Last weekend my son stood on a snowboard for the first time. He will be 2 years old in April, but as they say? Early practice!
When I say, he stood on a snowboard, sounds possibly a little bit exaggerated. To be more precise I made him a baby snowboard and we slid around with it a bit. But how to make a baby snowboard itself, I will explain to you later in more detail!
Wurzeralm in Upper Austria
Our day on the mountain
Early in the morning, after a hearty breakfast, we went to Spital am Pyhrn to the Wurzeralm ski area. Warmly dressed, we then took the funicular up the mountain and off we went to the Kids Park.
And already the moment had come. My son stood on a snowboard for the first time and slid around a bit. Of course we always held it well and slid around just a tiny bit in the flat part. Many think it is too soon, or "you are supposed to start skiing". But quite honestly? I ride a snowboard myself and I could not teach him to ski. To which the children also want to do what the parents or adults do. In our case it is snowboarding. Trying to explain to a toddler why he has to ski, although mom, dad and co. snowboarding ..
And on the subject "that’s way too early":
It should be fun, we spend time in the fresh air, play in the snow and do something together. No top performances are expected, but a slow approach. With snowboarding has practically still quite little to do, although I am sure that it is also beneficial in terms of physical development such as sense of balance, etc.
Here are a few impressions of the first day on the slopes:
DIY baby snowboard
Buying a new snowboard for my son I thought was too early. Therefore I had to come up with something. Because neither used to buy nor to borrow there was such a small snowboard. So I rummaged my old Skateboard We took the baby out, dismantled the wheels and suddenly it was a snowboard.
As a binding we used a wide Rubber band, which we had to tie with a Stapler fixed to the board. We just put the little one up there with his winter boots to see where he stands and how wide his feet are to position the rubber bands perfectly and to cut them to size. At the beginning of the board we also have a Metalring mounted, so that one can Leash the board can be. We didn’t need it the first time, but it’s certainly very practical.
Even his first turns on our DIY baby snowboard made it into the newspaper!
The advantage of a skateboard is that the surface on which you stand is very rough and thus also the kids find a good grip. In addition, the bottom is usually very smooth, which means that no further processing is necessary but the board glides well on the snow.
As soon as the kids have some practice, are able to stand up well and can slide without a safety device, it’s time to get a real snowboard so that you can start with the first turns.
We wish a lot of fun with boarding,
The little snowboarder on the magic carpet with mom