Syd Searches

Cover image with a mountain on a dark blue background. The text says "learning to snowboard as an adult"

Learning to Snowboard as an Adult – My First Season

—

by

Syd
in
Steamboat Springs during February 2024

When I moved to Colorado in August 2022, at 23 years old, I was determined to pick-up snowboarding.

Moving to the state seemed like the perfect opportunity to do so, but I had never skied or snowboarded, never been to a ski resort, never really been in the mountains, etc. Everything about the hobby and sport was new to me, but I was determined to learn, specifically snowboard.

Why snowboarding? Honestly, I just thought it looked cooler.

Friends and coworkers told me skiing would be easier to pick up, not to mention I knew more skiers who could give me tips when I first moved. However, I was determined to go straight to snowboarding, and so during my first winter in Colorado, I signed up for lessons.

Learning at Loveland

  • View of a ski lift with mountain in the background
    The first lift I ever went up. I thought it was massive.
  • View of a hill with a snowboard at the bottom of the image.
    I thought this hill was huge and wasn’t sure how I’d make it down.
  • View of the mountains and covered in trees

During February 2023, I took two days of group lessons at Loveland Ski Area with my boyfriend. I looked into a few different places for lessons, but ultimately landed on Loveland for a few reasons, namely:

  1. Price – Loveland was one of the cheapest I found and included rentals and the beginner-area lift ticket in the price of the lessons.
  2. Proximity – I-70 is notorious for ski traffic and Loveland was one of the closer ski areas to Denver.
  3. Separate Beginner Area – I hadn’t initially thought of this until a coworker mentioned it, but Loveland has it’s ski school in Loveland Valley, separate from the main resort (where all the good people would be zooming past as I struggle to stand-up).

Our lessons were half-day group lessons, and we did a Friday and Saturday. However, on the Friday, we were the only ones signed up for absolute adult beginner snowboarding lessons, so we basically got a private lesson. The second day had more people, but once we sorted by experience, we were in a group of 4 with the same instructor from the first day.

During those lessons, I learned the absolute basics of snowboarding. We started with just standing on the board and ended the second day with doing J-turns (poorly). At one point, I braved the lift after the lesson and instantly regretted it; it was terrifying being in the air, I fell instantly getting off the lift, I could only do my toe side, and I barely controlled where I was going. Ultimately, I ended up just walking down the little hill in the beginner area and calling it a day.

Did I love snowboarding right away? I don’t know. It was fun but also painful. I was covered in bruises from falling every three seconds and incredibly sore. However, I went into it expecting it to take a few tries before it starting getting fun, and I’m so glad I stuck with it.

My First Season

Now though, I love snowboarding. It’s been fun progressing and I’ve made a lot of great friends through it. In the winter, it’s a big part of my social life and I enjoy going on snowboarding trips with friends to some of the resorts further from us or just catching up on the lift.

The following winter after doing lessons, for the 2023-2024 season, I ended up getting the Ikon pass, giving me access to a lot of resorts within a day-trip from Denver. In total, I made it out 10 times during my first season:

  • Three days at Winter Park (one of which was exclusively in the Mary Jane part)
  • Two days at Copper (February and April)
  • 4 days at Steamboat Springs (two separate weekend trips)
  • One day at Eldora  (Closing weekend)
View of mountains at Mary Jane in Winter Park
Mary Jane in Winter Park

I didn’t go as many days as I had hoped, but I didn’t really make friends that seemed to ski/snowboard much until late February 2024. I had gone on a weekend trip to Steamboat Springs with a friend and didn’t know anyone else on the trip. I was definitely the weakest link on the trip, but that really pushed me to get better fast so that I could try to keep up and everyone had a lot of advice (and patience). I ended my first season feeling comfortable on most groomed blues and starting to explore other terrain like moguls and trees.

Moving Forward

Now that I’m more comfortable snowboarding, this season has been much more exciting! I feel like I can more exploring verses worrying so much about how to get through the cat track. Sometimes I do still fall getting off the lift and get a little embarrassed when I fall getting off a lift that leads to only advanced terrain.

My focus now has been on handling speed, figuring out moguls, and following friends through the trees. I also want to try venturing into terrain parks and doing some small jumps since I tend to still avoid them or fall as soon as I get even a little air. So far, I think I’ve been handling groomed black diamond runs alright and I managed to make it up a t-bar. Let’s see what else the season has to bring!