A day before we went on holiday Chloe (11) announced that she wanted to learn to snowboard. This came completely from left field, as up to that point she had been adamant that she only wanted to ski, and snowboarding wasn't for her. As a result, we found ourselves on day 3 of our holiday sitting in the middle of the nursery slope (this is where the chair lift had dumped us) facing a day of serious skill acquisition!
I am a self-taught snowboarder. At the age of 21 I rented a board, got of the lift at Val D'Isere and spent the rest of the week in a lot of pain! My technique has been refined over the years, and from speaking to people who are learning through formal lessons I have a lot more of an idea of what beginners should be aiming for. Where I differ from these formal lessons is how to get there.
My wife Katie started learning through formal lessons but got frustrated through lack of progress and so after 3 days she left lessons and went boarding with me. So where do these formal lessons fall down (in my opinion) and leave most beginner snowboarders frustrated and despondent before going back to skis?
Katie's class followed a similar pattern to one I've seen across different ski schools:
Day 1 - practise sliding with your back foot out of the board.
Day 2 - practise sliding straight down the slope both on heel edge and toe edge.
Day 3 - practise sliding forwards and stopping both on heel edge and toe edge.
Day 4 - practise sliding forwards and backwards on heel edge and transitioning in between (the "falling leaf" technique of getting down the slope).
Day 5 - practise going forwards on very gentle slopes and turning.
Day 6 - carry on with day 6.
So it is a very linear approach to learning to ride a snowboard: "First we do this and then we can do this..." and completely different to the way I had taught myself. With Chloe I went for a very quick intro to sliding down the slope on heel and toe edge, then as soon as she could manage it for around half a metre on each edge (this took 2 runs down the nursery slope to achieve) I went straight for "This is how to go forwards and this is how to turn".
It's not to say that the techniques taught in the linear progression aren't important - they abslolutely are. They can, however, be picked up in the process of learning to go forwards and turn without needing to spend any time formally coaching them. For the sliding and stopping with the back foot out of the board it's a case of creating a problem that needs to be solved using this technique. In Chloe's case it was to get off the drag lift without falling - she managed it on her third attempt.
So how did this approach work? Disclaimer here - Chloe is a resilient, determined little creature with pretty good core strength and a high level of fitness. She also loves to learn and to solve problems. After 5 runs down the nursery slope she was getting across the slope, attempting to turn, then going back the other way. She was falling on around half her turns. I decided it was time to leave the nursery slope and hit a full blue run, albeit the most straightforward one in the resort. By the time we got to the bottom she was linking up to 5 turns together before turning and getting pretty tired, so we decided it was pancake time (she'd been going for around 2 1/2 hours).
From there we moved onto a different blue run which presented a new set of problems and frustrations - narrow sections, the fall line not going straight down the slope, lumpy sections, steep sections (as steep as blue runs get!) and long flat sections. By the end of the day she was happily going down and consistently linking 6-7 turns between falls.
By the end of the second day on the board she was getting down the longest blue run in the resort without falling, weaving in and out of skiers who were on their second week on skis. Yes, her technique will refine over time, it's still very "swingy" rather than "carvy", but she saw an amazing success over the 2 days and wants to get on a board again. Meanwhile, after 2 days of formal ski school, the beginner boarders are sliding down a gentle nursery slope in a straight line...
Is there a time and a place for a linear approach to learning? Possibly. How does this non-linear approach translate to paddlesport? I will address my thoughts on this in my next blog post.