Skateboarding helps with learning snowboarding quicker. Learning to ride a snowboard tends to be more difficult to learn.

Skateboarding and snowboarding do have commonalities, the main difference is that your feet are strapped to a snowboard and of course its snow instead instead of concrete.

What Do Skateboarding and Snowboarding Have in Common

Tricks from skateboarding transfer over to skateboarding. Once you get used to a snowboard it much easier to learn these tricks. Another thing to consider is that you stand sideways on both a skateboard and a long board.

Stance and Posture

First is stance, think goofy and regular stance. There is board feel. If you know how to ride a skateboard, a snowboard takes less time to get used to. Steering has similarities, mainly your weight distribution on your back and front. Both sport require to bend the knees a little to maintain balance.

Tricks and Objects

Skate and snowboard parks have a lot in common. Verticals/half pipe, rails, big jumps are familiar for skateboarders.

Once snowboarding basics are learned and you can ride comfortably, you’ll have a great time. You’ll have no problems with jumps. 50-50’s and board slides. Progression is much faster than people who never skateboarded.

Difference Between Snowboarding and Skateboarding?

The difference between skateboarding and snowboarding is snow vs concrete. In snow you will go faster and obviously, you don’t have to push.

Plus, your feet are strapped to a board. This is something that takes getting used to. Just like skateboarding, snowboarding takes time and is all about staying in control.

Size matters. Skateboard sizes are about preference. Go with a larger board if you want to ride powder and stay afloat. Go with a smaller board if you want to freestyle and do tricks in parks.

Slowing Down

You can’t just use your foot when slowing down. You’ll need to learn how to power slide by pressing the edge into the snow and slightly leaning backward.

Your feet are also wider apart, this can feel awkward at first. When snowboarding you often need to apply weight on the front and back. If you do this while skateboarding, you’re gonna have a bad time.

Turning and Moving

Pivoting a skateboard, is to lean in the direction you want to go while applying a bit of pressure to your heels and toes. When turning a snowboard, use your whole body.

Costs

Snowboarding is expensive compared to skateboarding. On top of that, a trip to a snow park can be even more expensive.

Stance on Any Board

Skateboarding is a great way to find a preferred stance. It will save you a lot of time finding out your stance on the beach or in the snow and having to remove your bindings.

Long boarding: Regular or Goofy

Same principles for skateboarding apply to long board. It could be a easier to find out your preferred stance sense long boards are more stable. You won’t have to compensate as much to keep your balance and can focus more on the stance you prefer. It’s easier to maintain speed on a long board you have plenty of time to find out what feels the most natural.

Snowboarding: Regular or Goofy

You really want to make sure you’re regular or goofy it’s snowboarding. You don’t have the option of jumping off a skateboard and stepping back on again in a different stance. Standing on top of a mountain and finding out you attached your bindings wrong is problematic.

Find out your stance before you jump onto a ski lift. Grab a skateboard and practice a bit, this will answer the question which stance you prefer. If you don’t have one check out my tips.

Surfing, kitesurfing: Regular or Goofy

In order to determine if you’re regular or goofy when riding a surfboard for the first time just try both ways and figure out what you prefer. You could borrow a skateboard first and figure it out, this will save you some time on the beach. The sooner you are in the water the better.

It’s different though, surfing often requires to be able to ride in both directions, still doesn’t hurt to find out what your favorite stance is.

Tips to Help You Find out Your Stance

Just ride a board and see what feels natural to you. There are some ways to figure out what your preferred stance is but once you start thinking about it, it does become more difficult. Some methods work better than others.

1. Sliding on a Slippery Floor With Socks

This requires you to slide on a floor on your socks. So take off your shoes and find a floor that allows you to slide (take caution when doing this). Sprint and jump landing sideways on your legs and face the sliding direction.

Do this a few times to see what your body prefers. If your left foot is in front, you’re a regular stance rider. If your right foot is in front you just found out you prefer to stand goofy.

This can also be done by using your imagination. Imagine walking on a frozen lake or running to a patch of ice on the street and slide. imagining this should give you an idea.

2. Fall Forward

This requires falling forwards until you need to correct yourself from falling on your face. Don’t think about it when you let yourself fall over. The idea is that the first leg you use to catch yourself to prevent you from hitting the floor is your back foot.

3. Kick a Ball

There is no need to explain how to kick a ball and that you shouldn’t do this inside, right? Go out there and try or picture it in your head. The result is that the foot that you stand on will be your front foot and the one you kick will be your back foot. If your kick foot is right, you’re regular. If your kick foot is left, you could be goofy.

4. Have Someone Push You

The best approach is to close your eyes and asked someone to gently push you. You could also ask someone to push you when you don’t expect it but under safe conditions.

This works better when you don’t expect it. If you do, you will start overthinking and the results may not answer the question. Again, the foot you use to step forward to prevent you from smacking your face on the floor is you dominant and usually back foot.

Riding Switch

Switch stance is to swap your stance. This means your left foot is at the back and your right foot in front. For Goofy riders, this is the other way around, left foot in front and your right foot at the back of the board. Stand on the board and do a 180 jump and you’ll switch position.

Riding switch can be like learning to ride all over, think of it like trying to write with your left hand if you’re right-handed. If you are having trouble progressing you might want to reconsider your stance. It could be that you are riding switch!

Riding Fakie

Fakie means to ride backward with your back foot near your tail facing forward while using your front foot to push. It’s often confused with riding switch. In skateboarding, you could say that riding fakie means going in the opposite way. With snowboarding, it’s the same actually, but it’s a bit more confusing and often the terms switch and fakie are used interchangeably.

Mongo Pushing

Mongo pushing is to push your skateboard with your front foot and as soon as you put your foot back on your board you hop/slide your back foot near the kicktail and your other foot in the front. Snowboarders and surfers don’t have this problem, but long boarders should avoid pushing mongo.

Snowboarding vs Skateboarding, Which Is Easier?

Riding a skateboard is easier to learn, like pushing and just cruising around. Once you get how balancing works, you only have to move your weight around and slightly press your feet when steering.  Riding a snowboard can be a bit more complicated than riding a skateboard.

When snowboarding you can easily speed to fast and won’t know how to stop. When starting out you often get your snowboard’s edge stuck resulting in a slam.

Skateboarding Tricks Are Harder

Fear is often the cause why tricks are not completed. A boardslide is way more difficult for a skateboard because you need much more control. A boardslide on a snowboard is easier sense you just make a small jump, have a larger sliding area, and your feet are attached to your snowboard. The same goes for jumps, much easier when snowboarding.

You’ll learn to ride a skateboard faster sense tricks tend to be harder. Riding a snowboard is harder but the tricks are easier for.

Consider a Snowskate

What do you get when a snowboard and a skateboard are combined? A snowskate! It’s a ton of fun and much like skateboarding.

Snowskates have a similar size and shape as a regular skateboard deck. They come in 4 different types. It’s made of a couple of layers of wood The bottom is made of solid plastic and there are between 5 and 7 grooves cut into the bottom to maintain grip.

Snowskates have a anti slip plastic grip on the top. Some even have rust-resistant steel studs embedded in durable polyurea. This increases traction between your feet and the board.

It’s a total different experience compared to skateboarding or snowboarding. If you want to try something new, go for it.

If I Can Snowboard Can I Skateboard?

It’s probably easier to learn how to skateboard if you already know how to snowboard. Your feet are closer together and you can actually jump off.

With technical stuff you’ll probably have a harder time learning. An ollie on a skateboard is different as doing an ollie on a snowboard. Boardslides should be easier sense you already know how a board reacts when you slide, still you need to be able to ollie.

As with snowboarding, learning to skateboard means getting the basics first. Start off slow and make sure your comfortable first. Once you can ride with confidence start practicing beginner tricks.