minimum age for snowboarding lessons andorra

souter

Hi,
Have boys of 9 and 11.
Looking at a cheap deal from directski for Arinsal in Andorra and see that 10 is the cutoff age for their inclusive snowboard lessons.
Both boys are novices (apart from 1 half day in Scotland) and are focussed on boarding (largely from myself - a skier - thinking it was easier to pick up, and would put us on a more level playing field).
It would be important that both do the same lessons.
I can understand why some would put a minimum age on boarding - the youngest on his brief go just pointed down the hill and beggar the consequence. I doubt he would have been able to build up such uncontrollable speed on kiddie skis.
Sooo... the question is, should I try and convert them both back to skis? Or if I decline the inclusive deals, will I be able to get them both on snowboard lessons at the resort?

TIA

cormee

Afaik 7 is the minimum age for snowboarding lessons. Let them do whichever they enjoy, if you force a sport on them they will probably make life miserable for you, as only kids know how to.

souter

Agree - I have no desire to force them to ski, it's just I can't get boarding lessons or equipment hire for the youngest with the directski package (though they will sell "premium" board gear to him) and thought there might have been a general disapproval of mini projectiles on boards in some resorts.

I've gone and booked anyway, will try source lessons and equipment separately.

cormee

As long as they stay on slopes that match their capabilities and experience they should be fine.

Diemos

souter wrote: »

Hi,
I doubt he would have been able to build up such uncontrollable speed on kiddie skis.

Where on earth did you derive this logic from?
Maybe the same place that you thought snowboarding was easier than skiing.

Kids will want to emulate their peers, in this case you, I think this snowboard notion is a mistake.
Kids snowboarding, in my experience, still has a long way to go in Europe, way behind north america in terms of gear availability and lesson availability and structure.

Save yourself the headache and put them on skis.

prunudo

http://youtu.be/nrAxzajxC5A

Watching this video I can't see why the age limit would be so high.

cormee

jvan wrote: »

http://youtu.be/nrAxzajxC5A

Watching this video I can't see why the age limit would be so high.

Probably for insurance reasons. There's nothing to prevent parents from teaching their kids to snowboard at whatever age they want though.

My son is 5, I wouldn't dare bring him out on the snow yet (snowboarding or skiing), too many fully grown clowns flying onto green slopes and not slowing down. One collision with one of them could cause serous damage to a child his size. In two or three years time I'd be much more comfortable with it.

prunudo

cormee wrote: »

Probably for insurance reasons. There's nothing to prevent parents from teaching their kids to snowboard at whatever age they want though.

My son is 5, I wouldn't dare bring him out on the snow yet (snowboarding or skiing), too many fully grown clowns flying onto green slopes and not slowing down. One collision with one of them could cause serous damage to a child his size. In two or three years time I'd be much more comfortable with it.

I understand what you mean but surely if they get insurance for teaching under 10's to ski it shouldn't be hard to get it for boarding.

cormee

jvan wrote: »

I understand what you mean but surely if they get insurance for teaching under 10's to ski it shouldn't be hard to get it for boarding.

God only knows! I suppose it is related to the risk of injury, and as an earlier poster said, Europe isn't really geared up for kids learning to snowboard, so maybe insurance companies won't cover the sport for kids. Pure speculation on my part, I have to say.

AlternateID

I made the mistake of going on the piss on the first night in town in Westendorf one year. The next day I decided to join the beginners group as I had trouble remembering if I was goofy or regular. Was a serious night out. In that group was a 6 year old girl who after 4 hrs of lessons went from how to stand up to doing runs down that first blue (by the cow shed).

Personally I still think skiing would be harder to learn and am unwilling to try except maybe for ****s and giggles one day.

fannymagee

I'm waiting for the day my son tells me he wants to snowboard. I don't know what I'll do! Hopefully not this season. (Or next..!)

cormee

fannymagee wrote: »

I don't know what I'll do!

You'll learn how to snowboard, that's what you'll do. So you can embarrass him.

fannymagee

Hahahaaaaa Cormee, what an excellent threat!! Although he knows I'm not for turning- but a seed of doubt is enough ;-)

cormee

fannymagee wrote: »

Hahahaaaaa Cormee, what an excellent threat!! Although he knows I'm not for turning- but a seed of doubt is enough ;-)

Whenever my son misbehaves, which is quite frequently, I threaten to put on my snowboarding videos, instead of Wild Kratts, Tenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, etc. It works too. That or rugby.

souter

I've been surreptitiously force feeding the kids clips of Glen Plake et al and they are completely oblivious to boards v skis.

My take on it was, time being short, you'd get more fun potential in 5 days boarding.

pace Deimos I am an experienced skiier and boarder so am entitled to my own opinion - which is that ski-ing has an s shaped learning curve i.e. first day(s) are hard, then you make a slow but steady progress to more advanced terrain before plateauing out. Boarding by contrast you can technically do the advanced terrain within a few days - whether you should is another issue.

On the other hand I'll be managing the pair of them single handedly for the week so "going with the flow" will be a big plus.

My current thinking is I will make some more enquries - so far have one group who are willing to take them in group (adult) lessons for snowboarding - but at the end of the day it would probably be better for them to be in an environment with their peers - which appears to be skiing.

So... looks like I've talked myself out of the boarding for kids, unless anyone has a killer argument otherwise.