If you can’t decide which sport to choose, here’s some reasons why snowboarding is better than skiing. There are more reasons, for sure, but I compiled a list of the top 19 for you to peruse. Because pizza and fries should be left in the chalet on the lunch menu, not used for an extreme sport.
Snowboarding is clearly better than skiing. Snowboarding is easier to learn, it’s more fun to do tricks, and it’s easier to learn how to get onto the trick park. You can expand your knowledge in snowboarding easier, and even board during the summer.
So, let’s leave the skiing to the geriatrics and the cross-country folks. Here’s 19 reasons why snowboarding is better than skiing.
Table of Contents
1. Snowboarding is Harder to Learn than Skiing
This might seem like a reason not to shred but hear me out. Snowboarding is tougher to learn at the beginning but easier to get good at. This means that you’re not stuck on the green runs for the next two years as you figure out how to carve.
Yeah, your first day is going to be way harder on a board, but once you figure it out you can play for the rest of your trip. There’s no boring green runs for the rest of your life.
2. It’s Easier to Learn to Carve on a Snowboard than on Skis
Yes, it’s easier to stand right at the beginning on skis, but it’s way harder to learn how to carve. This means that, unless you can go a lot a year, you’re stuck on the green runs or an easy blue while you work your way down the hill.
That four-day trip to the mountains? Sure, the first day on a board is spent on the bunny hill, but then at least you can explore way more of the mountain after that. Plus, you’re probably carving by the end of the trip. If you ski, you’re going to be on that same green run the whole time. This seems better for the first day, but you’re way better off snowboarding in the long run
3. The Language Used to Snowboard is for Adults, Where for Skis is for Children
There’s a reason that kids are always the ones on skis… because it’s a kid’s sport. As an adult, do you want a teenager telling you to “pizza” or “fries” as you work your way down the bunny hill? Really?? Because I sure don’t.
If a teenager is going to tell me how to do a sport, the least they can do is speak to you as an adult. “Toe-edge” and “Heel-edge” sounds way better than “pizza” and “fries”. Yeah, you may fall more your first day, but at least everyone is using adult language.
4. Skiing has Way More Gear to Look After than Snowboarding
You’re headed to the hill for the first day of your trip. The sun is shining, you woke up bright and early. You have two boots and two skis and are ready to go. Only to find yourself at the chairlift without your poles.
You can’t carve on skis very well without poles. So, here comes the decision, do you rent some bad poles? Or do you let your kids outshine you all day because you can’t carve properly?
On a board, you need two boots and your snowboard. On skis, you have two boots, two skis, and two poles. Man, when the kids are fighting and you’re just trying to get the family out of the door, I’d rather remember 3 things versus 6 things any day.
5. Snowboarding Gear is Easier to Maintain than Skis
If you know how to wax and maintain edges and you don’t know which to pick, one is easier than two. There’s twice as much edge on skis to sharpen.
Plus, even though a board has more surface area to wax, it’s easier to do because you don’t have to worry about the edges all the time. The bindings on a snowboard are easier to maintain than the bindings on skis. And there’s no stupid poles to maintain.
Setting up your own bindings on skis is a hassle that needs specialized tools. Setting up your own bindings on a board usually need an Allen Key. Or a screwdriver. That’s it. It doesn’t take a degree to set up your bindings. Plus, you can have more than one pair of boots that works in your snowboard bindings. If you want to change ski boots on the hill? I hope you brought your toolbox with you.
6. Ski Boots… Need I Talk About them Versus Snowboard Boots?
At least you can walk in snowboard boots. They’re boots. How do you design something that you can’t actually walk in? Whose idea was those boots?
You could blow a hip just walking around the chalet. Plus the foot pain. There’s no way to put a ski boot on without it hurting your foot by the end of the day. You can walk in snowboard boots. Hell, you could even drive in snowboard boots.
You don’t need a chiropractor appointment after a day in snowboard boots. It’s not going to throw your back out just walking in them. If you’re flat-footed like me, there’s no ski boot on the face of this planet that was designed to fit your feet. They are going to hurt in ski boots. That’s a fact.
7. Skiing is Way Harder on your Knees than Snowboarding
The twisting when you fall can wreck your knees. Seriously. Skiing can cause you to never be able to walk again, let alone ski again.
Surgery, physiotherapy, chiropractor… I sure hope you have good healthcare. When you fall on skis you’re way more likely to wreck your knees. Plus just the act of skiing is rough on the lower body.
Snowboarding hurts your butt and glutes, but those are muscles. The amount of trauma on skiing a green run on your knees is crazy. You’re going to be so sore and no amount of alcohol in your hotel room will let you sleep.
8. Wiping Out on Skis is Way Worse than Wiping Out on a Snowboard
So, you picked the wrong line and have to bail. Or some unseen mogul bucks you off. Or some kid on skis cuts you off, and it’s them or you so you martyr. All of these mean wipe out on the side of a mountain, no matter how skilled you are.
Now, you bail on skis. Your knees are twisted, your ankles hurt, and your skis have popped you out of your bindings and have sent you flying. Now, you’re forced to GO AND FIND YOUR GEAR while you try to save face.
There’s no cool way of chasing a ski down the hill. Ever. On a board, you bail, you get up, brush yourself off and continue to rip. There’s no chasing gear. There’s no trying to get snow out of your binding so you can put your gear back on. You can get yourself out of the bottom of the landing of the kicker and not hurt someone else while chasing your pole.
9. Putting your Snowboard on is Easier than Skis
Powder is awesome until you get it in the bindings of your skis. Then you’re left with packed bindings and no ability to put your skis on.
So, your snowboard friends are ready to rip and they’re stuck waiting on you to pick the packed snow out of your binding with your pole. Sometimes you get to just get off the lift and ski away, which makes it easier to run laps. But snowboarders get a break at the top and don’t have to worry about falling and having to get your ski on in the middle of the hill.
10. Snowboard Gear is Cheaper than Ski Gear
This is quantifiably true. It’s way cheaper to get yourself into a good snowboard than into a good set of skis. A good board with good bindings and decent boots will cost your around $500USD. Skis? They run $500 just for the skis themselves, not including poles, bindings, and boots. It’s way cheaper to get yourself out of rental equipment on a snowboard than on skis.
11. Snowboard Gear is Way Easier to Carry than Ski Gear
Snowboard gear is way easier to carry than ski gear. You can walk in your boots. Put your pack on and carry your board. You can even string your board through a normal pack. Have you seen skiers trying to get from their car to the chalet? They can’t walk in their boots, they have skis hooked together and their poles placed awkwardly on their other shoulder. Or over the same shoulder, but they have to get their pack on first. Lets face it, it’s way easier to get your board to the chalet.
12. You Can Carry a Beer when Snowboarding, this isn’t an Option on Skis
This is pretty clear. Poles in your hands mean no beer in your hands.
13. A snowboard is Way More Versatile than a Set of Skis
On skis, you get the choice: go fast or tricks. You need a pair of twin tips if you want to do some tricks, because that’s the only way you’re getting into a switch position. You can’t ski switch on normal skis. Period. So that’s two pairs of skis, boots, and bindings. One for the trick park, one for the mountain.
A snowboard is way more versatile. Any snowboard can be used for tricks. You get the very specialized racing snowboards that can’t be used for tricks, but most boards can be ridden both goofy and regular and on the side of a mountain and in the trick park.
You’re way less constrained on a snowboard than on skis. You want to do that blue run with your parents? Go for it. You and your friends want to hit the trick park the next run? All you man. There’s no going back to the chalet to switch your gear over. There’s no bringing two sets of gear to the hill. One and done. Your wallet and back will thank you.
14. Snowboarders Get to Take a Breather on the Hill
Say what you want about snowboarders blocking the hill after the chairlift, but we’re doing it with a smile. We get a break and get to chat with our friends, take a breather, relax and stare at the beauty around us. Skiers, well they can run laps fast alright, but do they even notice the mountains while they are doing it? Probably not, because they’re too busy swearing at the boarders that get to take a break before they rip.
15. You Look Way Cooler on a Snowboard Versus on Skis
I think this is the most obvious of the bunch, but sometimes the obvious needs to be stated. A set of skis is way less cool than a snowboard. The art on a snowboard is way cooler because of the increased surface area. The boots are way better colors and you’re not limited to hard plastic on the outside.
Get some bindings to match the board and you’re set. Skis can be cool colors, but that’s about it. You’re pigeon-holed into slender pieces of art. A board just plain looks cooler than skis and you get to choose art that really captures who you are on a board. There’s some amazing snowboard art out there, and most of it is readable from a distance.
Let’s be honest. Snowboarding just looks cooler than skiing. I’m not sure why that is still the case. The twin tips tried to make a go to knock snowboarders off the “cool’ mountain, but they really can’t compare. Snowboarders have style, and you’re never going to get that style on skis.
16. You Can Snowboard in the Summer, you can’t Ski
Unless it’s water skiing, which no one does anymore and everyone wakeboards anyways. You still need a boat, a driver, a calm day, a truck… it’s not simple to get out and water ski in the off season.
You can skateboard in the summer to work on your boarding. You can ripstick, which is the closest thing to snowboarding on dry land. There’s longboarding. And surfing.
All of these will help you work on your board sports in the off season. What can you do to work on skiing? Rollerblade? That’s not really a thing. And there’s no help with your tricks in the off season. If you want to perfect your craft when you can’t be on the mountain, snowboarding is the right choice for you.
17. Trick Parks are more Fun on a Snowboard than on Skis
This might be conjecture, but I’m going to say it. Snowboard tricks are more fun than ski tricks.
It’s easier to learn how to do rails, plus (unless your board breaks) you’re not going to sack yourself if you do them wrong. We’ve all seen the videos of that happening to skiers at the trick park. That DOES NOT look fun.
Rainbow rails, box rails, staircases, all of these are way more fun on a snowboard. Plus the flow and style that you can get on a board is way more fluid than on skis. You just look more fluid on a board and you can inject your own style into boarding a trick park versus going on skis.
You also can’t do the splits on a snowboard. There’s no groin warm up or tears in snowboarding. You don’t have to worry about your legs splitting and tearing apart your insides. With the legs attached, your groin will thank you.
18. Snowboarding was Invented for Fun, there’s a Practical Reason to Ski
The whole invention of snowboarding was because someone wanted to have MORE FUN than what they could have on a set of skis. Nobody used it to get from point a to point b. There’s no practical reason to do it. It’s entire existence is for fun. That’s it.
19. Both Snowboarding and Skiing are Unbelievably Fun and Rewarding
All joking aside, just get out there and ride the mountain. It doesn’t matter which you prefer, both skiing and snowboarding provide you and your family with a great way to get outside and enjoy the mountain. Because that’s what it’s all about, shredding. Whether on skis or on a board, the mountains are calling, and someone needs to answer.