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Comment by Yizahi | Hacker News Reader

As a skier who only took a beginning level instructor and then learned by myself for multiple seasons - take as many instructor hours as you can, even if can already ride down black slopes. Seriously, last year I took an advanced instructor and it was a revelation. Take instructor even when you think you don't need him and don't listen to your friends joking about it.

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Last year in Colorado, skiing alone, I met an 80-year old instructor on a ski lift who was nice enough to take me under his wing and teach me more advanced form and technique for two days. I'm from Switzerland and have been skiing my whole life, but had never had a lesson. Having a pro teach me the fundamentals was an absolute revelation. I highly recommend taking a class if you can!

Interesting. Been skiing since I was 3 (so my father tells me), and learnt to snowboard 20 years ago when I was 30. I went into a shop in the Austrian Alps (St. Johann am Pongau), hired a board and boots, found myself an instructor and had an hours' 1:1 lesson. Never had another instructor since but got to teach three people to 'board on Mount Baker, WA.

But for about 2 years now I've been wondering what I don't yet know that an instructor night teach me. So I'm going to get me an instructor when I next go in Jan.

I've been snowboarding for over 20 years and skied for 10 years before that. I live near Whistler, did a season there and average over 20 days riding a season. I still take lessons when I get a chance and always get value out of them.

As a skier I discovered that while I could ride down red slopes and struggle down black slopes I did almost everything wrong. Wrong upper body position, wrong body movement in turns, wrong weight balance in turns, wrong pressure application on the ski, etc. We did some exercises with impairments too - no hand movement or with open boot bindings to understand certain things and it really did help.

Ski instructor on a powder day is a blast. You get to cut the lines and get fresh tracks. Also if you sign up for small group advanced lessons, you're usually the only person in the group so its like a private instructor for half the price.

Thats great if you have money. I taught myself to snowboard at 21, having been able to do some skiing before that. Only reason I could was because I worked on the mountain, so it was easy to spend a day falling over on the nursery slope or a week falling on the green slopes because I had so much time. Didn't cost me anything to learn. Once I was fairly proficient I had an actual instructor/guided run to refine my technique.

I really encourage this. So much of skiing is counter-intuitive probably because the whole sport is counter-intuitive. Skiing is all about falling down a hill in a controlled manner, the opposite of what humans are used to. One example is leaning forward down the slope. It feels scary and less stable, your "reptile brain" doesn't want to do it, but it actually gives you more control.

Definitely agree with this.

I've been skiing my entire life (age 3 to currently 28) and a spent a great deal of time with an instructor.

My girlfriend has also been skiing her entire life, pretty much never with an instructor. Her first time she joined me and my family with the instructor, she was blown away by how much the instructor was able to improve her skiing in ~20 minutes of teaching.

Seriously, good ones know their shit.

Seoond this. My first 10 years of boarding I always did a destination trip mid-season and would book at least one instructor session. If nothing else, they will let you know what bad habits you have formed since the previous year!

yes. lessons will improve your riding no matter how long you've ridden, and they are KEY at the beginning stages. so many movements are counter intuitive

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