Boarding VS Skiing

Thinking of hitting the slopes this winter?

Do I board or do I ski

While both are exilerating downhill sports that you can spend countless hours getting lifts and t-bars up the mountain only to race down as quickly as possible. There are a lot of differences between the two.

Lets look at a few.

• Boarders have to unstrap one foot to use the chair lifts and T-bars and then strap back in at the top of the run, where as skiers are always locked into their skis.
• Boarders will use alot more energy digging their edges in while trying to stay stationary while skiers have their trusty poles to remain upright.
• Skiing will start to take its toll on your knees after a while if you don't take precautions to prevent injury, however it will only take falling the wrong way on a snowboard to get your legs twisted causing injury, another common injury in boarders are the wrists, remember fall forward onto the elbows if possible.
• Boarders will have to unstrap completely and walk or jog across the flats, where skiers have their trusty poles to push them along.
• getting up from a stack on a snowboard can burn alot of energy when starting out but after a while you will learn how to follow the fall through and get back upright smoothly, when a skier has a stack it can be VERY annoying as skis are designed to come off the boots if pressure isn't applied properly, the skier will have to trek around in the snow collecting skis and oh yes their trusty poles.
• Terrain parks where used more commonly by boarders but we are seeing more and more freestyle skiers having a crack at the half pipe, grind poles and jumps.

Don't let any of these point make your decision for you, get out there give them both a go.

You will figure out pretty quickly what you suited to.