Shredding Together: Father and Son Switch from Skiing to Snowboarding

Contents

• Introduction

Introduction

Growing up in the Canadian prairies, I was introduced to cross-country skiing at a young age. Thankfully, my dad thought downhill skiing was more fun, so he started taking me to our local ski hill—which was built on top of an old garbage dump. Occasionally, we’d make the trek to the mountains for family vacations. I grew up with two older siblings and being the youngest I had a lot of independence. By the time I was a teenager, I was allowed to make the 15-hour drive to the mountains with a friend (whose parents also had an excellent sense of independence) all by ourselves. Armed with freshly minted driver’s licenses and a burning passion for skiing, we grew our prairie ski bums at heart to a reality.

During university, I moved to the Rocky Mountains to get closer to my number one love: downhill skiing. As the years went on, I ventured into backcountry skiing, met a girl, introduced her to skiing, life continued, we had two kids, introduced them to skiing, and life was good.

If you haven’t had kids yet, you have no idea how much your life will change—though, it’s a little different for everyone. Life at home changes and so does ski life…and maybe for the better. When our kids were babies, we spent more time skiing at resorts (specifically Kicking Horse) and less time backcountry touring. Our weekends were spent on the hill with another family whose kids were the same age. Moms and dads would tag in and out for runs, while the little ones learned to walk in the yurt, napped in toboggans, and stood in skis before they could even walk. We skied more days with tiny kids then at any other point in our lives. The goal wasn’t to turn them into tiny pro skiers—it was about spending time together as a family doing something we (the parents) enjoyed.

Maybe that sounds selfish, but let’s be honest—babies don’t know if they’re in a “Mommy and Me” sing-along or getting pulled around a ski village in a toboggan. As long as they’re outside, eating snow, and having fun, they’re happy.

As a side effect of growing up on a ski hill, though, the kids did eventually become pretty solid little skiers. By the time they were six, they were tearing up black diamonds at a decent clip. As a parent, skiing with them was helpful—sticking them between my legs, walking back uphill if needed, and generally being able to maneuver in skis made things way easier than if I had been on a snowboard.

But then… I got bored with skiing.

This happened around the same time my 8-year-old son said he wanted to try snowboarding. We had these old ‘play’ boards we’d mess around with, hiking to the local park and riding down weedy hills strapped in with our snow boots. We had bought our kids a tiny Burton snowboard when our son was one, but it never left the bunny hill. My wife was skeptical about switching from skiing to snowboarding: “Why on earth would you two want to start snowboarding when we’re finally skiing together as a family of four, on any run we want?”

But the real question was: why not try something new?

So, armed with our scratched-up boards, my son and I spent a day falling, trying to figure out how to use a chairlift, and laughing at ourselves. After that, we decided we were in. New (step-on burton bindings for both which were a game changer - buy here, read about our review on them here) and some new-to-us gear were acquired, and we committed to snowboarding all season long.

I picked it up a bit faster, while our son faced the frustration of going from expert skier to beginner snowboarder. Progress was slow at first, and my wife and daughter took off, skiing together and occasionally meeting up to cheer on the newbies. Our 8-year-old wasn’t seeing the results he wanted—going from mastering black diamonds to struggling on greens was a humbling experience. But after watching a YouTube video on how to carve, he nailed it on the next trip out. Who knew a video could have so much tactical learning impact?

Fast forward two seasons, and now he’s arguably better at snowboarding than he ever was at skiing. He’s flying down steep double blacks, carving through trees, and even nailing those tricky traverses.

Moral of the story? Sometimes trying something new leads to a whole new level of awesome.

Yes, we still plan to ride snowboards this season. We’ll give our skis a wave but I think they might be shelved for good.

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