Helping someone learn to snowboard

If you want to know how to teach someone to snowboard, start with this: your most useful job is usually to get them a proper lesson and then be a patient riding partner. Informal teaching can work for small things, but it has real limits.

Experienced riders often struggle to explain movements they no longer think about. It’s easy to pick terrain that feels easy to you but is too steep for a beginner, to give five tips at once, or to miss the stance problem behind every fall. Frustration also lands differently coming from a partner or friend.

Trained instructors break skills down, choose suitable terrain and spot what the body is doing. PSIA-AASI’s beginner’s guide video series covers first-day basics, but one of its instructors notes the videos “do not replace an on-snow lesson.”

• Group or private. Group lessons are sociable; private lessons give more individual attention. Formats and prices vary, so check the school’s current options.
• Book ahead. Beginner lessons can fill up at busy times.
• Look for qualified instructors. In the US, instructors may be certified through PSIA-AASI; other countries have their own national bodies. Our guide to picking a snowboard school lists the questions to ask.
• Check what’s included. Some packages bundle rentals and a beginner lift ticket; others don’t.

During the lesson, go ride your own runs. Hovering on the sidelines or adding your own advice can confuse things. Meet up afterward and ask what they learned.

• Clothing. Waterproof layers, warm gloves, a helmet and goggles. See layering for a day on the snow.
• Rental boots. Fit matters more than anything else on day one. Encourage them to speak up if boots hurt; our guide to judging boot fit explains what to feel for.
• A checklist. Our first-day snowboard checklist covers what to bring and do.
• Stance. Help them work out regular or goofy using our stance guide; rental shops can set it up.
• Time. Arrive early so rentals, tickets and the meeting point aren’t a rush.

Sometimes a lesson isn’t possible and you end up teaching a beginner to snowboard yourself. If so, stay on a quiet, gentle beginner slope with a flat run-out and follow the order most beginner guides use, one step at a time:

1. Strapping in and skating with one foot free, on the flat (see skating and gliding).
2. Falling and getting up on both the heel and toe side.
3. Sideslipping and stopping on each edge (see our stopping guide).
4. Only then, gentle single turns, before trying to link them.

Don’t hold their hands and pull them downhill, don’t take them onto a chairlift before they can stop, and never move to steeper terrain because they’re “nearly there”. If they’re stuck on the same step, that’s a clear sign to book an instructor.

• Let them set the pace. Don’t push them onto harder terrain to keep up with you.
• Celebrate small wins. A first controlled stop is a big deal.
• Plan breaks. Food, water and warmth help more than one more run; falls get more likely when legs are tired.
• Ride where they can manage. Let them go ahead where you can see them, and remind them to stop where people above can see them, as the NSAA’s Your Responsibility Code describes.
• Echo the instructor. Reinforce their cues instead of introducing your own method.

Progress varies a lot between people. Share our guide to what progress to expect in the first days so neither of you expects too much too soon.

Some people do teach themselves how to snowboard, but it usually takes longer, involves more falls and can build habits that are hard to undo later. If you go it alone, stick to the gentlest terrain, learn to stop before anything else, and consider at least one lesson to check your basics.

One lesson rarely covers everything either. Many beginners benefit from a short series, building from stopping to linked turns. And if helping friends has you thinking about teaching properly, our guide to qualifying as an instructor explains the certification routes. Parents helping younger riders should read our separate advice on children’s lessons and gear.