Beginning a new sport or recreational activity can be exciting, but if you don’t know what you’re doing you may have a bad first experience. Here are some tips to help ensure a good experience:

Don’t buy, borrow!

Before you go out and buy the needed equipment, you may want to rent and find out if you enjoy the sport.

Rent the first time until you decide that you would like to make skiing a permanent recreational activity in your life. As college students, we are often short on cash, but students can find discounted gear at stores like 2nd Tracks here in Ogden.

Don’t learn from friends!

As an instructor, I have seen a lot of friends teaching friends. When a person isn’t qualified to teach they are more likely to teach you bad habits or lose patience with you.

It is common for a boyfriend to decide to teach his girlfriend how to ski or snowboard. It is also common for the girlfriend to end up in tears. This is when it’s time to sign up for a lesson with a qualified instructor.

Don’t try to teach yourself!

No matter how many tips you look up on the Internet on how to ski, this does not make you eligible to teach yourself. When you are not sure what you are doing, you are more likely to get hurt and nobody wants that.

Stick to what you know you are capable of doing!

Until you have someone more experienced to teach you how to ski the harder terrain, stick to the runs you know you are capable of skiing.

By going off on a run that may be out of your capability, you are more likely injure yourself or decide you never want to ski again based off of the poor experience.

Don’t wear jeans or cotton!

Choose the correct clothing for the weather. Two clothing items you want to avoid are jeans and cotton. Both jeans and cotton absorb water much faster than other materials.

You are bound to fall once or twice while you’re learning and you don’t want to be soaked within the first hour of learning.