees bent a little, and your body over the board and you'll do fine. It took me a couple years to be able to get all of the basics of snowbording down.

Though I don't really know, since I never went skiing before, I can't really say what is better. Snowboarding is a lot of fun and that's good enough for me.

Just keep in mind...

If you want to try one thing more than the other, than go with the thing you want to learn more. Once you learn one thing, I hear that it's twice as hard to learn the other because of not being used to it. If you are used to having your feet be attatched to one board, then it'll feel weird to have your feet attached to two separate boards. I hope that helps you out. [/COLOR]

[eleanor]

[color=firebrick] Ah. *cracks knuckles* Sadly, my only area of actual knowledge. I started skiing when I was tiny. It was a crappy experience for me because my dad was freakishly driven to teach me...well, whatever. But it was easy to get the hang of after going down the bunny about a billion times. After I spent a long time skiing, I started to learn snowboarding. Here's the problem.

I DO know from personal experience and stories from other people that snowboarding after you learn to ski is dang hard. To be blunt, you usually end up with a sore and frozen butt and dying feet by the end of the day, and you'll probably want to go kill the nearest furry animal in sight. Probably because people who already know how to ski are accustomed to having their legs seperate. Snowboarding looks easy for skiers, but having two feet on one board sucks. People I know who decided to learn how to snowboard before ski...well, half say it's the hardest thing they've ever done and the other half say it's pretty easy.

Anyways, I'm rambling because ya don't know how to ski yet. ^_~ Anyways, I'd recommend learning how to snowboard first because I simply think it's extremely fun. [So is skiing, but I find snowboarding more fun.]

Whether you get the hang of snowboarding quickly or not depends on your balance and fear, I guess. Yes, fear is a giant factor in snowboarding and skiing. Most people try and be very cautious and try not to fall down, which is ridiculous because...eveyrone falls down a lot before getting good. I'm not saying you should go out and kill yourself, but don't hesitate to do things all out, even if you think you'll fall. After just three tries, you'll probably master it enough not to fall down. And falling doesn't even hurt because you're covered with thick jackets and pants and snow. Oh, right, and DON'T follow anyone's intructions on exactly which foot to put forward. Some people put right foot first, some people put left feet first. [righties and goofies, I think they're called.] My dad had me going righty for a long time before I realized I was much more comfortable the other way round. >_>[/color]

[Godelsensei]

[COLOR=Gray][FONT=Courier New]The fact will always remain that snowboarding is infinately more difficult than skiing.

I learned to ski decently in about five or six hours, total. On the other hand, it took me two hours, on the bunny hill, to make three consecutive turns on my friend's snowboard. _ _U Either I just suck, or my first sentence is correct.

I usually just blame it on her board's being goofy, though. ^^""

I almost broke both of my legs skiing the first time I tried...whee... That wasn't the singular most fun event of my life, but don't let me discourage you. : )[/FONT][/COLOR]