Edit: I realized that it’s probably tough for random viewers to commit or dedicate 20m not knowing if the content will be interesting for them so to solve that problem I’ve provided links to specific parts of the video woo! Just refer to the table of contents below!
Here I talk about my entire experience when I first started snowboarding up until current times where I’d say I’m intermediate to advanced level where I can do any mountain, any trail colour (green, blue, red, black, terrain park).
Table of contents
These time links are also available (and clickable) in the description body if you go to the youtube vid itself.
- Intro: 0:00
- Quick background prior to learning: 0:50
- First time snowboarding: 1:57
- Purchasing gear the first time: 5:10
- Things you’ll need to buy: 6:13
- How to learn by yourself: 6:30
- Start of year-by year breakdown: 8:03
- Year 1 Summary: 8:11
- Year 2 Summary: 10:04
- Building Confidence: 10:59
- What do green, blue, and black trails mean? (Trail difficulties) 11:07
- Different Types of Snow 12:16
- Year 3 Summary: 13:06
- Terrain parks basics: 14:17
- Year 4 Summary: 15:50
- Year 5 Summary: 17:20
- How I knew that I was “good” already (not great or epic, but just good): 18:36
I break down my challenges, progress, and achievements season by season, year by year (five years).
Related topic: Environmental and Sustainability Impact of the Ski / Snowboard Industry
Transcription automatically generated below:
all right next video you can clearly see
that you know I just did all these in
one shot
same outfit same frame everything
alright this video I want to talk about
I want to talk about snowboarding even
though it’s done and it was cut short
really really short for obvious reasons
you know virus no global warming things
like this
yeah will attend to that I do have a
different article different video about
you know sustainability of snowboarding
um hey nice what this video I wanted to
talk about basically my experience
snowboarding I think this year it’s been
five years already started to run 2015
snowboarding and yeah just to give you a
quick background you know I was I was
born in a tropical country so at first
the idea the concept of winter sports
very new to me sorry and yeah it was
just interesting to me and I wanted to
try something new you know that being
made into I really wanted to get into Oh
interest work at least one winter sport
skating was a casual thing you do with
your friends awesome and I do that but
at one point I wanted to try eiders
snowboarding or hockey right and I tried
both I tried snowboarding first actually
I haven’t tried talked hockey yet only
because as I grew up in all the sports
that I engage in it’s always team sports
it’s always constant contact sports and
I just have lots of that already grew up
with basketball immersing myself in
football you know I don’t need an ice
version of that at least not right now
hockey’s interesting I think it’s cool
I think it’s amazing but I’ll try that
later on
anyways I tried snowboarding for the
very first time that’s around 2015 tried
a good friend of mine had no idea what
to expect
all I knew was that everybody kept on
telling me I will follow a lot I’m sorry
so before before yeah before I go on
with my story what I’m trying to get
with this video is that yeah I just
wanted to tell you my story basically
basically my progression progression
from zero to hero I’m alright I’m
intermediate I would say and yeah you
know hopefully it’s motivating this
video is useful for people who are
trying to or entertain the idea of
snowboarding I think most some if not
all of this would be real it relatable
to skiing but yeah you just have to like
tweak it I’m not a skier so just take
what you can I guess you know it’s both
downhill ski mountain thing a race yeah
continuing with the story you know try
it for the first time all I wanted to or
all I expected was I was going to fall a
lot I was gonna get hurt a lot because
you know you fall a lot um no I did not
I did not get hurt a lot you will fall
yes but not like a painful like you know
like right hit to the tailbone not like
that it’s really just like a falling
okay like there’s the chunky part of
your butt so it’s that’s not painful
it’s it’s a lot of work to there’s a lot
of like physical work I think cuz you’re
wearing all these jacket is it’s heavy
and you’re not wearing the proper attire
cuz you’re doing it the first time and
you’re sweating which is adding to the
weight and then you’re just like
carrying yourself you know you’re
pushing yourself off of the snow or like
you’re kind of like pulling yourself up
like that so it’s a workout back to back
and just for snowboarding you sit down a
lot you strap on a lot like and that’s
that actually takes more effort and
energy compared to actual it
snowboarding is buddy that way but
anyways how long we just let me just get
to my notes here I have yeah and then
what gets to my pace you know I try to
divert it very first time I loved it
it’s one of those things I’m one of
those people who I don’t really need to
try it several times to know if I like
it or not usually I try
once or twice and I know if I you know
want it or not in this case I loved it
as you can see there’s a passion there’s
an entire content just for my experience
with this one and yeah I just wanted to
sell you the pace on that so ever Sisson
ever since that I tried it on a Saturday
with a friend I was like I came home I
was like all smiles good experience like
love this you know
and the following day Sunday when your
body is still aching I’m like let’s do
it again
like I just like include my sister gay
you want to try something and then yeah
there’s that and then to the pace of
that I always advise that don’t don’t
don’t buy your gear early because you
want to know more about your sport or
like the the kind of snowboarder you
want to be before you buy here so it’s
kind of geared towards that but for me I
tried it twice by renting the third time
I was shopping for snowboards already
but I was being realistic you know so I
was kind of going against my tip there
and I guess that’s why I’m reinforcing
the tough because I’m learning for my
it’s not mistake it’s just a little bit
tweaking but anyways I learned from dad
and when I when I when I said I bought
my dear I didn’t go fancy I just bought
the entry level bindings entry levels
snowboard and like you know I’m talking
to the sales staff I’m like I don’t know
anything about snowboard what is the
most beginner entry level board here
you know the safest the the thing that
would you know learned the most I didn’t
care about the graphics I didn’t care
about the style or whatever I’m just
like I just want to learn right now you
know and and that was very useful so
three things you’re gonna need these are
the boots the bindings and the board
bindings is that mechanism that attaches
your foot feet both of them to the board
yeah and then my list yeah after that I
would constantly watch it YouTube videos
and
I would go alone every now and then I
would go alone
not because I’m a loner but because you
know I’m starting to the sport most
people around me are either experienced
or you know intermediate is for them
it’s not fun to go snowboarding with me
and at the same time it wouldn’t be fun
for me if you’re just advanced right I’m
just gonna I dare you know you know what
I mean
so I think of those as like the training
days that I have and it’s like no one to
wait for you’re just going and ripping
and just like learning falling improving
you know constantly progressing
snowboard is progression all the time I
don’t think you will ever perfect it you
always learn something every day and
that’s the good part of it I think yeah
and then I would just go home at it you
know I knew I loved it so I was just
like go for it back to back snowboard
and like dirt moments like even now I
get into like this weird sketchy
situations and I’m just like if you have
a mic in my helmet and my entire thing
I’m going down and I’m just laughing
like oh my god oh my god like you know
so the dice here it gets I’m like oh my
god I’m just a laughing like I know I’m
gonna fall anytime soon but it’s a great
experience so yeah that’s kind of my
background just like so long things
shits like eight minutes already
yeah and then I just wanted to talk
roughly like a year by year the progress
of what I’ve done first year was the
basics the very first time I tried
snowboarding
we had we had it with the proper
instructor you know learning the basics
of it
heel edge to edge skating binding or
strapping up things like that and then
you just go go go and then after that
he’s you know the very first lesson
you’ll you’ll have you’re gonna dump a
bunch of information from me and you can
actually go along with that movie like
practice yourself with three more
sessions cuz it just it’s just practice
and just like you know like skill
learning basically like stopping it
slowing and stopping with your Gila
slowing and stopping with your toe edge
right so if this is your feet looking
like that toe heel so you’re stopping
like that when you’re facing downhill or
if you’re facing up above the hill you
want to stop way to toe right give it to
me good my me basics like Billis then
after dad you know like me everyone
it was just a lot of those I was even
scared just pointing my board down
because the moment you do that right so
it’s just a lot of like slowing control
control is very important here like all
things in football control football you
know black and blue ball not the yeah
basic concepts and then there’s like
year one also when I say you’re one I’m
not snowboarding for 365 days it’s
basically just one winter season just
maybe like a roughly two three four
months at best and then you know I would
go on the weekends no like you’re
working professional so year – it’s more
than polishing the base legs it’s more
like linking terms so you know you know
how to slow down with your heel edge and
then you would go straight you would
straighten your board right straight at
your board and then you would transition
to toe edge that’s slow like that
because you know as you especially with
snowboarders so this is very evident you
know when you’re going down to hill it’s
usually like that skiers love it just
like pointing and Donnelly like that
obviously not everyone but you know
which snowboarders like our our you know
animation is basically like back you’re
you’re moving no edge to edge basically
it’s for use for your control you know
if you really just want to just like gun
it and just you know just go fast you
just lie your board flat they don’t like
oh my god I’m learning so you want
control you want edge to edge also
building confidence
in snowboarding as if you don’t know yet
there’s there’s levels under mountain
it’s color-coded
there’s green blue and black a place in
North America easy medium hard basically
so obviously you’re just gonna start
with the easy trail and then you want to
build confidence and also you want to
build confidence so you also want to
build skill to actually go to the next
level which are the blue ones and in the
black when for the difficulty it’s more
on freedom most part the difference is
the slope right the slope of the actual
terrain obviously the steeper it is the
faster you’re gonna have to go or
sometimes it’s not for example there are
certain blue trails that are not as not
steeper compared to the green ones but
they’re just more challenging you know
it’s just like mobile there’s bunch
trees here it’s just like that so you
want to be able to go a few – right if
you’re not just going a ski resort and
you’re just gonna go with green trails
every time you wanna you want to
progress when I improve if you want to
get good at it
right also as you experience you get to
experience different types of snow if
you’re not into any winter you know you
probably know this if you’re in a winter
climate which is basically just a fresh
fallen snow the powder that’s what we
call POW that’s like you know the salt
after a type of snow and then as it gets
warmer in warmer it just transition
those two ice you don’t want that and
then yeah there’s it’s like other you
know types in-between and those types
in-between affect how you ride and how
attentive and how responsive and
sensitive you have to be and how you’re
gonna have to like you know navigate
through that so you want to learn that
and I learned out around like year two
because you know the more experienced
yeah and yeah it’s just overall lots of
practice year three it was more
upgrading myself i from green vert come
with green I would go to blue trails and
that’s I was very comfortable with that
too and eventually I you know I would do
blacks to the you know black being the
most difficult by the way the the color
coding their relative it’s just easy
medium hard so a ski resorts easy is
sometimes another ski resorts medium if
you know what I mean so it’s it’s not
absolute you know and it’s just
something to keep in mind yeah it was
year three was like a your
experimentation it’s like pushing the
boundaries I tried blue I tried black
when I got comfortable but blue I would
hit up some blocks and like all right
this is great but I don’t I don’t want
to blacks a lot not because I’m scared
at it it’s just more like it’s a lot of
work sometimes it’s not fun if it’s nice
and just like got it like that perfect
but if it’s just like work it like it’s
not fun you know I also tried terrain
parks and with terrain parks I liked
jumps because you know terrain parks you
know this like snowboarders going on
pipes on boxes or you know like half
pipes like that there’s also just the
jump I like jumping and I really want to
get good at that
with those jumps there’s also small
medium and large to that obviously you
want to start with small and yeah I did
that and I actually got injured and yeah
yeah I know I tried that I tried that
and then it was like towards the end of
year three I was just like alright we’re
kind of like getting a little bit you
know out of hand here so I just like
tone it down get back to basics and
prove a little bit more and toned out in
the whole experimentation thing I’ve
also been going a bit big mountains at
this point and when I say big mountains
obviously ski resorts they’re different
deuces small ski resorts where that’s
where I learned and then as I get bigger
and bigger it gets more and more
expensive also there’s more variety but
at the same time the difficulty also
scales up right
so if you don’t know what you’re doing
you’re kind of wasting your time kind of
wasting up money I was able to go dose
and year three again I’m one of those
people who when I really got and get
into it just like I go hard and yeah New
Year 3 I’m like going to Austria or
Apple ready for that so go figure this
year for which was for like just last
year it was really just like me
rolling up over the first three years
and I feel like with this I’m just
getting more and more confident with
myself and with my skill level I was
able to do small jumps in sometimes
medium jumps again it’s relative sizing
so one ski resorts small jump is another
ski resorts medium jump so yeah like
those then I went to other big mountain
we call this locations ski resorts and
obviously you’re exposed to more
experience and you just level up real
quick on those I’ve tried trees going
through trees I’m not good at it yet but
it’s an experience and then you know you
know like get into dicey situations
where it’s ice things like this and even
off off piste so when you go to ski
resort days of action it’s usually a
track that you follow right when you’re
going down the the parts where it’s the
parts off the track the track slash
piste on piste off piste if that made
sense yeah so like the texture of the
snow is different on that too and it’s
badder sometimes and that’s great but
it’s just less more maintenance there
right so you gotta know what you’re
doing before you actually hop on to
those sorts of things yeah and then year
and five so but you know melded together
because it’s yeah I wouldn’t say there’s
like a hard mark it was just you know
just things that I’ll tell you Indiana I
just wanted to go through my notes here
yeah you’re five you’re like I’m able to
comfortably
operated GoPro with grip I got a bunch
of videos there you can see I was able
to come comfortably and confidently go
through medium jumps now I can’t get I
can’t wait for life but that goes no
rush I can do flat tricks you know just
know how to kind of like flex and Bend
my board kind of use whatever you know
technical technique and skill that you
can do and yeah lately it’s just been
focusing on like you want to do
experimental and like cutting-edge stuff
or you want to get there but at the same
time you also want to do it safely
cuz you know I’m not young I’m not not
easy 18 years old you know I’m not old
boom I’m not 18 years old so like
recovery time kind of slows down for bid
and you know when it’s painful it’s
freaking painful like that but anyway so
what I was trying to get up with the the
melding of like kids like your ones very
obvious two three kind of mixes together
four or five kind of makes us together
four or five the moments where I knew
that I was good yeah I crossed that
threshold was that you know you get into
like situations where you catch an edge
so you throw yourself and then somehow
you just know that the mechanics of it
that you know that as your role if you
do this you’re actually gonna land again
board down and then I would do that you
know I did that a couple of times I
would catch my board and I would like
throw myself and then somehow on my
actors like well I’m still standing and
then you know the past trips that I had
I would I would go real fast and then
something would happen to me someone
would cut me and I’m like I know what to
do I’m like emergency situations then I
would catch myself and stop myself on
time and you know everything’s safe but
anyways that’s my experience you know
just what the when I hit the 20 minute
thing so like and subscribe and
hopefully that kind of gave you like an
idea of how the first five years would
go you know if you’re in the same pace
as me anyway seriously if you have any
questions just like write them down
and I’ll answer them all right all right
