HOT TAKE: snowboarding is easier

This is probably where you might expect me to introduce some caveat or peace offering, but I’m sorry to say, that won’t be happening. Because I want you to disagree with me, regardless whether you’re a skier or a snowboarder (if I’m lucky, I’ll offend both equally).

Dogs and cats, living together!

If I could hope for anything out of this article, it would be that you’ll want to go out and prove me wrong, by taking up your opposing sport. 

Skiers will try snowboarding, snowboarders will try skiing… human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together, mass hysteria! (To borrow a fave line from the original Ghostbusters, which came out just as the era of “ski versus snowboard” was reaching its zenith.)

Maybe it’s just the skier in me, dredging up the old grudge: skiing versus snowboarding, sleek vs baggy, yuppie vs d-bag, one plank vs two. All the old stereotypes. 

But skiers and snowboarders are dogs and cats no longer.

Skiing vs snowboarding: which is easier? 

It’s universally held in the alpine community that “skiing is easier to learn but harder to master” while “snowboarding is harder to learn but easier to master.” 

To put it bluntly: I disagree.

There are several arguments that apply here, I’ll introduce them first and then break them down. 

1. Applied physics: considering bodies in motion, downward slopes and adaptation 
2. Learner aptitude: each learner brings a different background 
3. Environment: cultural influences, perception and access 
4. Kinesiology: human movement applied to the physical challenge

Despite presenting this framed with both philosophical and scientific arguments, I am qualified as neither. So you get what you get. 

Am I an unreliable narrator? Possibly. Still, let’s have some fun with this.

Applied physics

Let’s talk about resisting gravity against a declining (descending) physical plane. For all but the most advanced of riders, when we are going downhill we want to apply resistance against the hill to slow ourselves down. This is especially true of beginners. 

What’s the most natural way to do that, from a simple physics perspective? One member of our SnowSeekers community quickly did my work for me here, summing up the arguments for snowboarding as the easier sport. 

“Imagine discovering downhill stand up sliding, would you start sliding downhill standing facing forward with both feet like skiing or would you turn sideways with your dominant foot in the front like sliding across a frozen puddle? This to me just makes snowboarding the more natural selection,” commented Patrick Lacey, in this post where we put the skiing vs snowboarding debate to our community.

Couldn’t say it better myself.

ADVANTAGE: snowboarding

One might argue, as Lacey did, that this also considers kinesiology, and you’d both be right. We’ll get to that. But first…

Learner aptitude

Among my arguments, this is the one that probably most weighs against me, for one single reason: the transferable skills factor. 

Canada is hockey land after all, and the skate to ski pipeline is undeniable. If you learned to skate, the skate-ski motion and the hockey stop will be second-nature. 

Even balancing on one ski as you turn will involve familiar motions. So, if you’re an ice-skater and you want to learn to ski, good news: you’ve got this.

As for me, my “snowboarding is easier” argument is taking on water, quickly and early. 

Counter-argument: how many roller bladers out there? Water skiers? Compare that to the number of skateboarders, wakeboarders, surfers and yes, even scooter riders. 

My point? Year-round, there are more opportunities to cultivate the physical skill of board-riding than skiing. 

ADVANTAGE: snowboarding

Environment

Twenty-plus years of snowboarding being the cooler sport, from 1990 through into the 2010s, has created a social environment that is more supportive towards snowboarding. 

If you were born post-1980, your friends, your parents, solid industry marketing and popular culture likely predisposed you to snowboarding over skiing. If you are a parent born post-1980, or a child of a parent born post-1980, your chances of being a snowboarder is much higher, since teens in the 1990s and on embraced snowboarding in much higher numbers. 

Millenials and Gen-Z kids are more likely to be snowboarders or be taught snowboarding, as it's what their parents know.

Here’s #SeekersAmbassador Shaun Hutt’s take: “Playing hockey/ice skating allowed for easy pick up of the mechanics of skiing and skateboarding allowed for ease on the transition to snowboarding. 

Not being afraid of bailing on either has also helped build confidence over the years. I view the ski/snowboard debate more of a preference to your vibe.”

These cultural markers are changing, granted. Skiing is cool again. On balance, we’re probably reaching equilibrium. But there’s no denying decades of cultural dominance. 

ADVANTAGE: snowboarding

Kinesiology

A lot of people will point to human biology as the argument for skiing as the easier sport to learn. There is a lot to be said for this. When you walk, you walk with two legs. It’s the same when you ski. Which makes the first steps—literally—much simpler.

Next: skiing has the advantage of the snowplow. This simple braking technique, once learned, equips the skier with the ready skills to go downhill. Braking on a snowboard, admittedly, isn’t as easy or natural.

Falling will happen, and again, skiing has the advantage. Losing a single ski often triggers a rolling fall, which is more graceful and less abrupt than launching face first or butt first after catching your board edge.

I’ll admit, aside from the point, already made, that sliding downhill or on a slick surface with your feet sideways is more natural, there isn’t much to argue for snowboarding as the easier sport from a kinesiological standpoint. 

ADVANTAGE: skiing 

Okay skiing, you win this round, but the combined score is snowboarding 3, skiing 1.

So why do people say skiing is easier to learn?

Recall the old “easier to learn, harder to master” adage? Earlier on I wrote that I disagree with this statement, but on the face of it, it is solid wisdom. To get beyond it, you have to dig deeper. 

Why is it true? The answer, in my (not-so-humble) opinion, is: fear. The fear of learning to snowboard is harder to overcome.

But that’s not the same as the process of learning itself. Overcoming fear and learning new skills come hand in hand, granted, but remove the fear and the physical and cultural aspects of snowboarding win out. 

Overcoming fear, finding flow 

Which brings me back to my snowboarding lesson a couple seasons ago. Being a lifelong skier, with a career built on converting new skiers, snowboarding wasn’t really something I saw as a viable activity for me in my 40s. 

Don’t get me wrong. I’d dabbled in my teens, and again in my 20s and 30s, and even managed to carve my way down a blue run or two at one point. It was fun, but the time I would need to invest to get into advanced terrain like I could on skis was a natural deterrent. 

I craved the challenge, the rush. So, with about five to ten lifetime attempts under my belt, I had dropped all thought of snowboarding by my mid-30s. 

One lesson at Marmot, with an instructor who understood how to help her students work through the fear, changed that. That, and my willingness to both confront the fear and look ridiculous. A couple hours later, I was back carving blue runs and enjoying snowboarding more than I ever had.

So while I know it’s anecdotal, my experience has been: I spent years and many of my parents’ hard-earned money in lessons as a kid, learning to ski, when it’s supposedly easier to learn. As an adult, I spent one day and a single lesson on a snowboard. 

Of course, every learner is different, and I love this story from one of our SnowSeekers community, Heather Folvik, on her kid’s experience: 

“When we were teaching our kids, our daughter caught on to skiing right away, our son was a different story. He did not snow plow, he was straight skis down the hill and if there was someone in his way - he would just fall over. So we thought maybe snowboarding would slow him down. 

"We rented boots and a board for him and offered to send him for a lesson as we were both skiers at the time. He said no, up the lift he went, a small crash getting off the lift and he tried to go down the hill. He fell, but then he just sat and watched snowboarders for a good 20-30 mins go past him. He got up and went down the hill, no issues. Back on the chairlift and he snowboarded the rest of the day with only minor issues.” 

As for me, I’m still better at skiing. Day by day, I gain more mastery at skiing (friends reading this, don’t laugh—it’s subjectively true for me.) I’m improving at snowboarding but my progress is now slower and more incremental.

Despite the slow gains, snowboarding has become a fixation for me, something I want to work on improving. And something that ignites my neural network in totally new ways, a different experience both physically and mentally than when I ski. And I love that. I also love the feeling when I rip down a double black run on my skis with perfect flow. 

So am I an unreliable narrator? Unquestionably, yes. In the end, I don’t care which is easier. 

Easier isn’t the point.