With the winter season rounding the corner, we start getting excited for the long-awaited snow we have been waiting on for the past three seasons. And what comes with snow? Yes, Christmas but the best of all, hitting the slopes. The question is: are you using skis or a snowboard? 

Personally, I think that snowboarding trumps skiing, not only because it is insanely fun but you look much cooler doing it. While I do admire the tricks and flips of freestyle skiing, freestyle snowboarding looks much cooler and more put-together. To me, skiers flipping does not look as aesthetically pleasing because of the two, long slabs cutting and spinning in the air. With a snowboard, it is all one motion and everything is connected, which I favor to watch. 

With skiing, you have (sometimes) two poles, two skis, and boots while if you snowboard, all you have to worry about is the board and boots. The cost of skiing gear is nearly double the amount one would pay for snowboarding gear.

Snowboarders 100% one-up skiers when it comes to boots as well. Snowboarding boots are much warmer and easier to walk around in while walking in ski boots is not only very unnatural but difficult and straining.

Also, when a skier yard sales typically all of this gear flies off and has to be retrieved but when snowboarding, while it may not have been graceful, you just get right back up and keep going. So, not only is snowboarding cheaper but the equipment involved with it is much easier to handle and carry around. 

However, even with these negatives, we still tend to see more skiers than snowboarders. Why is that? Skiing has been around for a lot longer than snowboarding. Skiing dates all the way back to between 8000 and 7000 BCE, when the first pair of skis were made. Snowboarding was merely invented in the 1960s and even when it was first invented, it oftentimes did not fit in with ski culture and was not permitted on many slopes. However, while skiing does have more participation than snowboarding, the number of skiers is going down while the amount of snowboarders is going up. 

It may also seem as though snowboarders are more likely to get injured than skiers. That is correct. They are 50-70% more likely to be injured on the mountain; however, they are a third to less likely to be killed on a mountain than skiers. 

It is always said that “skiing is easier to learn but harder to master and snowboarding is harder to learn but easier to master” which may be another reason as to why we see so much less snowboarders. Do not get me wrong, skiing is very difficult but typically if one hobby is picked up faster than another, people tend to stick with that one. Are skiers afraid of a challenge? Did they just hop on a pair of skis and not even give the other option a second thought? 

I think both deserve so much credit for all have the hard work and practice that each both require but I think that snowboarding is my choice and is all around better. 

Snowboarding, for me, is something that is more than just snowboarding, though. Both my parents have always had a relationship with snowboarding and have been doing it for a long time. They did it all throughout their friendship, into relationship, into marriage and still continue to do it now. So, in a way, they passed it down down to me and my sister. Occasionally, we will all go together and make it a family event. Snowboarding runs in the blood so I could never switch to skiing. 

So, would you rather come down the hill shredding on a snowboard or skis?