Change from Skiing to snowboarding!?

Zircona

Hello

Was thinking of trying snowboarding this winter. I have had a few ski holidays but Ive reached a point where I cant progress because of an ongoing problem with my knee. Can anyone out there who has tried both advise if they found snowboarding harder on their knees then skiing? Getting fed up of having to call it a day and hitting the showers early when there is still fun in the snow to be had:(

Thanks

robinph

Learning to board will be tougher on your knees, legs, arms, whole body than it would be for you to just carry on with the skiing purely because you are pretty much starting from scratch again. You may find that you can pick up the balance required for boarding better though as you already know how to slide forwards on skis, if you can get your head round travelling at 90degrees to what you are used to it might be easier to learn than for a complete beginner of either. But it might not.

olaola

As mentioned, you'll be starting from scratch again. And snowboarding is a KILLER on the knees. I did it one year, and it looked like I was repeatedly hit on the knees by a blunt instrument. Have you looked into supports for your knee? And knee-specific weight exercises to strengthen the muscles can really help. I did some for running and it made a large difference.

beancounter15

Skiing is for heros!! snowboarders are kids!!

granty1987

I skied for about 12 years before converting to boarding about 8 years ago. as mentioned above boarding can and will be sore for a beginner as your learning the skills, youll be falling quite a bit onto your knees and hands and the other way around (invest in impact shorts!)

Saying that i believe that there is more risk badly twisting your knee skiing than snowboarding as your legs can go all rag doll in a bad wipe out and the benefit of boarding is that your legs are strapped together

So its up to you, you can invest in knee pads which heavily reduce the bumps and bruises to knee injuries for snowboarding or you can continue on skiing with the possible risk of doing some serious damage on the ligament side of things

SuprSi

I agree with granty above. I started off skiing but moved to snowboarding and found the initial transition very difficult. Having both your feet tied together, while a help if you wipe out in possibly preventing leg injuries, just felt weird on the slopes. You will also most likely end up with a sore behind, and believe it or not sore chest and triceps from picking yourself up off the ground so much! I fell more in my first day of snowboarding than I did on my entire previous ski holiday!

Now that I've made the change, I'd never go back, but you need to be committed to it. And as granty said, get some decent knee, elbow, and ideally wrist pads as you'll be using your hands and arms a lot to break your fall!

thebigmc

Painkillers are well recommended when learning to board, as well as a big pillow in the arse of your trousers. Good luck!

snowcrazie

I switched from skiing to snowboarding and found boarding much easier and way more fun.

It depends on your knee problem. If its a ligament issue where twisting is the worst part then snowboarding will be better than skiing. I have a dodgey ligament in one knee (from a ski fall) and so find boarding a good bit easier on the knees.

But you will hit your knees a lot snowboarding in the beginning. My knees were black and blue while i was learning but now I never really hit them at all. (*have cursed myself for this year by saying that )

Zircona

Great thanks for all the advice. Ive done a bit of surfing so kind of familiar with the feel of both feet on the one board and being at 90 degrees-ish when travelling forward. I bought a good knee brace recently which has helped support the knee a lot more. The knee guards might well be an option too. Yes it is the twisting that leads to all the pain and swelling so if snow boarding is less twisty Ill give it a go. I was pretty hopeless when I started skiing and managed to come home covered in all the colours of the rainbow in terms of bruising. Ok well ya only live once so to hell with it, boarding it is this year. Pass me the ice pack......... again!!............and a large rum to numb the pain!!:D

shagman

I have a pair of knee pads that you could jump off a house with, yours for a tenner if you're interested. PM me. I'm near greystones in Wicklow.

Snowie

Zircona wrote: »

Hello

Was thinking of trying snowboarding this winter. I have had a few ski holidays but Ive reached a point where I cant progress because of an ongoing problem with my knee. Can anyone out there who has tried both advise if they found snowboarding harder on their knees then skiing? Getting fed up of having to call it a day and hitting the showers early when there is still fun in the snow to be had:(

Thanks

snowboardings easy if you can surf or skate well then your 3/4s there if you can get carving into your head your laughing.


Ive a busted ligs in my right knee from (mountain biking) but its really up to how adaptable you are as person, i went form not snowboarding to linking turns in about a day having said that I skate surf and windsurf so having my feet fixed was kinda normal.... If your planing on hitting kickers etc well then maybe boarding aint right for you

But if your cruising all mountain piste stuff you should be fine I think... really depends on how you take to it..