awayfromitall

So we've stuck to skiing in our family up until now. We've skied as a family for over ten years but only once a year so we're still very conservative skiers, sticking to mostly blues with the rare black. My two children are teenagers and we've decided to learn to snowboard this year. My daughter picks up physical things easily...my son stuggles more. So whereas I typically look for resorts that have a lot of blue, I'm thinking perhaps we need lots of green to snowboard as beginners? So I'm contemplating Copper Mountain. It would be the first week of January. So two questions for this forum:

1) If we're learning to snowboard, do we really want green slopes...or are snowboards too slow, harder to maneuver on green slopes?
2) Any suggestions on best places for beginner snowboarders? We'll be taking lessons.

williamscb13

I don't think it matters where you go, they are going to spend all their time in the corral at the base of the hill anyway. My friends decided to try snow boarding last year and they spent two days at the bottom of the hill in the school area. They gave up on the third day and went back to skiing.

Jaya

Even small ski areas cater to snowboarders of all levels.

Make sure they take lessons (I know you said they will) - it's not intuitive to go from skis to a snowboard and always wear a helmet!!!

PeaceOut

Our experience has been that snowboarders get really good, and then get bored with it. They switch to skiing because it is more challenging and they can do more with it. Just our Colorado experience.

fmpden

The problem with switching from skiing to boarding is that the technique is almost totally difference. Your board on your heels and toes where skiing is never on the heels. Don't use you body or legs to turn and you cannot suddenly spread your legs to regain balance. IF they are good skateboards they will probably make the transition easier but it could take some time. Copper is very good mountain to learn on because of the skier separation. Prices should be good that after the 1st.

the_scarecrow_in_oz

Copper Mountain is a very good place to learn. It's beginner runs in the Union Creek area are gentle and there are not a lot of the more-advanced skiers using them to get to other places. There are also some great green runs much higher up the mountain if you feel the need to break out of the beginner area, and these greens have other greens leading back down to the base. You will find more advanced skiers & borders using these runs higher up the mountain though, as a means to get back to the base from the blacks and blues that are also up there.

furledleader

My daughter skied from the age of three. When she was 14 she learned to board. It wasn't easy, but she persisted and is now proficient in both. It helps when you live somewhere that you can go boarding often, because in most cases it will take a while. Not sure I'd recommend to someone from other non-skiing areas of the country to try to learn it on a one week vacation as you'll spend most of your vacation trying to learn it and never see much of the rest of the mountain. Unless, of course, your goal for that vacation is to learn to board - then go for it.

abram

My son, then a teenager, was a pretty good skier who decided to try boarding at Copper. We bought a package that included rentals, a 1/2 day lesson, and a lift ticket only good on the green runs. At first, he was insulted at the suggestion that he stay on the greens, but the ticket seller offered to upgrade him after the half day if he wanted that. When we met for lunch, he said, "I'm soaked from the inside out from sweating and from the outside in from falling; the green runs are just fine."