Snowboarding and surfing are two separate disciplines, each worthy of its own attention. For us, people who are used to seeing snow for 3 months a year, snowboarding becomes the first board we get up on. But going on vacation to the ocean, the idea to try surfing, especially after watching a couple of inspiring videos on Youtube.
And looking at these videos, you think that snowboarding and surfing are quite similar in their technique, so many people ask themselves, “How different are they? What’s easier? Surfers with experience have such a question that makes them smile or disdain, although those who haven’t caught their first wave have every reason to believe that these two sports have a lot in common.
Let’s see if there are any more similarities or differences, and what snowboarding habits should be left at home, and which ones should be taken on vacation.
SNOWBOARDING AND SURFING: SIMILARITIES
Contrary to some opinions, there are some similarities between these two sports, and they can’t be avoided, because the American surfer Dimitri Milovich (checkmate and checkmate for all skeptics) made a huge contribution to the improvement of snowboarding (and then “sniffboard”). That’s what these half-brothers are like:
- Ryder’s standing on the board with two legs, sideways in the direction of travel. The two main designations of the stand – “goofy” (right leg leading) and “regular” (left leg leading) – remain the same, although in surf terminology “regular” is sometimes replaced by “neutral”.
- For braking on the board the weight is transferred to the back leg (for snowboarders with the following turn of the board perpendicular to the slope).
- Before going for a ride, some check the snow structure, others check the waves.
- Balance and body feeling are important everywhere, and since snowboards are closer to our edges, it’s easier to start learning to control your body.
- Except for the initial stages of surfing is no less traumatic than snowboarding. Especially when big waves come down on you with their mass, if you take the wrong measures, you can easily get hit in the jaw with your own board (this is just one example from 1000). Although this point can also be attributed to the differences, as in the early stages of a newcomer snowboarder is much more likely to get “combat wounds” than a newcomer surfer. As long as the surfer studies the long board and falls in the water, attempts to get on the snowboard always end up landing on the “fifth point” (at best), and the first day on the slope never goes without bruising.
- No matter if you’re on a slope or on a linepo, you’ll always find fun and interesting people with similar interests. A small advantage in favor of surfing: these beautiful people are also in bikinis
DISTINCTIONS
- Surfing is, first of all, the absence of hard soil under your feet, or rather under your board.
- The only thing that connects you to the surf is the extra, while you are “nailed” to the snowboard boots and bindings, which adds a little confidence and takes less effort to maintain stability.
- A lift takes you to the slope and opens up a wonderful snowy landscape, but to reach the linapa you have to row on your own, so surfers are more inflated with hands and back.
- When you go snowboarding, you know roughly what you’re counting on, you go on the slope of your choice and sharpen your manoeuvres and, after driving one track, you go to the left-hand side of the track. Surfers sometimes get punctured, especially at first, because it’s much harder to get up on a surfboard. It’s just that it’s not your day. And in general, the same spot will never be identical to the previous one, you always adjust to the conditions (waves) and reach the maximum level on the same singing in a longer time than on the same slope.
- But when you go on a slope, you should always calculate your budget, because the value of your pleasure will be equal to the cost of the taken lifts, and the ocean – free pleasure.
- Speaking of the cost, the average snowboard equipment is more expensive than surf equipment.
- In terms of external hazards in the ocean sometimes there are sea urchins, jellyfish and sharks. The peak of danger on a slope is an avalanche, but it happens rarely and only in wild places for professionals.
Snowboarding and surfing are two wonderful but different kinds of sports, although they are in no way contradictory to each other (and sometimes complementary). Yes, on the surf video we see a confident rider, standing firmly on his feet on the board and handling the ocean as if he knows how to walk on the water.
But, unfortunately, all the key moments before that are not included in the clip and we do not show how long and persistently he overcame obstacles to the linap, how long it took him to wait for his wave, how many waves he could not catch and how he was twisted a couple of times, like in a washing machine, with a board.
However, if you don’t keep in mind that snowboarding and surfing are the same thing, so that you don’t get disappointed and ready for difficulties, you can very effectively use some of the skills gained from the slope, add more patience, balance and pump up your hands – and your progress will go much faster.
And finally, I would like to please everyone who is stubbornly on their own once again that these are absolutely incomparable things. In 2012, a snowboard and surfboard company teamed up to create a surfboard – a 2-in-1 board that you can take with you on the slope and on the beach! Here is the result of their collaboration
