/Snowboarding.

So I went snowboarding last week with the family. It was the first time, and here's what I've found:

- Stay as close to the ski fields as possible. We stayed outside 20 minutes which was a real pain when one of the kids got sick. Staying at the fields themselves means you can all go your separate ways easily, and don't have to organise everything around one car. It also makes dinner so much easier, and all the other little things.

- It's winter, kids get sick. Of course one of my kids got a fever a couple of days before we left (I myself was very sick the week before/unrelated), and she missed out on 1 of the 3 days planned for skiing. Which meant somebody had to stay behind to look after her. Fun, fun, fun.

- It's painful. Next time I'm definitely getting a helmet and probably wrist guards too. I picked snowboarding and while I only had one serious crash after falling on your hands for the umteenth time your wrist, elbows and shoulders really start to hurt. Each consecutive fall makes it worse, no matter how small, and this gets annoying very, very quickly. I also caught an edge while cutting across some ice and fell back onto my head pretty damn hard. Semi conscious for a while there. My other hobby is Muay Thai so I've something to compare it to. It's painful! I hurt myself far more in three days than I have ever done windsurfing in total.

- It's painful. Accommodation is sickeningly expensive, so much so that when I first got to our room I figured there had been a mistake and went looking for the hotel next door that had a similar name. Four nights accommodation for a family of four was ~$2000, and there wasn't much else to choose from that was any cheaper. This was just a basic bed and shower. There was room for a single chair. I'm told there's better value to be had if you share something larger with another family. I paid $4 for 200ml of water, and $7 for a pie. Wedges were $7 too.

- Kids love it. We were at Thredbo and I put the kids into the Snowland thingy. They take them from 9 - 4, feed them and everything. Excellent teachers, I really don't know how they do it or where they get the energy from. Amazing. I think it was $150/day which included gear and lift passes. My oldest, 7, could snowboard down Friday Flats without falling by the end of the 3rd day.

- Getting there sucks. A day's drive each way from Sydney.


Overall I think the cost/fun ratio is very poor when compared to windsurfing or surfing or whatever, howeverI was brave enough on my first afternoon to try some green runs up near Merrits and I can see the attraction; it was blue skies, no wind, and no crowds and pretty stunning. Had some nice runs until I had to come back down via a blue run (high noon) and I ended up walking most of it. To me it looked like one of those Olympic ski jumps. Scary. : D. We had some nice powder on the last day and that was totally different to the slush and ice. Maybe I just need more powder (I'm looking at you Japan)?

Overall I'm not sure the pain, both physical and financial, was worth it. Am I missing something? It was good, but ...ouch.

I've been snowboarding once, in Japan. We went to a ski field on the main island, in the middle where its very mountainous. I too found snowboarding to be very painful. Its fun to board but not fun hitting hard snow. I went to Japan when our dollar would buy just under 100 yen so it was easy to do price comparisions. I think the accomodation for five days cost me about $1500 for the two of us. This included an excellent Japanese breakfast and dinner every night. There was a vending machine in the place selling big cans of beer for about $4. Where we stayed was a short walk to the ski lifts. It cost $30 a day for a lift pass. We went there in late February and there was heaps of snow. The snow was about two meters deep. I think the gear hire was reasonably cheap, about $200 for a few days for two of us.

It took half a day by bus to get there from Tokyo, passing Mount Fuji. I think it cost about $800 for return airfares. So in all it was not too expensive compared to Australian skiing.

In the end I wish we had gone on a windsurfing holiday to somewhere warm and windy. I don't think I'll go on another ski/snowboard holiday.

I have a mate that snowboards but flys over to NZ for a week as it's too exxy here. I've only been to the snow once, but now that my youngest is 3, hope to do the family thing & take them skiing in the next year or so.

evlPanda said..
Am I missing something?

Yes. The apres-ski!

evlPanda said..

Overall I think the cost/fun ratio is very poor when compared to windsurfing or surfing or whatever, howeverI was brave enough on my first afternoon to try some green runs up near Merrits and I can see the attraction; it was blue skies, no wind, and no crowds and pretty stunning. Had some nice runs until I had to come back down via a blue run (high noon) and I ended up walking most of it. To me it looked like one of those Olympic ski jumps. Scary. : D. We had some nice powder on the last day and that was totally different to the slush and ice. Maybe I just need more powder (I'm looking at you Japan)?

Heh he. There's nothing like having your quads burn as you try to get down high noon! I tried it on my second day skiing and at that stage was still snow plowing, so it was a challenge! Luckily it was in a good season when there was actual snow, whereas since then I think everytime I have been there it feels like sheer ice (and I'm not that much better at skiing anyway).