Bryan wrote:
"Eric" wrote in message
oups.com...
I ride, my wife skiis. If we feel like riding the same terrain, we
stick together...if not, then we do our own thing! It doesn't
really
matter what we ride the mountain with, just that we're enjoying the
mountain.

What's stopping your son from skiing the terrain park? If he's not
interested in it on skiis, why would he be interested in it on a
board?
Perhaps he just needs to find friends that like to ride the same
terrain he does. Switching to snowboarding just to ride the
terrain
park doesn't sound like it will make him happy, IMO.

Eric


Hmm, well, I'm probably what's stopping him from skiing the terrain
parks
because I don't ski the terrain parks. And that's because I'm an old
man
with 3 bad lumbar disks and two bad knees; the imperfect landings are

killers! We used to ski the jumps when he was a little kid. And
since I'm
going to start letting him go skiing without me with friends who
ride, I was
thinking that he would probably have more fun riding than skiing.
That
however is based on the assumption (out of total ingnorance) that
snowboarders spend most of their day at the terrain parks and pipes.
So,
I'm just asking some questions trying to learn a few things.

I don't think you assumption is completely correct. There are more
snowboarders in the park and pipe... but I don't think it's because
snowboarders prefer freestyle element more. I think it is because young
people (15-25) prefer it more, and most young people are
snowboarders... so you see more snowboarders in the park. That's just
how I see it though.

I would just let your son decide what he wants to do. If he wants to
try snowboarding, fine... but I wouldn't try to force him (as it sounds
like you are doing) untli he wants to do it himself (I could have
mis-intepreted your post). Trying to guess these things a priori isn't
a sure thing.

Back to your original question. Outside of the park, in general, a
skiier and a snowboarder will have slightly different preferred
terrains based on ability level. That is to say that a snowboarder will
have to be a level or two higher in ability than his/her skiing
counterpart for them to match up (i.e. an advanced rider vs an
intermediate skiier, or an expert rider vs an advanced skiier). In the
park it doesn't matter because each person can challenge him/herself
with more difficult tricks on the same terrain element (practicing
spins and flips).