Snowboarding for the 1st time. Do we need lessons and all the expensive snow board clothing. 150.00 pants?

Question

I live in Florida, my self and my boy friend and another couple are going to Canada / Niagara falls area for 5 days. After looking into it the prices for lessons were 80.00 a person incl. lesson,lift and rental at Glen Eden. This seems a bit pricey to me . I am so snow cluless that I had to google what the heck to wear!..lol There is all this stuff about base layer and mid layers and then the jacket and pants.. The pants alone start at 150.00. Is this insane to pay $300.00-400.00 a person just for a one day thing or is this all really necessary? It s I'm pretty sure I will never need it again living in Florida.

Answer 1

You definately don't need $150 pants if you are only going to be renting and live in Florida. Depending how cold it is you could probably get away with wearing some $30 wind pants if you wear some warm track pants underneath. As for the lessons, if are snowboarding for more then one day I HIGHLY recremend you get a snowboarding lesson package (if there is one at that resort). If you are only going to be there for a day it is really up to you. I personally didn't enjoy falling on my butt everytime i tried to stop, turn etc. The lesson certainly pays off if you are going to snowboard again but if it is a one time deal it really is up to you. As for goggles, you don't need them, most people wear sunglasses for the first time. As for jackets, you can find good jackets for $70-100 and as for layering just wear a t-shirt, warm long sleeve shirt, then a sweater under a jacket depending how warm your jacket is. Hope this helps. Good luck.

Answer 2

I live in New England and Snowboard myself. $80 for lessons, lift and rental is not a bad price. It's actually a lot cheaper than a lot of places ive been to. You dont need tons of layers, altho it is cold outside you get very hot. Jeans a long sleeve Snow pants Snow jacket gloves and a hat will do. I would suggest going to maybee.. if you have a burlington coat factory they have snowpants that run from 50$ ^ or maybe a Marshals.. TJ Maxx? And I would def. suggest the waterproof gloves. Hope that helped?

Answer 3

DEFINITELY take a lesson!! Your day will be very painful and frustrating without a lesson... trust me! I learned the hard way! In fact, I became a snowboard instructor just so that other people don't have to learn the way I did.

You'll hear a lot about what to wear or not wear. Don't go out and buy anything, unless necessary. Borrow as much as you can and go to WalMart or SportChek or something similar for anything else you'll need. Don't worry about buying fancy brand name stuff if you're just going to be doing it for this one time.

Here are my suggestions: Don't wear jeans. Wear pajama pants and snowpants. Under your winter coat, a fleece is ideal, if you have one, because it's so warm. If not, a shirt and a hoody will be just fine. A warm hat and waterproof gloves are a must.

What's nice about Glen Eden is that you can buy a variety of passes. There are discounted lift tickets for students and for beginners. You can also buy a ticket for the day, for the evening, or for both. They used to have a 4-hour ticket, although I don't know if they still offer that.

Enjoy your trip up here to Canada and happy snowboarding!

Answer 4

OK sunshine;  welcome to Canada.  I live pretty to close to Glen Eden and one of my sons has been on the ski patrol for 17 years.  First time (and long time snowboarders) when they fall, and they do often, will break a wrist or forearm.  My son did it 20 years ago when they first started trying them out.

My recommendation is:  Do not buy - you can rent the equipment at the slopes quite inexpensively I might add.  But you can go on line to Glen Eden and check that out, lots of slopes here.

Second:  Take a lesson first before going on the slope.  You can take a group lesson, less costly, the information is the same.

I started my sons skiing when they were 10 years old and rented everything until they were about 16 years old and were doing it all the time.  They wore their regular winter clothes, sweaters, jackets & pants & socks.

Have a great time and a great experience.