I Spent 7 Days Learning How to Snowboard in the Alps

In 2012, I tried to learn how to snowboard. I had a group lesson and spent the whole day giving it my all, but barely made any progress. “Snowboarding is not for me,” I declared, and went back to skiing.

When my boyfriend proposed that we spend two and a half months in the Alps, I could have taken the easy route — skiing. Instead, I decided to challenge myself and give snowboarding a real go.

ines silva tavares snowboarding in serra da estrela portugal in 2012
My attempt at snowboarding in Serra da Estrela, Portugal, in 2012.

On my first day, I was scared sh*tless.

After booking my first two-hour private lesson, I made my way up the mountain on the lift with tears in my eyes. Thoughts were rushing through my head.

“What have I done? I’ve spent all this money on gear and rent to come do something I’m terrible at.”

“I could have just chosen skiing and having a good time. Why did I have to ‘challenge myself’?”

The money was spent, and the lesson was booked. I had no other choice but to attend.

After breathing in deeply a few times and repeating some positive affirmations in my head, I made my way to the lesson.

ines silva tavares first snowboarding lesson in les contamines the alps
The learners' piste in Les Contamines, France.

Contrary to my expectations, it started off well. After learning how to buckle my binders, the instructor taught me how to heel-edge, distribute my weight across my two feet to slide perpendicular to the slope, put weight on my front foot to slide in that direction, and to line my chin with my shoulder, pointing to where I want to go. He even taught me how to ride a button lift.

I became a little overconfident. “Turns out I’m a natural,” I thought.

After that, he tried to teach me how to toe-edge, but I just could not do it. In fact, I had a pretty bad fall attempting it. I fell on my bum so hard, my whole spine was vibrating. I felt so much pain, I thought I had seriously injured myself.

Before I knew it, the racing thoughts were back, and tears were rushing down my face.

“I’ve spent all this money, and now I’ve injured myself on the first day. I won’t be able to snowboard again in the next two months. I knew this wasn’t for me.”

The instructor came running and started frantically asking questions to find out why I was crying. I couldn’t organize my thoughts into a coherent sentence, so I just mumbled, “It hurts.”

He let me relax for a little bit while distracting me with chit-chat. Slowly, the pain faded, and I was up, snowboarding again.

“I might have overreacted a little…” 

After a small lunch break, I tried learning how to ride heel-side fakey (since I couldn’t toe-hedge) so I could go down a blue piste by doing the “falling leaf.” I managed to do it and felt motivated to keep going.

I spent the second day perfecting what I had learned on the first. If you want more details, you can watch the full video on my YouTube channel.

On my third day… I was still scared sh*tless.

But if I wanted to progress, I needed to be brave. Luckily, everything gets a little easier when you have a helping hand.

My boyfriend grabbed both of my hands as I slid down the piste, toe-side, until I was confident enough to do it myself. I was scared. And I struggled. But soon enough, I was getting on the button lift to go up the learners’ slope to try to do it on my own.

After about three hours of trial and falling, I felt somewhat confident. All the fear and doubt I had been feeling seemed so silly. “I can handle hard things.”

On day four, I kept practicing this and eventually tried my first blue piste, after learning how to enter and exit the sit-down lifts. Despite struggling to get enough speed to make it through the flat bits, I managed to ride the whole piste with just one big fall. 

By day five, I couldn’t be prouder.

Day five arrived with a newly-booked, two-hour lesson, which, this time, I was very excited for. I improved my toe-to-heel turns and learned how to do heel-to-toe turns.

I had several big falls, but just kept going. At this point, I had learned that falls are a part of the learning process, not a sign that I’m incapable.

The instructor also helped me improve my posture and taught me how to stay in control when turning and how to use my back foot to steer and gain speed. She also tried to teach me how to ride toe-side fakey and do 180s, but I really struggled with both.

Later that day, we walked to the Les Contamines village for the first time and came back by bus. I had never experienced so much snow. It was absolutely gorgeous. There’s something about snow that brings me peace of mind.

les contamines france river and forest covered in snow
Snowy view during our walk to Les Contamines.

Energized, on the sixth day, I got an early start. After breakfast, I went straight to a blue run and started practicing what I had learned the previous day. I felt that I had become so much better at everything, especially toe-side.

I didn’t practice for long because there was a huge blizzard, and most pistes were closed. Plus, after five days of giving it my all, my legs were burning.

Still, in the little time that I had, I managed to do turns without falling as many times, gain more speed, and ride straight without getting scared of catching an edge. I even did a few 180s — my instructor would be proud. 

I made it to day seven of my snowboarding challenge.

I felt that I had outperformed my expectations, but wanted to challenge myself further.

Unfortunately, I started off feeling a little defeated. While I was able to do a blue run fully, falling only once, it was mostly on my heel-side. When I tried toe-side turns, I fell often. I was feeling the weight of my self-imposed challenge.

But this time, instead of defaulting to defeatism (and crying), I simply kept trying.

I kept trying until I got to the point of easily linking turns. By the end, I was doing it even at high speed. I felt like a real snowboarder for the first time. But most importantly, I felt accomplished. Not just because I learned how to snowboard in seven days, but because I faced my fears instead of avoiding them.

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