Snowboarding

I am going snowboarding in about a week for the first time. I was just wandering if yall have any suggestions or tips to help me with boarding. I am fairly good at wakeboarding and have been told that it is almost the same just a few differences. I asked a similar question to this a while back but just wanted to see if anybody has anything to add. I am really looking foward to this because it is the closest thing to wakeboarding I can find that I can do before the summer comes around.

thanks

The best advice I've recieved is

1) Don't lean back. Keep your weight on your front foot. If you lean back (like when your scared) you lose your ability to stop and "steer". If you keep your weight on your front foot, you can move your back foot where you want it. If your weights on your back foot, it won't move.

2) Don't spend much time on the bunny hill. Go there for an hour to get your bearings. Then go up the lift. Speed is your friend (to a point). If you going really slow, you can't maneuver. I even brought my 7 and 8 year old girls up on the lift the first day. They started this year after christmas, now today they both slid their first table!

Weight on your front foot & ware a helmet, have fun..........

Where a helmet? There a helmet. Wear a helmet.

TAKE A LESSON!! It will be the best snowboarding investment you will make. Two hours of instruction and you will have much more fun.

Kody, I am in the opposite position you are.. lol
I have been snowboarding for 10 years now and just got into wakeboarding last summer. My advice is take a buddy who has been riding for a while and pay attention to his style. The characteristics are similar to wakeboarding, you are traveling sideways. But you need to use your edges and balance to maintain direction where your progressive edge and rope help in wakeboarding. Like the posts above read, keep your balance forward. This will help you dig your edge in. I often have told beginners to open their shoulders toward the bottom of the hill when first learning. This helps take some of the awkwardness of riding sideways away. Your body will not naturally want to travel this way. Do this only until you get comfortable using your edges.
Learning to use your edges are key. That and stopping I suppose - which comes from using your edges. Like Shutupandboard says, get off the bunny hill quickly. You could spend all day there and not get anywhere. Find a nice gradual green hill and learn. You will be able to learn to build speed which demands you to use your edges to carve.
Stick with it, one or two times out and you will begin progressing quickly. If you get sore - have a few beers and get back out there!

Kody,

Don't listen to Nate, he is washed up.... J/K he knows his snowboarding. I started snowboarding last year and was in the same position. You will want to get your balance and egding(stopping) down first of course. Make sure you work on both edging backwards and frontwards. Once you get edging down, try carving, back and forth so you can keep your desired speed and control. Once you get the hang of it, I would suggest learning to ride and edge switch as well . It will help in the long run. You may find you wrist and your arse to be very sore the first couple times. Trust me once you get your edging and carving down...you will love it. Just stick with it and have fun. You will be throwin 3's in no time.

Kneepads and maybe even elbow pads. After your first couple runs you probably wont need them anymore but I had a 1 month bruise on both.
The conditions were quite icy the first time I went so that didnt help. I found it really easy, to me it was like half wakeboarding half ice skating.

Your toeside edge is your SAFETY. So many beginners get crushed by trying to slow themselves down heelside then taking it on the tailbone. I second the lesson recommendation unless you are going along with an experienced rider.

Helmet, lesson, and like shutupandboard said speed is your friend to a point. Lesson will have you going real slow but since you wakeboard dont let them hold you back if you feel confident. Similar to wakeboarding but I find myself hucking my back foot left and right to initiate turns.

Thanks for all the comments guys. The first day I am there I get lessons (I think, that is what I have been told). I am pretty excited now, I leave on friday.

thanks again

last year we went to Breck and it was me and my friends first time. we went down a blue at 8 oclock the first morniing before lessons and pretty much fell down the mountain. we got the hang of it about half-way down though and went to our lesson. looking back we should have been in a more advanced lesson, but our instructor caught on pretty quick that we knew more than the other people so he showed us some more advanced stuff. bottom line is, lessons will give you a much better time, but its fun to figure stuff out for yourself too!