Skiing vs. Snowboarding: Why All The Competition?

BY SARA MAGNOLA

Every year it happens: the temperatures begin to drop, frost creeps over windows in the night and there is a certain quality in the air; crisp and cold and when you breathe it in you just know it has happened: winter. For me, this awareness that the cold season has arrived has always been accompanied by a quiver of excitement, because with the shorter days, bone chilling temperatures and drifting snow comes the start of the season.

Every winter, people flock to the slopes, night and day, snow or shine, to ski and snowboard their way through freshly fallen (or made) powder. This harmonious vision of cheerful people gliding effortlessly around one another, heading towards a shared down-hill destination, is sadly far from the reality found on most slopes. Classically, skiers and snow boarders are cut from two very different molds. The most obvious difference is age, with snowboarders being young kids and their parents and grandparents skiing in the background. Also, snowboarders are assumed to be too fast and reckless, flying out of control around turns and jumping sky high off dangerous jumps.

However, as with most stereotypes, when you take a closer look, you will find they are not all that accurate. With snowboarding ranking as one of the fastest growing sports in the country, there are more and more people of all ages and walks of life giving it a try. In comparison to skiing, which has been around for thousands of years, boarding is just a baby. Just a few decades ago, during the sixties, a man out in Michigan tied together two skies, so he could “surf” down a snowy hillside and thus
snowboarding was born. Over the next twenty years, early pioneers, such as Jake Burton and Tom Sims, further developed the method and refined the equipment. By the time snowboarding hit the main stream in the mid eighties, there were several different brand boards on the market and the sport had evolved into what we know it to be today.

Another misconception about snowboarding is that it is simply an off-shoot, or subset of skiing. While downhill skiing originated from cross-country skiing and snowshoeing utilized long ago as a primary means of transportation, snowboarding comes from the same family as surfing and skateboarding. The fact that the two activities are even lumped into the same category is only because they occur on the same terrain: snow covered mountainsides. Due to the affiliation with skateboarding, many of the earliest fans of snowboarding were teenage boys, thus the rebellious attitude was handed down to all future generations of boarders. Even the clothes suggested youth and non-conformity.

Despite the bad reputation snowboarding acquired from the get go, one can only assume there must be something truly great about it, for it to have grown so dramatically in popularity and change winter sports as we know them, all in less than fifty years. By the millennium, there were already seven million boarders and events such as the half-pipe had found a way into Olympic competition. As a life long skier, it was around that time that my curiosity got the better of me; although I
loved to ski I just had to see for myself what all the fuss was about.

I started skiing when I was too young to remember. I love the growing anticipation as the lift slowly climbs the mountain and the quiet calm of the snowy woods around me. The feeling of power standing perched at the edge of the run and then the rush of pushing off and gaining momentum. You feel like you’re flying down the slope, with the wind singing in your ears and stinging your cheeks. It is a sensation like no other, a feeling of freedom and new adventure each and every time. Having such a
fondness for the sport, I never expected to enjoy snowboarding even more, nor did I ever imagine that one day I would become a convert.

Rather than take lessons I enlisted the help of a friend who had been snowboarding for a few years. As I pushed my feet into the boots, I marveled at how comfortable they were, they felt just like normal shoes. The enjoyment continued as we gathered up our gear and started towards the lodge; I could walk normally, as opposed to the awkward half-bent knee-stance one is forced to take while wearing ski boots. I tossed the board over my shoulder and that was it; no poles to lace my wrists through and drag behind me as I tried to balance my skis. Once we reached the base of the mountain, I began to wonder how I would move. On skis, once you have strapped in you can still shuffle around, but with a board, both feet are secured in place. The solution was to leave one foot out, to push myself along with. Since I had skateboarded as a
kid, this motion came easily, and off we went.

While the learning curve is more rapid for novice snowboarders, as opposed to skiers, the first couple of days on a board are tough. It is easy to “pizza” your skies and slowly inch your way down the bunny slope. But on a snowboard, you have to point the board where you want to go, all while maintaining just enough pressure on the inside of the board so you don’t fall forward or backward. To do this, you have to use your entire body as a whole. It’s like you suddenly have one leg instead of two, so it takes awhile to get the hang of it. I spent more time sitting than standing that first day and was so frustrated (not to mention sore) I swore I’d never go back. But I did and the second time was surprisingly much easier. Not that I learned how to do it perfectly (or even or that well) over night, but I gained more confidence and was less scared of falling. Wiping out on skies is always disastrous. It usually hurts and results in lost skies and poles. But on a board, when you feel yourself going down, you just plop down on your butt.

Once I got the hang of boarding, I discovered it had even more advantages over skiing. For one thing, it is easier on your knees and hips, since you mainly use major muscle groups, like your glutes and quads to maneuver yourself. While it still encompassed all the things I loved about the skiing experience, I felt even more of a mind-body connection. While I used to be a speed demon on skis, I am more reserved on a snowboard, preferring to be more in control of the movements and enjoy the ride down the mountain. Although I have come to prefer snowboarding, it is not to say I will never ski again. Every now and then I still get the urge to fly down the mountain faster than I ever could on a snowboard.

In no way am I implying that one winter activity is better than the other. In fact, they shouldn’t even be compared. But I do think everyone should give snowboarding a chance, just once, because as with skiing it is a breath taking experience from start to finish. And even if you are too stuck in your skiing ways to even think of testing out a snow board, at least stop shaking your head at the boarders you share the slopes with: they’re not all that bad.

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