I a friend of mine is planing a ski trip after the holidays, and i have been wanting to try out snowboarding for a while. How is the transition from wakeboarding to snowboarding. None of my friends snowboard, so i would probably have to learn everything on my own. Should i give snowboarding a try or should i just get skis and play it safe and get my friends to help?

snowboard! I've found that wakeboarding helps my snowboarding and vice versa. Snowboarding is 10 times better than skiing and you'll feel alot more similar to wakeboarding.

its true snowboarding has helped my wakeboarding alot.. the whole feeling on the board is just natural if your a boarder.. bigest diff i would have to say is the weight.. you want to keep more weight on your front leg when rippin a snowboard compaired to back leg when wakeboarding.. have fun!!

They are a little similar but the way you ride the board is totally different. On a wakeboard you can pretty much just ride on it without putting it on edge. Obviously when you are coming into the wake or edging away you are on edge, but the board tracks straight. <BR>On a snowboard you have to keep in on edge all of the time or it gets slides around and you catch the edge. I think when you are good on both it helps riding both. <BR> <BR>If you are thinking about trying it I would get a lesson. I taught myself and had probably 3 days of pain before I was linking turns and getting the hand of it. I have since taught people and had them going in a day.

i really hate water skiing, so i just figure that i would really hate snow sking. Thanks

Can't wait to get ripped on this one, but, there are the similarities, and these guys are correct in one helping the other and weight distribution. The big issue with the weight is there is no rope to "lean" on, or "center" yourself on. If this is your first time on the mountain, and especially if you're going out west, I'd have to go with skis. You're going to have a much more pleasurable experience and get to see more of the mountains on skis, cause IMO it is easier to pick up. With trying boarding, you'll be stuck on a couple slopes, and most likely be sitting for a better part of the day. Seriously, once you get the hang of it, snow is comparable to wake, but if you go into it expecting turns and long rides, reality will set in really fast. A big difference is you can't ride flat like you do on a wakeboard most of the time until you're decent. Long rant short, you would enjoy the trip and experience more on skis, but if image matters a lot to ya, say hello to the bunny hill and bye to your friends, and find a soft, comforatble chair at night....

Chad, Can you ride rails on a wakeboard? If you can, you might be a little better right off the bat on a board than the average Joe.

that makes sence and was kinda what I was worring about. My friends are far from good at sking, but they have all done it before. So either way, im going to be the "weak link". I think we are going to north carolina or around that area.

i'd try whichever one you're more interested in learning! you admit that either way you'll be the weak link, so i think you should put your time in on the one you want to. i hate water skiing too, but i LOVE snow skiing. to me, they're totally different. i'm just learning snowboarding and i think wakeboarding helped me a lot. i've only had one bad fall where i caught an edge and went down; other than that, the few falls i've had have been very mild and i think it's because wakeboarding has helped my balance and made it easier for me to learn than it has most people i've seen giving it a try. have fun whichever you choose!!

For Gods sake Chad... Don't be a two planker! Get on the board and remember one thing. When your wakeboarding the rope pulls your weight on to your front foot. On a snowboard you have to do it yourself.

I totally agree with a lot of what has been said. On the snow..........You lean forward down a hill, which took me a while, and you have a lot more weight on the front foot. Great sport

Comming from a strong ski background there is one thing that you will quickly learn about skiing and snowboarding. Speed. Unlike wakeboarding where you have an established speed, set by driver, you can pick up a lot of speed really fast on the snow. <BR> <BR>Just a quick thought on how snow vs wake is different. sorry if this doesnt help your decision...

I think this is a great topic for constructive conversation and opinion. I'm pretty good at both, and the better I have gotten the greater the difference I notice between the two. I'm interested to hear some of the Cali peeps opinions on the topic. Yes, the fact that they are boards makes them similar, but lets hear some drastic differences people feel. Control is one I can think of where they are totally different, as well as spinning. FS spin is easier on a wakeboard (to me) and BS is easier on a snow. Whatever, if I don't make sense I apologize, but the more I think about it, the two become drastically different. Anyone have similarities?

take a lesson,and in 2 day you'll be rippin, <BR>take it from some one who's been riding for 19 years.Don't listen to your friends. <BR>TAKE A LESSON.you can hurt yourself big time

take a lesson,and in 2 day you'll be rippin, <BR>take it from some one who's been riding for 19 years.Don't listen to your friends. <BR>TAKE A LESSON.you can hurt yourself big time

Da Moose is right. A lesson and 2 or 3 days and you'll own it. Friends, no matter how good they are, can't teach.

Yeah, I'd take a lesson, or if you have someone in your party that doesn't mind losing half a day to teach you, that'd be awesome too. I went for the first time earlier this year, and took a beating for the first day and a half learning on my own. And get your legs half way in shape before you go if you've been laid up at all since wakeboarding season.

The biggest thing that helped me was figuring out i could twist the board with my feet. Once I realized that, snowboarding was pretty easy. Before that I spent most of my time on my butt or knees.

I find the biggest difference is when I start wakeboarding after snowboard season, the first few turns I always break the fins loose and go a full 90*, get back into it soon though. I would say it's probably because you're not leaning down the line snowboarding. You'll need to keep the board under you until you start going fast enough. If you want to learn to snowboard, then go ahead and do it. If you decide to ski because you may pick it up faster, but don't really want to ski, you won't have as much fun, in my opinion. Biggest thing snowboarding while learning, kick the tail out 90* as you go to turn. This will keep you going slow and in control. Traverse across the whole trail, make 5 miles out of a 1 mile trail. Just take it easy and be patient. Good luck

so how about snowboarding on a flat area while beiing towed by a four-wheeler. I'd think this would be more similar to wakeboarding than down hill snow-boarding? Plan on doing that a little this winter. Build a few jumps too.

changing edge on a snowboard is nothing like any other board sport. You have to find your center,than edje. Nothing at all like Wakeboarding. Your ass is going to be sore, you will be cold &amp; wet all day. But once you get the hang of it riping down a hill to me on a Snowboard beats the hell out of skis. And compairing Watersking to Snow sking is like compairing a Bass boat to a Tournment boat. Not yah they both go on water but are not even close to the same.

i snowboarded one time and i used what i knew on a wakeboard on a snowboard and by the end of the day i was doin grab 180s

Has anyone here tried any inverts on a snowboard? If so which is the easiest? I'm thinking about trying a backroll this year and wondered how hard/how much difference there is. <BR> Chad, for the average person skiing is much easier to learn than snowboarding. If you are only going 1 day there's a good chance you won't be able to keep up with your friends for most of it, if you snowboard.

"changing edge on a snowboard is nothing like any other board sport" <BR>I disagree, at speed, changing edges is very similar to wakeboarding (don't skate or surf, can't compare). You should use your edges, just like you should wakeboarding. It's really just rolling the board over onto edge, just like you would wakeboarding, holding the edge is slightly different. <BR>As far as inverts, I assume you mean straight flips? Not sure how you would do a wakeboard stle backroll snowboarding. Straight backs are pretty easy though, just commit to it. I just throw my shoulders and head back at the top of the lip and spot the landing, adjust from there. I bet you could do some scarecrow-ish thing. Maybe off the lip open up to the landing and start to roll forward, try to keep rotation going for the 180, if that sounds comfortable to you, I just thought of that now. Do you have an idea how to do a "backroll" snowboarding? If you do, I'd like to hear it, maybe give it a shot. I just kinda huck myself around, so many more things you can do snowboarding. Just start small with inverts, and commit to it, landing on your head will suck. <BR>Chad, if you can ice skate/rollerblade, maybe try those snowblade things, I've heard that those are real similar, certainly not the "coolest" thing on the mountain, but should be easy and fun if youre not going too often.

THis past spring break i snowboarded for the first time. I have wakeboarded for about a year. I picked it up in about an hour. Not hard. Just do it man you will like it. I dont think you will have any problems.

Patrick, I really didn't know what invert to start with, the backroll is the easiest for me on the water and the board is naturally headed down the mountain at take off and landing. A straight back flip would require squaring up at the top of a jump, now you have me thinking about a front flip or scarecrow variaton. They're all easy for me on the water but committing on snow is a lot harder to do. It doesn't help that most places won't let you throw inverts anyway.

I would try coming straight at the lip, don't worry about squaring up, just toss it right back, if you can do inverts wakeboarding, snowboarding shouldn't be too bad, it's all just being confident and spotting your landing. As far as not allowing inverts, it seems like they are saying "not recommended" instead of not allowed in the northeast now, some contests require a second waiver be filled out if you will be doing inverts. I really think its an insurance thing. If they say not allowed, don't throw one right beside ski patrol, besides that, have at it. Just be aware if you wreck yourself, you'd have a hard fight suing the mountain, if thats the path you choose. Good luck

Just don't throw it too early... <BR> <BR><a href="http://www.break.com/index/snowboardhead19.html" target="_blank">http://www.break.com/index/snowboardhead19.html</a> <BR> <BR><img src="http://www.wakeworld.com/MB/Discus/clipart/uhoh.gif" border=0>

Wow, I've never seen anything like that before. LOL. <BR> <BR>As far as snow vs. wake.... I thought I was a good wakeboarder so I'd be able to snowboard. I was totally wrong and ended up being really frustrated. After 3 days I was putting it together though. I'd say that if you have no experience a lesson would really help. There are a lot more edging techniques required in snowboarding based on how fast you're going and how deep the snow is. Deep snow is a lot like wakeboarding in that you ride the back of the board. It also is really tiring because you have to work to keep the weight back (also depends on board set-up). The hardest thing for newbies to remeber is to keep weight on your down hill foot on groomed snow and kick the back foot around to initiate turns. Once you're moving fast the turns feel a lot more natural, but getting used to the speed takes time. <BR> <BR>I say give it a try. You'll be happier in the long run if you learn to snowboard. But, like I said, I think it's totally worth it to get a lesson. <BR> <BR>BTW, my snowboarding has totally changed my edge control on a wakeboard. Both sports help eachother in a lot of ways. <BR> <BR>(Message edited by guido on December 08, 2006)

That was great, hopefully he was alright. Imagine if he didn't slow himself down by hitting his head?? He'd have over rotated the first, and be looking at landing on his head the second time around. Like wakeboarding, make sure you're off the lip before trying something like that. I'm 95% sure that was at Waterville Valley here in NH, I can't remember the last time they had a setup like that though. I finally get to ride tomorrow!!