How To Get My Kids Into Snowboarding

Snowboarding is one of those sports that once your kids try it once, they simply will not stop going on about how much fun it was. Knowing where to start is always the difficult part - especially if you yourself have never snowboarded before. It feels like a massive challenge just knowing how to get started with your kids. How can you possibly get them into snowboarding?

The big question has always been “Do kids need to learn to ski first?” No they don’t. It has always been a myth regarding snowboarding that kids have to be able to ski before taking up snowboarding - but that just isn’t true. 

Really and truly, it all comes down to personal choice. Either way, they will have to learn how to balance upright when going down the slopes.

Start Young - But Not Too Young

It's suggested that 7 is the golden age for kids to start snowboarding as they are physically developed and can handle the stress of the slopes. You need a certain degree of physical strength, maturity and balance to get going - and kids under 7 may not possess all the required traits to snowboard safely. Of course some kids start earlier than this, which is mainly due to coming from a snowboarding family and having a lot of experience from a young age. This gives the parents more confidence with starting earlier due to the fact they can provide their kids with the early training needed to snowboard safely.

Parents often will start to teach their kids how to snowboard in the garden on grass to get used to balancing on the board and turning. There are so many videos on YouTube showing you how to teach your children the basics - so investing a couple minutes on a YouTube binge of snowboarding videos isn’t too bad of an idea.

Teach Them to Fall

As you can imagine, a bad fall while learning may put your kids off from ever getting back up on their board, so to ensure your kids are enjoying learning the sport, one of the best things for them to learn in the early stages is how to fall on a snowboard.

We know the aim of snowboarding is to stay on your board but once they learn how to fall correctly, it gives them more confidence and gets rid of a lot of nerves!

Hire Equipment First

As a parent you know that your child starting a new sport means only one thing: more sporting equipment to buy! Whether it's football, rugby or golf - there's always something needed to be purchased before they can even try a sport. 

There is the essential equipment you will have to invest in (snowboard, snow boots, helmet etc.) once your kids have taken a liking to the sport - but unlike other sports, most kids starting out can usually hire the equipment out at most venues. This means you don't have to go on that big sports shopping trip again hoping they stick to this sport this time.

Try Some Lessons

As well as equipment hire, most snow centres offer lessons in snowboarding to provide kids with all the basics before they get confident enough to head down the slopes on their own. The ideal first step to getting your kids into snowboarding is to plan a trip to your local dry slopes or snow centre, book a lesson, hire some equipment, and just make sure they have a go. When the session is done, we guarantee your kids will soon be begging you for a family trip to the Alps!

Photo by Anna Shvets