Snowboarding and skiing have entirely different early difficulty curves. Skiing is much easier to pick up at an early level and "get down the hill" with. But I

Snowboarding and skiing have entirely different early difficulty curves. Skiing is much easier to pick up at an early level and "get down the hill" with. But I think once you crest that initial curve it takes longer to become really good at it. Snowboarding on the other hand has a very steep initial curve and once you get over the hump you can get down the hill just as easy. Once you enter that zone it becomes much easier to start learning tricks and basically feeling and looking "cool". But that initial learning curve...ooof! It feels like you're literally wrestling all of the rocks on the mountain for a few days. The nature of how you get hurt is also entirely different in both sports. Skiers tend to get more leg and hip joint injuries while boarders tend to get more wrist and elbow. I've read somewhere that head, collar bone, and other injuries are at about the same rate. However, the first few times boarding you will definitely take hits on the butt and back. Anecdotally, I've wrecked my knees a few times skiing, but never hurt them boarding. While I've come away far more bruised from falls learning boarding than I ever did skiing. But they were just bruises and not joint damage and nothing worse than what I received doing martial arts.