First time skiing

Question
My son is 11yrs old he is going skiing for the first time with a school group.  The trip includes lessons, equipment, ski lift.  He wants to snowboard. What would you recommend for the first time outing.

My main concern is the frustration level, is it better to learn to downhill first or does it matter??????  Can downhill techniques be applied to snowboarding or are they completely seperate.

Thanks


Answer
Sorry for taking so long to reply. I am a part time ski coach as well as a sales manager for a large sporting goods company and my time has been tight the last few weeks.

My recommendation is that kids try skiing first. The reason is that we are bipedal creatures. If you can skate you can ski and with modern equipment and teaching techniques its almost as simple as saying if you can walk you can ski. Going two footed first gives kids  an appreciation for the all mountain experience earlier. Don't misunderstand me because snow boarding is a fantastic sport too. The first few days are quite difficult. The most rounded experience that you can have in enjoying the outdoors is to be able to do both. Nothing can compete with the experience of grip on hard snow that skis allow now (and the thrill of being able to accelerate or control speed with ease) or the floating and surfing sensations that boarding provides in deep powder.

The techniques are completely unrelated in terms of the biomechanical movements though the principles involved in how the products perform on harder snow have similarities. Skiing is simply easier to start with the right guidance.

If yuo start with skiing they can always go the other route later. Unfortunately there seems to be a bias at times within some of the snowboard community that discourages the reverse from occuring (kind of a chauvinism if you will). Too bad because both activities have their own unique pleasures so its kind of like someone who eats steak never tasting chicken because all their friends tell them not to bother(my apologies if you are a vegitarian). For a family as well they are often two very different social environments and you should be aware of this. Good luck.