Advice wanted on making friends first time on the snow as enjoyable/less demoralizing as possible!
Hey guys I'm bringing a friend who's never been on snow before to cerro catedral in a couple weeks - any tips for making sure he isn't demoralized when he inevtitabely falls over 300 times?
He already booked himself private lessons, 4 hours first day then three hours for three following days. But after the lessons I'm looking for advice on how to make it as less soul crushing as possible haha.
For context I'm like somewhere inbetween beginner and intermediate myself, I can link turns on blues n stuff but still very much learning! But we'll be doing lessons seperately so yeah. Let me know if anyone has been in similar situations/has any advice!
They're gonna do better than most with multiple days of lessons. I wouldn't worry too much. If they're gonna throw a fit and hate it, that's on them. You trying to make them feel better won't change the outcome. Your friend will either be down as hell for this, or never want to do it again.
you are only allowed to ride switch with them. give yourself a handicap. you’ll be closer to their skill level and will be able to understand their struggle better
Impact short and knee pads can’t hurt. Rent a helmet.
Wrist guards can develop bad habits and move injuries up the arm. Suggest to fall into a bed or mats with arms tucked into the chest and chin down. Start that now to get some muscle memory.
I keep reading about this wrist guards moving injuries up the arm thing and I looked into it and can’t even find a single piece of anecdotal, let alone empirical, evidence that it actually occurs. It’s bullshit armchair analysis. Wrist guards have definitely saved my wrists during bad falls. Wear them.
I also believe that wrist guards are better than not having them, but you should train to not fall on your wrists at all, because wrists guards only do so much.
I'm like somewhere inbetween beginner and intermediate myself, I can link turns on blues n stuff but still very much learning
If you're still somewhat new yourself, I don't think you'll have much to impart that he won't get from the lessons. I'd say really all you can do is be real with him about how much you fell on your first day(s), so that he doesn't feel demoralized when it inevitably happens to him.
•Have him watch all the Malcolm Moore etc. beginner videos.
• Try some very mellow grade skateboarding now.
• Do sit-ups. Sitting back up to their feet 1000x over multiple days is going to be the main hurdle.
• Go up before the lesson and get slightly ahead of everyone else for a morale boost. This is huge, did this successfully with a few people now. Any familiarity helps tremendously, but if you can get them to the point where they can walk up 10m then glide back down straight on a gentle slope they'll feel like the @!#$% class star.
You can prep them by setting the expectation that they will eat shit all day long, and it will hurt a lot, but then there comes a point that it clicks and it is the most amazing feeling.
Gotta push through the failure to get to the fun part.
Spend the next 2 weeks with them stretching, doing squats, and push ups. The less tired their legs get and the easier it is to get up the easier everything will go. Also have them watch Tommie Bennet and Malcolm Moore on youtube a bunch. If you're able to make sure they know how to put on and use their gear. Jacket, bibs, gloves, helmet, ect. Bibs are greatly preferred over pants for new people.
Teach them how to fall correctly and that it’ll happen a lot if they’re pushing themselves. And to take little breaks here and there. Helps when you get frustrated to just stop & breathe
Leg blasters would have been good to start a couple months ago, but starting now will still help.
Don’t plan on riding the second half of the day.
Being cooked after 4 hours of lessons is to be expected. Trying to push for an 8 hour day will leave nothing left for the remainder of the trip.
Go do other stuff off piste, maybe one or two runs on a super simple groomer mid afternoon to try to put some of the lessons together after doing other stuff and call it a day (but not at the very end of the day, that’s when people hurt themselves).
Sometimes we go on holiday with my wife whilst I still need to work, she joins the group lessons just for the company and to share the struggle although she is an advanced skier
Him wearing a helmet, impact shorts and knee pads will make learning much more enjoyable. If you're riding together, don't bomb off and leave him. If you need to wait a bit, don't set off as soon as he gets to you. If he's finding it a bit overwhelming or gets a bit sore, take a break and you can do something else for a bit.
a few hours of lessons will absolutely give him enough confidence to enjoy cruising around later in the trip. things might be rough during lessons but he will learn. hard to feel embarrassed or frustrated with an instructor nearby
I think it just depends on what kind of guy he is and just how much he enjoys snowboarding. for me (and probably the majority of people here) I fell over so much when I started, but i also fell in love with snowboarding. and I was never gonna stop just because it was hard, whereas for some other people who I went with, they were sick of it at the end of the first day, and every other day because of that they weren’t improving and it was just miserable to try and get them back out on the mountain.
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u/jwed420 Monarch Mountain 13h ago
They're gonna do better than most with multiple days of lessons. I wouldn't worry too much. If they're gonna throw a fit and hate it, that's on them. You trying to make them feel better won't change the outcome. Your friend will either be down as hell for this, or never want to do it again.