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>I concussed myself so many times when I was 17 on hard falls, just completely out of it sitting on the hill. It’s a very dangerous sport. Probably as dangerous

>I concussed myself so many times when I was 17 on hard falls, just completely out of it sitting on the hill. It’s a very dangerous sport. Probably as dangerous as football in terms of TBI risk. This is why, honestly, I will never suggest someone to bother learning it as an adult. Unless you are extremely athletic and completely set on it, it's just going to be an afternoon of pain and frustration. I've seen it happen over and over again. Learning to ski or snowboard requires falling thousands of times. Which isn't a big deal when you're 12, but at 32 it's a whole different story.

_0w8t 5y ago
Downhill ski is much easier and safer to learn. I did it in one hour together with an instructor when I was 25. I felt only couple of times. And I was with another novice, so not all attention was on me. This was a common experience among my friends. Then I tried snowboarding couple of years later. But even after 2 training painful sessions with different instructors I could not get it. The last instructor encouraged me to try one more lesson. He suspected as I was tall, it will just take more time for my body to learn to balance properly. But I realized that snowboard just did not click with me. And only few of people I know who tried snowboarding in the late twenties continued with it.
scarecrowbob 5y ago
I can comment on snowboarding. But I did take up skiing as an adult and my experience doesn't line up with this. My kid graduated high school, so I moved to a small town in Colorado to learn how to ski and ice climb. I am somewhat athletic, but not competitively so. I started skiing at 42, and I am now in my 3rd year of doing it. I do wear a helmet. But I don't fall, and certainly not thousands of times. I'm old enough that I'm very conservative... but I fall infrequently enough that I can remember the 3 times I've done it this season. Skiing really isn't that dangerous or even physically demanding.
- phillc73 5y ago
  Similar to you, I started skiing at 45, the same time as my almost 4yr old did. That first season, I remember falling a few times, but absolutely not more than 20 for the whole season. Four years later, I have a ski crazy 7yr old who rips down blacks full tilt. I fall in very choppy or icy conditions somehow trying to keep him in sight. Didn’t fall at all today, fell once yesterday in chop. In decent conditions, I rarely fall, but as I’m the designated driver, I really don’t push things too hard. Also firmly in the wear a helmet camp. A lot of US ski and snowboard films show athletes who forgo this, and I generally try to avoid letting the kid watch them. Favourite ski films are Supervention and Supervention 2. Both are generally free online (try Redbull TV).
- ramesh31 5y ago
  > My kid graduated high school, so I moved to a small town in Colorado to learn how to ski and ice climb. I am somewhat athletic, but not competitively so. You're definitely the outlier that proves my point though. Skiing is not something you can just go "do" a few times and have fun at it like tennis or golf. You have to, as you did, live in close proximity to a hill and get out there day after day and put in the time and effort of falling on your face over and over again to do it. People can absolutely do it as adults, but you have to really really want it. It can't be a casual thing. >Skiing really isn't that dangerous or even physically demanding. It's what you make it. To a lot of people, "skiing" means hopping on the lift and cruising some blue/black groomers for a few hours. For others, it means hiking 3k vertical to ski 6 feet of powder on a 50 degree face, or blasting the drop line on a huge mogul field at full speed.
  - mbrameld 5y ago
    > You're definitely the outlier that proves my point though. Skiing is not something you can just go "do" a few times and have fun at it like tennis or golf. Again, this doesn't match my experience as somebody who actually did learn to ski in my 40s while living in Phoenix, AZ. It's fine to say that you yourself couldn't do something, but you shouldn't speak for others. I'm very far from an elite athlete, I wouldn't consider myself an athlete at all. I'm largely sedentary.
    - ramesh31 5y ago
      >It's fine to say that you yourself couldn't do something, but you shouldn't speak for others. I'm saying this as someone who has skiied from the age of five, and spent a solid decade skiing over 180 days/season while working at various resorts, with a majority of those days being backcountry steeps above 10k feet. When people say you can "learn to ski" with little effort it just irks me a bit. Yes, anyone who can walk can become competent enough to cruise down some blue groomers at a resort. But actual skiing, actually getting to the expert level where you can truly enjoy the sport, is a completely different thing. And getting to that level from beginner as an adult is incredibly difficult.
yodsanklai 5y ago
> I will never suggest someone to bother learning it as an adult I disagree. It's not dangerous, and anyone in good health can learn it. You just need to learn at your pace and take an instructor. Conditions and gear are also very important, it can make all the difference between a great time and an horrible experience. I think not living near mountains makes it harder because you usually can't pick the days with the best conditions, and you try to cram as much practice as you can, which is often over-ambitious and lead to injuries.
- nh23423fefe 5y ago
  > You just need to learn at your pace and take an instructor. I think this is right. I had friends drag me to Whistler for a weekend. I had never snowboarded. We went to the top of the mountain and they put me on a blue run and left me. I fell down the whole mountain that morning. We had lunch and then it clicked the afternoon. And then for the second day I was fine. My elbow and hip was destroyed but I stopped falling. So I thought it was easily and I advised my novice friend to do the same next year. He fell down the mountain for the morning session and quit entirely. I think I was just more coordinated than him (he later broke his arm after tripping during a run). I think if he had taken instruction and just cruised greens until he stopped falling he might have learned to love it. I would never advise someone to learn like I did after watching my friends interest get snuffed out by my bad advice.
  - yodsanklai 5y ago
    Usually, the first few hours of learning, you find a very gentle 30m slope that stops naturally, and you just learn to go straight with only one foot bound. Then you learn to initiate front-end and back-end turn by rotating your shoulder, still with one foot. Normally, you wouldn't even fall at that stage. Only then you take a lift, bind two feet, and then you learn to skid facing the slope, then the other direction. After that, there are a several exercises of gradual difficulty that takes you to the full skidded turn. It usually takes one or two days for most people to be able to turn frontside and backside. There will be a lot of falling, much more than with skis, but if the snow is soft, no risk of injury and it's pretty fun. I taught snowboarding for a few years and my experience was that beginners had the most fun.
ebruchez 5y ago
> Learning to ski or snowboard requires falling thousands of times This is not the case for skiing at least. My young kids (who are are not exceptional) have been skiing for the last few years. They rarely fall. It might happen once during the day or not at all. And they didn't fall much on their first few days of ski either. (I also don't remember falling much when learning how to ski as a kid.) In fact I'd say the same for biking. There is a myth that you have to fall to learn how to bike. Yes, you might fall once or twice and learn a lesson but that's it. Most of the learning process doesn't require actually falling to the ground. Now it could be different for snowboarding but I don't have experience with that. It could also be a little different for adults learning how to ski but even there I'd think it can be done quite safely. Of course I agree that for adults (and especially older adults) falls will have worse outcomes than for kids on average.
- monkmartinez 5y ago
  Everyone falls a ton when learning to snowboard IME. Myself, 25 years ago, was miserable for two days with a destroyed coccyx and thought I had permanently damaged my butt. My kids who are both very athletic fell like crazy when learning... and they basically plowed the runs for the first year or so until they were brave enough to go toe side. I am going to try skiing for the first time next month. I am excited to get off the ground.
  - Grustaf 5y ago
    Yeah you'll fall, but just learn how to fall, especially don't break the fall with your hands! I broke by wrist first time I tried, at age 12. Since then I've never hurt myself badly while snowboarding.
Grustaf 5y ago
As other have said, you won't fall skiing, and also, 32 is not old at all. There is no physical reason to be in worse shape when you're 32 than when you're 18. If you are, it's because you don't spend enough time doing sports, it's not because your body is too old. I picked up kitesurfing in my 30s, and skateboarding in ramps in my 40s and it was no different from learning snowboarding in high school. Except that I'm in better shape now, and I also benefit from knowing other sports. It just gets easier. I think the turning point, physically speaking, is around 50. Neal Unger is 65 and recently picked up skateboarding. Obviously he's past his prime, but there's absolutely no reason to avoid having fun just because you're not a teenager. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lM4FQ_FqEhQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lM4FQ_FqEhQ Here's a kitesurfer that I think started in his 70s: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouheMnmjx9U https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouheMnmjx9U And there was a kitesurfer here in Denmark that surfed into his 90s or something.
gotgear 5y ago
I learned how to snowboard when i was 35 never having been on skis. i'm in my 50's now and love carving in some fresh powder, it's orgasmic! i will never stop till i'm dead.
mbrameld 5y ago
> Learning to ski or snowboard requires falling thousands of times. I learned to ski in my early 40sc over the last 5 years and I would count my falls in the tens. Certainly fewer than 50. That's counting every time I ended up on the ground, most of those could probably be classified as sitting more than falling. I'm far from extremely athletic, maybe even below average. If you learn from an instructor and don't try to ski terrain you're not ready for then there's no reason somebody of even below-average athletic ability couldn't learn to ski without getting hurt.

_0w8t 5y ago

Downhill ski is much easier and safer to learn. I did it in one hour together with an instructor when I was 25. I felt only couple of times. And I was with another novice, so not all attention was on me. This was a common experience among my friends. Then I tried snowboarding couple of years later. But even after 2 training painful sessions with different instructors I could not get it. The last instructor encouraged me to try one more lesson. He suspected as I was tall, it will just take more time for my body to learn to balance properly. But I realized that snowboard just did not click with me. And only few of people I know who tried snowboarding in the late twenties continued with it.

scarecrowbob 5y ago

I can comment on snowboarding. But I did take up skiing as an adult and my experience doesn't line up with this. My kid graduated high school, so I moved to a small town in Colorado to learn how to ski and ice climb. I am somewhat athletic, but not competitively so. I started skiing at 42, and I am now in my 3rd year of doing it. I do wear a helmet. But I don't fall, and certainly not thousands of times. I'm old enough that I'm very conservative... but I fall infrequently enough that I can remember the 3 times I've done it this season. Skiing really isn't that dangerous or even physically demanding.

phillc73 5y ago
Similar to you, I started skiing at 45, the same time as my almost 4yr old did. That first season, I remember falling a few times, but absolutely not more than 20 for the whole season. Four years later, I have a ski crazy 7yr old who rips down blacks full tilt. I fall in very choppy or icy conditions somehow trying to keep him in sight. Didn’t fall at all today, fell once yesterday in chop. In decent conditions, I rarely fall, but as I’m the designated driver, I really don’t push things too hard. Also firmly in the wear a helmet camp. A lot of US ski and snowboard films show athletes who forgo this, and I generally try to avoid letting the kid watch them. Favourite ski films are Supervention and Supervention 2. Both are generally free online (try Redbull TV).
ramesh31 5y ago
> My kid graduated high school, so I moved to a small town in Colorado to learn how to ski and ice climb. I am somewhat athletic, but not competitively so. You're definitely the outlier that proves my point though. Skiing is not something you can just go "do" a few times and have fun at it like tennis or golf. You have to, as you did, live in close proximity to a hill and get out there day after day and put in the time and effort of falling on your face over and over again to do it. People can absolutely do it as adults, but you have to really really want it. It can't be a casual thing. >Skiing really isn't that dangerous or even physically demanding. It's what you make it. To a lot of people, "skiing" means hopping on the lift and cruising some blue/black groomers for a few hours. For others, it means hiking 3k vertical to ski 6 feet of powder on a 50 degree face, or blasting the drop line on a huge mogul field at full speed.
- mbrameld 5y ago
  > You're definitely the outlier that proves my point though. Skiing is not something you can just go "do" a few times and have fun at it like tennis or golf. Again, this doesn't match my experience as somebody who actually did learn to ski in my 40s while living in Phoenix, AZ. It's fine to say that you yourself couldn't do something, but you shouldn't speak for others. I'm very far from an elite athlete, I wouldn't consider myself an athlete at all. I'm largely sedentary.
  - ramesh31 5y ago
    >It's fine to say that you yourself couldn't do something, but you shouldn't speak for others. I'm saying this as someone who has skiied from the age of five, and spent a solid decade skiing over 180 days/season while working at various resorts, with a majority of those days being backcountry steeps above 10k feet. When people say you can "learn to ski" with little effort it just irks me a bit. Yes, anyone who can walk can become competent enough to cruise down some blue groomers at a resort. But actual skiing, actually getting to the expert level where you can truly enjoy the sport, is a completely different thing. And getting to that level from beginner as an adult is incredibly difficult.

yodsanklai 5y ago

> I will never suggest someone to bother learning it as an adult I disagree. It's not dangerous, and anyone in good health can learn it. You just need to learn at your pace and take an instructor. Conditions and gear are also very important, it can make all the difference between a great time and an horrible experience. I think not living near mountains makes it harder because you usually can't pick the days with the best conditions, and you try to cram as much practice as you can, which is often over-ambitious and lead to injuries.

nh23423fefe 5y ago
> You just need to learn at your pace and take an instructor. I think this is right. I had friends drag me to Whistler for a weekend. I had never snowboarded. We went to the top of the mountain and they put me on a blue run and left me. I fell down the whole mountain that morning. We had lunch and then it clicked the afternoon. And then for the second day I was fine. My elbow and hip was destroyed but I stopped falling. So I thought it was easily and I advised my novice friend to do the same next year. He fell down the mountain for the morning session and quit entirely. I think I was just more coordinated than him (he later broke his arm after tripping during a run). I think if he had taken instruction and just cruised greens until he stopped falling he might have learned to love it. I would never advise someone to learn like I did after watching my friends interest get snuffed out by my bad advice.
- yodsanklai 5y ago
  Usually, the first few hours of learning, you find a very gentle 30m slope that stops naturally, and you just learn to go straight with only one foot bound. Then you learn to initiate front-end and back-end turn by rotating your shoulder, still with one foot. Normally, you wouldn't even fall at that stage. Only then you take a lift, bind two feet, and then you learn to skid facing the slope, then the other direction. After that, there are a several exercises of gradual difficulty that takes you to the full skidded turn. It usually takes one or two days for most people to be able to turn frontside and backside. There will be a lot of falling, much more than with skis, but if the snow is soft, no risk of injury and it's pretty fun. I taught snowboarding for a few years and my experience was that beginners had the most fun.

ebruchez 5y ago

> Learning to ski or snowboard requires falling thousands of times This is not the case for skiing at least. My young kids (who are are not exceptional) have been skiing for the last few years. They rarely fall. It might happen once during the day or not at all. And they didn't fall much on their first few days of ski either. (I also don't remember falling much when learning how to ski as a kid.) In fact I'd say the same for biking. There is a myth that you have to fall to learn how to bike. Yes, you might fall once or twice and learn a lesson but that's it. Most of the learning process doesn't require actually falling to the ground. Now it could be different for snowboarding but I don't have experience with that. It could also be a little different for adults learning how to ski but even there I'd think it can be done quite safely. Of course I agree that for adults (and especially older adults) falls will have worse outcomes than for kids on average.

monkmartinez 5y ago
Everyone falls a ton when learning to snowboard IME. Myself, 25 years ago, was miserable for two days with a destroyed coccyx and thought I had permanently damaged my butt. My kids who are both very athletic fell like crazy when learning... and they basically plowed the runs for the first year or so until they were brave enough to go toe side. I am going to try skiing for the first time next month. I am excited to get off the ground.
- Grustaf 5y ago
  Yeah you'll fall, but just learn how to fall, especially don't break the fall with your hands! I broke by wrist first time I tried, at age 12. Since then I've never hurt myself badly while snowboarding.

Grustaf 5y ago

As other have said, you won't fall skiing, and also, 32 is not old at all. There is no physical reason to be in worse shape when you're 32 than when you're 18. If you are, it's because you don't spend enough time doing sports, it's not because your body is too old. I picked up kitesurfing in my 30s, and skateboarding in ramps in my 40s and it was no different from learning snowboarding in high school. Except that I'm in better shape now, and I also benefit from knowing other sports. It just gets easier. I think the turning point, physically speaking, is around 50. Neal Unger is 65 and recently picked up skateboarding. Obviously he's past his prime, but there's absolutely no reason to avoid having fun just because you're not a teenager. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lM4FQ_FqEhQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lM4FQ_FqEhQ Here's a kitesurfer that I think started in his 70s: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouheMnmjx9U https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouheMnmjx9U And there was a kitesurfer here in Denmark that surfed into his 90s or something.

gotgear 5y ago

I learned how to snowboard when i was 35 never having been on skis. i'm in my 50's now and love carving in some fresh powder, it's orgasmic! i will never stop till i'm dead.

mbrameld 5y ago

> Learning to ski or snowboard requires falling thousands of times. I learned to ski in my early 40sc over the last 5 years and I would count my falls in the tens. Certainly fewer than 50. That's counting every time I ended up on the ground, most of those could probably be classified as sitting more than falling. I'm far from extremely athletic, maybe even below average. If you learn from an instructor and don't try to ski terrain you're not ready for then there's no reason somebody of even below-average athletic ability couldn't learn to ski without getting hurt.