Snowboarding, a sport for adults and kids alike.

Pain and injury avoidance techniques for snowboarding are invaluable but not well known. If you know how, you can avoid the two biggest mistakes that first timers make. A positive experience your first few times out will make you more likely to stick out the hard times until you learn enough to really have fun!

Snowboarding Isn’t Just For Kids Anymore

“There’s no reason that adults shouldn’t try this sport and have as much fun as kids” says self-proclaimed Snow-board Evangelist Lauren Traub Teton who admits to being “in her 40s”. “I have been snowboarding for four years, and am having the most fun of my life!”

She feels that the only thing stopping “oldsters” (in their mid-30s and up) from embracing this sport in a big way are the inevitable hard falls experienced during the short steep learning curve. She says “there are easy ways to avoid the pain. They are just not well known.”

The reason “pain avoidance” is not more widely discussed has to do with the history of this great sport. To some enthusiasts, pain and injury are cool. This is obvious if you the read the hundreds of war stories on snow-board websites.

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This viewpoint has its roots in the fact that this sport is stylistically a descendant of skateboarding and embraces some of the same traditions. For example, doing a grab, where the rider reaches down and grabs the board while airborne, is more of a necessity in skating than in snowboarding, because the skateboard is not attached to the feet. But grabs have morphed into a popular trick and a way to show style in boarding too.

The other tradition that has carried over from skating is the tradition of pain. In skate-boarding, injury from accidental impact with the hard ground is a common occurrence and gives a skater bragging rights (as well as bruises and breaks.). A lot of skaters are also snowboarders, and so the tradition of absorbing pain as part of “paying dues” remains.

Another factor keeping some adults away from this great sport may be the reputation for wildness on the slopes that boarders have. That probably comes from the fact that when the equipment was first invented, it was technologically primitive, with little ability to steer or stop. That’s how this great sport got its image as an extreme and it's enthusiastsgot their reputation as outlaws of the snow. Now they have evolved technologically into precision devices that can turn and stop easily, when operated under control.

With older snow-boarders hitting the slopes, the culture of injury and pain has outlived it’s origins. Adults don’t equate injuries with status. People who start riding as adults want to stay upright and uninjured. Some skiers switch over because it seems like more fun and less stress on the knees. Again, the goal is to stay whole!

I learned by trial, error and luck how to avoid injury. In fact, a fine young gentleman working at the guest services desk on Whistler Mountain (B.C.) offered to let me borrow his Rollerblade wrist guards and knee pads, one day when I was learning, and I was hooked on safety and comfort from that moment.

Don’t make the two biggest mistakes newbies often make when you do decide to take up this wonderful sport. To be safe, comfortable, and happy, you MUST
1. Familiarize yourself with safety techniques
2. Take a lesson given by a professional your first time out.
and
3. You MUST wear padding, on your knees, butt, and wrists.

Come now, why try to reinvent the wheel? If you want to learn to snow-board, then a lesson with a trained instructor will teach you IMPORTANT basic snow-boarding skills that you will use every day for the rest of your riding life.

So learn them right, right from the start. Forget about teaching yourself how to get on and off a lift safely on a board. This is what teachers are for.

And the padding is a must because falling is an inevitable part of the learning process. You WILL fall at first. But if you are padded properly, you will not have to hurt yourself.And don’t chuck the padding once you have mastered the basics. You will need it when you progress to jumping and tricks!

For Lauren Traub Teton, snow~boarding is the only sport she has ever been successful at.She loves to ride the halfpipe, race, and jump (a little!). She writes the popular free “Snowboard Szine” newsletter. Sign up for it on her site www.SnowboardSecrets.com

Only with insider's knowledge of professional snowboarding techniques and great moves that you could learn in a snap, loads of increadible tips and suggestions from the Experts you will be able to conquer the fun and exciting world of snow-board adventures.