Skiing vs snowboarding: Which is better?

As a lifelong aficionado and advocate of the mountains in winter, there are two questions I’m always asked. My favourite place to ski is the first, diving into the ins and outs of various skiing countries and their resorts. The second question, is it worthwhile learning to ski or to snowboard, is answered with an easy yes. But, then, how do you choose between the two? It’s the perennial question facing first-time visitors to the slopes. Here, we unpick the pros and cons of each winter sport.

Skiing vs snowboard: A quick history

Skiing is as old as time – cave drawings dating back to 2,500BC depict humans on skis hunting – but the modern sport of downhill skiing came about at the turn of the 19th century, when Alpine tourism took off in Switzerland.

Snowboarding was born in the late Seventies when Jake Burton contributed to the developing sport by introducing the snowboard as we know it now (similar snow-sliding boards such as the Snurfer existed before) as well as snowboard boots and bindings. A once maverick sport, its roots in freeriding (riding natural, un-groomed terrain) and freestyle (tricks), snowboarding has grown into the mainstream, finally becoming an Olympic sport in 1998.

Though skiing is by far the dominant sport in Europe and North America, snowboarding had a huge surge in popularity in the Nineties and it has continued to grow in Asia, with significantly more snowboarders than skiers in China and Japan.

Which is easier, skiing or snowboarding?

Skiing is, they say, easier to pick up but harder to master. Snowboarding has a steeper learning curve at first, but once you have the basics down, progression is quick.

“I’d liken snowboarding to riding a bike without stabilisers,” explains Robert Benjamin, a BASI 4 instructor (the top-level qualification that requires you to teach both skiing and snowboarding). “Easy to get going, but then, when you enter more exciting terrain [uneven slopes, greater gradient] where stabilisers aren’t suitable, suddenly you have to learn without them and in tricker conditions. Depending on the end goal [are you looking for a new hobby or to put down a few turns, take in the views and make it to a handsome lunch spot?] one might be quicker.”

Learning to snowboard can be a frustrating process at first, not to mention painful, with a sore coccyx and knees on the cards. But once you get it, says snowboard journalist Tristan Kennedy, the mountain is your playground. “It just takes a quick look to see that snowboarders are having more fun on the slopes. And, if they’re doing it well, snowboarders look more stylish,” he says, biasedly.

Within a few days – two or three as the broad average, says Benjamin who, during a 20-year career, has taught three- to 90-year-olds to ski – most skiers will be off the nursery slopes and on the green and blue pistes.

When snowboarding it generally takes a little longer to learn edge control and to link turns (roughly four or five days). But after a week you can be off the piste and riding powder, thanks to the wider surface area of a snowboard (just lean back a little, is Kennedy’s quick tip). Powder skiing, however, has a very different technique to piste skiing and can take years to crack.

What are the main differences between skiing and snowboarding?

The boots for many are a deciding factor – a game-changer for once-British ski team member Lesley McKenna who, after a crash left her with a bruised shin and unable to wear hard ski boots, put on snowboard boots and never looked back (she went on to become a three-time Winter Olympian in snowboarding).

One ski boot weighs around 2kg and has very little flexion, which makes soft, comfortable snowboarding boots preferable when it comes to walking, dancing at après, and generally standing all day long.

The faff of carting around ski kit is enough to put some beginners off – two awkward skis, two poles, plus the dreaded boots. A snowboard is easier to carry, the gear is often cheaper to buy and rent, and getting fitted out is less stress (no fine-tuning of boots to bindings needed).

Then again, who doesn’t like a ski pole for pontificating, to point to distant mountains or trace potential routes down the mountain. And, as both a skier and snowboarder, I do appreciate the full downhill peripheral vision skiing, hindered as it is when strapped sideways on a board.

The dual-discipline snowboarders I grilled admitted to not missing the effort of unclipping and reclipping on ski lifts and flat sections, as well as having to sit on the snow for breaks – a skill hard-learned by snowboarders. But redressing the balance, they unanimously answered that powder days are reserved for snowboarding, which bears keeping in mind if you see yourself one day floating through powder fields in Japan.

Which is safer, snowboarding or skiing?

As much as we’ve all heard of a friend of a friend getting injured on the mountain, on the whole injuries are rare. However, according to a survey by the National Mountain Safety Observation System (SNOSM) skiers (87 per cent) are involved in more collisions than snowboarders (10 per cent) on the French slopes.

To take the most common injuries from both sports, you’re tossing up a wrist fracture – snowboarders put out their hands to break a fall – against an ACL (Anterior cruciate ligament injury) – strapping long skinny planks to your feet is practically asking for knees to twist.

Do I need to be fit to ski or to snowboard?

Both disciplines benefit hugely from good fitness as learning can be incredibly tiring on the body. Throw in the added elements of altitude and weather, new languages, and possibly eating and drinking in excess, and you’ve got yourself a strong cocktail for fatigue.

Balance is key, and learners inefficient with the mechanics rely heavily on strength to keep balance. So strength and flexibility are always going to help. But if you lack these, don’t let it put you off.

“I’ve seen fantastic athletes find it hard to learn, and unathletic types take to it like a duck to water,” says Benjamin. “And just doing it is the quickest way to get ‘ski fit’. Just as important as functional fitness is confidence, enthusiasm, and the ability not to take oneself too seriously.”

While skiing requires (and quickly builds) more leg and core strength at first, snowboarding requires some upper body strength, to push up from the floor over and again (cue well-worked shoulders and pecs during the first few days of learning).

The verdict

“Skiing and snowboarding are achievable for almost everyone,” says Benjamin. “But these sports throw challenges in the way of the learner. Taking on those challenges, with the desire to go further and achieve more, well… that’s a metaphor for life. However unattainable it might feel at first, you can do it. Nothing is achieved without a little determination.”

As for choosing which sport, there’s no hard-fast guide. Whichever piques your interest is the one for you. Try one, try both, and if you don’t like them, there’s plenty more to entertain during a stay in the mountains.