When I was learning how to ski there was one helpful advice from computer science that became the most important advice I'd ever told myself (when it comes to learning how to ski). I was thinking about finite state machines at the time.
The advice is: you need to know whether you are in a: good state, acceptable failure state, unacceptable failure state. The rule: never ever ever ever get into an unacceptable failure state. Moreover, define an unacceptable failure state as such.
In my case, an unacceptable failure state had anything to do with potential chances to get irreversible damage. I am athletic in a few ways (e.g. running) but skiing hits all my bad points (balance, flexibility and reaction time). Learning how to ski was quite hellish for me, but my GF pushed me and I basically had little choice. On the one hand I'm grateful, on the other hand I still remember the pain too well.
So, how to get in an acceptable failure state all the time? I realized I needed to learn how to fall. The irony was that my ski-instructor never told me this, he simply taught me some very basic skiing skills but that's it.
Once you learn how to fail, you can get into an acceptable failure state :) You'll be bruised, but it's better than skiing of a cliff. For a long while (2 years), falling was the only way reliable way for me to break. Yes I could do a snowplough but it simply slowed my acceleration in the beginning and later it slowed my speed up to a point. I had to learn the hockey stop in order to find another way to reliably break. Your mileage may vary though ;-)
Good state, acceptable failure state, unacceptable failure state. Combine that with some basic ski lessons and a helpful skiing partner and you'll learn how to ski. I started at 27 against my will and can ski okay-ish on a red piste a few years later.
When comparing skiing with snowboarding, the one thing you always hear is skiing is far easier learn than snowboarding, which is largely true. What no-one tells you is it’s far easier as a beginner to get yourself in a truely dangerous situation on skis.
The worst fall on skis was on my first day. As an experienced snowboarder, I was zooming down the beginner slopes in no time, so naturally I thought I’d punch in my lift ticket.
The thing with skiing is you feel like you have great control, but when you hit a slope that’s a little too steep, or a little too icy and you start to rocket down the hill with no way to turn out of it, that’s when it gets dicey. It’s terrifying losing control, going way to fast to stop, and you can’t just fall backwards out of it. Your strapped in for the ride.
I had to fall sideways at decent speed, which feels like having the wind knocked out of you, not fun. And my skis when rocketing down to the bottom of the hill to add insult to injury.
The thing with snowboarding is it’s nearly impossible to find yourself in that kind of situation as a beginner. If your out of your depth, you can always fallback to skidding down the hill sideways and leafing it down. You never go that fast starting out, because going fast requires edge control that you won’t have. If you do happen to flat board down a hill, you’ll quickly find yourself catching an edge and eating snow, a swift reminder to never try that again.
The first week of snowboarding where you are constantly falling over sets you up well for preparing to ball out safely. By the time you can carve a slope, you’ll have no trouble balling out of any sketchy situation.
>the one thing you always hear is skiing is far easier learn than snowboarding, which is largely true.
What people usually say is skiing is far easier to learn than snowboarding, but harder to master. I think what people generally mean by this is that on day 1, you'll pizza-ing your way down the bunny hill/green slope and maybe even easy blues if you're fairly athletic. But pizza/french fry technique only takes you so far. At a certain point, you'll need to learn how to carve, ski parallel, hockey stop etc. to truly feel in control on steeper slopes.
The fact that you can go down almost any slope with basic snowboarding skills is also a double edged sword as you don't really have to learn how to carve. This also means a lot of snowboarders can't carve properly.
I know people who have been hitting the park for 15+ years 2 or 3 times per week but can't really carve properly as they never had any reason to learn to.
edit: Also as a snowboarder who sometimes rents skis when bored carving, keeping keeping skis parallel and hockey stops are way easier for me than trying to pizza/french fry.
Only truly "difficult" way of moving around on snow I have found is telemark skiing. That stuff is just terrifying on the steep slopes or soft snow.
"It’s terrifying losing control, going way to fast to stop, and you can’t just fall backwards out of it. Your strapped in for the ride."
You shouldn't try to fall backward on skis. You should fall to the uphill side.
As a beginner, if you get in to a situation where you start going too fast to confidently stop without falling, you should immediately force yourself to fall to the uphill side.
You only really get in trouble when you go past that point and let yourself get way too much speed to even fall safely. So don't do that.
Slow down often, force yourself to fall if you have to, and stay off slopes you're not ready for. They are color coded for this purpose. Stay on the greens until you're super confident on them, then go with an instructor on the blues.
Worth mentioning here: If you are falling, let go of your poles. The most common ski injury is the thumb, caused when you keep a death-grip on your pole as you go down. You can easily generate enough torque on the pole to dislocate or even break your thumb. Children are often not given poles at all, and this is one of a few reasons for that (the other main one being that it's thought a child can learn better balance that way).
Plus the fact that both feet are connected to the same piece of equipment via non-release bindings eliminates a whole class of injuries.
In theory if the ski turns into a lever rotating your knee the bindings are supposed to release. That doesn't always happen.
I don't know if skiing is easier to learn, but the learning phase is certainly more enjoyable. Less time sitting on your butt, and poles take less effort than clicking out one foot and skating.
> The thing with skiing is you feel like you have great control, but when you hit a slope that’s a little too steep, or a little too icy and you start to rocket down the hill with no way to turn out of it
I'd always fall sideways, like you mentioned later in your comment. Like I said, I practiced it beforehand. Other than that, this quote rings really true to me.
Interesting comparison, I've never snowboarded, good to know it's not as crazy as skiing. From a beginner perspective that is.
The first couple of days snowboarding are really really rough. While you can learn how to ski down easy tracks without falling once, the first couple of days snowboarding you'll be tumbling down the mountain more often than not so expect lots of bruising. However once you learn how to brake and leaf down, which happens at day 2 or 3 you're suddenly able to go down every single track, including reds and blacks safely. The whole mountain opens up and you'll have enough control to be able to fall back to breaking in most situations so stuff stops being scary. Plus at that time you still don't have enough control to be able to carve so you won't be able to get up to scary speeds yet.
Other than the first couple of days, the mechanics of snowboarding do make for a pretty good learning environment.
I went snowboarding last weekend with my brother-in-law and niece, she was asking about the differences between skiing and snowboarding and my brother-in-law said “Skiing is easy to learn but hard to master, snowboarding is hard to learn but easy to master.” I thought that was aptly put.
As a non-athletic native Floridian who made some adventurous friends, I started skiing at 38 by tagging along when some went on a ski trip (Utah.) Knowing my deficits, I signed up for lessons all six days of the trip, and could hockey stop by the end of the trip. For the next five years, I made sure to take at least one lesson day on every ski trip. I agree with the notion of staying out of unacceptable failure states. I managed that by having experienced guides with me at all times. My favorite piece of advice came from the instructor on day 1: 'Skiing is like dancing with gravity, and the mountain always leads.'
My skiing tip is that your natural reflex to lean back if you feel unsafe is the most dangerous habit beginners have. Your skis are more stable and easier controlled with your weight forward 100% of the time, and it is less work too.
I took another advice from computer science: Don't be afraid to break things. If
you're afraid to fall, you will fall awkward and painful. But if you're prepared to fall, it will have less consequences. Also: always wear goggles and helmet.
Recently I saw kids on the slopes learning to ski with like a braking parachute attached to torso and hands - if they spread out the hands it would open a 2sqm "wing" and they would slow down a lot, genius
I took a private lesson the first time I went cross country skiing and 2 or 3 minutes into it, after getting on the skis, the instructor said something like "the only thing you are probably thinking about right now is falling, so lets get that over with" and then rapidly pushed me sideways and I fell. That worked remarkably well to help me focus on the content of the rest of the lesson.
This reminds me of my elder son who didn't walk until when he was 18 months old. Before he finally learned he spent several months repeatedly 'practising' falling over. Eventually he seemed to decide that he could fall over happily and was then happy to try walking.
The advice is: you need to know whether you are in a: good state, acceptable failure state, unacceptable failure state. The rule: never ever ever ever get into an unacceptable failure state. Moreover, define an unacceptable failure state as such.
In my case, an unacceptable failure state had anything to do with potential chances to get irreversible damage. I am athletic in a few ways (e.g. running) but skiing hits all my bad points (balance, flexibility and reaction time). Learning how to ski was quite hellish for me, but my GF pushed me and I basically had little choice. On the one hand I'm grateful, on the other hand I still remember the pain too well.
So, how to get in an acceptable failure state all the time? I realized I needed to learn how to fall. The irony was that my ski-instructor never told me this, he simply taught me some very basic skiing skills but that's it.
Once you learn how to fail, you can get into an acceptable failure state :) You'll be bruised, but it's better than skiing of a cliff. For a long while (2 years), falling was the only way reliable way for me to break. Yes I could do a snowplough but it simply slowed my acceleration in the beginning and later it slowed my speed up to a point. I had to learn the hockey stop in order to find another way to reliably break. Your mileage may vary though ;-)
Good state, acceptable failure state, unacceptable failure state. Combine that with some basic ski lessons and a helpful skiing partner and you'll learn how to ski. I started at 27 against my will and can ski okay-ish on a red piste a few years later.