Knowing where you land on the shredding skill scale is helpful. It gives you perspective on how far you’ve come and clarity on what to focus on next.
Also, it’s just fun to know.
So in this post, we’ll be looking at the core snowboard skill levels – from complete beginner all the way to professional.
By the end, you’ll understand what it means to snowboard proficiently at every stage (and how you can level up yourself).
So let’s wrap up this small talk. Let’s get it.
What Are the Snowboarding Skill Levels?
Snowboard skill levels are key checkpoints every rider goes through as they strengthen their talents. They represent the process, or trajectory, of skill development from beginner to expert.
And as you know, a lot of factors can influence your skill level, such as:
- How long you’ve been riding for
- How often you ride
- Where you ride (for example, a small midwest hill vs. the Rockies)
- Who you ride with (a hyped crew vs. a meh one)
- Your mindset and self belief
- Your exercise or training routine (on and off the hill)
- Your diet and lifestyle (this matters)
Skills have a lot of nuance to them. They are living things. They grow and evolve when you feed them, but wither away when you don’t.
Now let’s keep moving and explore all the snowboard skills and levels to know.
5 Snowboard Skill Levels
Not everyone will go through every snowboard skill level. And you may find yourself mixing and matching skills from different stages in different orders.
Because the truth is, everyone rides and learns differently. And what comes natural for some people could be agony for others.
So use this guide as a flexible benchmark – not some ultimate snowboard doctrine.
1. Total Beginner (level 1)
The total beginner has never strapped into a snowboard before.
In fact, even learning how to strap into a snowboard is a skill to learn at this stage. A total beginner spends most of their time on the bunny hill.
The goal is to simply get more comfortable being stuck to a board sideways on snowy ground.
Some riders may progress quicker to the next skill level than others. But just remember, everyone starts here.
Examples of beginner skills:
- Strapping in and out of your bindings
- Learning how to skate
- Learning which way you ride
- Getting on and off a t-bar or magic carpet
- Standing up and keeping your balance on the bunny hill
2. Learner (level 2)
At this point, you’ve mastered snowboarding essentials like skating, keeping your balance and getting on and off a t-bar.
As a learner, you’re still a beginner, but you’re feeling more confident on your board and can keep your balance pretty well.
You’re focused on mastering all of the snowboarding basics. And now you’re dabbling in some next-level moves.
Examples of learner skills:
- Getting on and off a chairlift
- Leafing and early stage carving
- Riding down a green (beginner) hill without falling
- Knowing how to stop and control speed
Recommended: The 6 Types of Snowboards + How to Choose
3. Intermediate (level 3)
At the intermediate level of snowboarding is when things really start to get fun.
Your confidence has grown dramatically and you can ride your way around most parts of the mountain.
At this stage, you’re able to ride faster and carve more aggressively with confidence.
You may also think about upgrading your snowboard at this stage. For example, you may switch to a camber snowboard profile so you have more edge control.
Examples of intermediate skills:
- Carving and turning with confidence
- Hitting small jumps and little booters
- Simple tricks (basic grabs, tail presses, 180s and 360s, etc.)
- Basic glade riding (riding in the trees)
4. Advanced (level 4)
Becoming an advanced rider means snowboarding feels like second nature for you.
Snowboarding is just as comfortable as walking.
You’re more creative with your riding style and you have various tricks in your bag. You may also be doing local competitions or even have some local ski shop sponsorships (if that’s your goal).
Rest assured, if you stick with snowboarding and push yourself to grow, you can reach an advanced level of riding.
Examples of advanced skills:
- Riding switch just as naturally as normal
- Hitting jumps and doing bigger tricks (flips, spins, rails, etc.)
- Buttering
- Riding in powder
5. Pro (level 5)
The pro snowboarder is the most serious, avid and experienced rider.
You spend your time hitting the big line or getting epic footage off big booters in the backcountry. Your riding is competitive and at an Olympic level.
At this stage, things like national competitions and bigger brand sponsorships are on the table.
You may work with professional coaches and have larger career goals for your riding (landing sponsors, building a personal brand, doing more competitions, getting video features, etc.).
You’ve transitioned from snowboarder to snowboarding athlete. It’s the most difficult level to reach and requires the most focus and discipline.
Examples of pro skills:
- Big mountain, backcountry riding
- Heli-snowboarding
- Doing big tricks on the big line in terrain parks
- Riding superpipe
*Note: never try to ride pro level features before you’re ready. Know your limits, work with a coach and use protection (…helmet).
How to Level Up Your Snowboarding Skills (10 tips)
Alright, ready to level up your shredding?
Epic. Here are some helpful tips to take things up a notch or two.
Have Goals
Having a specific goal in mind is super helpful for skill building. Otherwise, our attention gets lost and our focus blurred.
So, why are you snowboarding and what are your goals?
This can change over time, but having some clear targets will be instrumental for your growth.
Here are some examples of solid snowboarding goals:
- Learn how to seamlessly connect your turns
- Learn how to ride switch
- Make it down the hill without falling once
- Learn how to do a 360
- Learn how to butter on a snowboard
- Learn how to ride onto a box and off
Practice In the Zone of Proximal Development
This next tip is all about focusing on the right things at the right time.
Skill building is most effective when we’re working within our zone of proximal development.
Our zone of proxi-what?
The zone of proximal development is the area just outside your current abilities. It’s not too much pressure, but also not too little.
For example, if you just learned how to carve better, trying to charge deep powder wouldn’t make a lot of sense.
So stay patient and build skill in an order that makes the most sense – work in the zone of proximal development.
Identify Your Snowboarding Weaknesses
Let’s nip those boarding bottlenecks in the bud.
Because if you’re looking to level up, knowing where your skill deficits live is a reasonable place to start.
And remember, everyone (even the pros) have weak points or areas they could improve. So rather than feeling bad, we can instead let’s shine a light on them.
Knowing which areas are holding you back will guide your training and practice.
So be honest with yourself and ask your friends or instructor which snowboarding skills could use some work. This is a great place to start.
Focus (don’t try to learn too much all at once)
When it comes to skill building, it’s important to not spread ourselves too thin.
This is probably decent advice for most things, actually.
But for snowboarding, focus means choosing just one or two weaknesses or goals to focus on at a time.
Because you know, we can do anything – just not everything (at least not all at once).
So let’s say you’ve identified five different weak points. Trying to tackle all five at once will cause burnout and frustration.
Instead, organize them into an order that makes sense and tackle each one individually. This can feel slower but it’s actually the most efficient way to skill build.
So stay focused and avoid feelings of overwhelm – take things one session at a time.
Find Your Crew
As the old saying goes, “you are who you ride with…”
(or something like that)
Having a solid crew to snowboard with is super helpful for skill building (and it just makes riding way more fun). You can inspire each other to try new things and hype each other up.
Having a group of fellow shredders forces you to face riding challenges head on.
So if you’re lucky, you’ll have a core group of friends who you can ride with. Otherwise, you may need to meet some new people.
As ego-shattering as it can feel, finding new friends to shred with is super helpful.
The trick is in finding people who will psych you up and are as equally stoked as you are.
Record Yourself (+ analyze it)
Watching footage of yourself snowboarding is super insightful.
There’s a reason athletes and coaches watch old clips and analyze their performances. You can more easily spot bad habits, good habits, weak points and more.
So if you’ve got a friend or someone with you who can record you, then get some footage of yourself practicing a specific trick or skill.
Later, you can analyze your riding and compare your performance to more advanced riders. This will help illuminate problem areas and guide your next practice session.
Rinse and repeat this process and watch yourself reach key milestones.
Get Coached
Coaching is a big industry. But coaching works.
Snowboard coaches give you highly personalized instruction and usually have clever techniques to help you level up your riding.
They generally have many years of experience riding – often at a pro level – or experience working with other advanced riders (so they know what to teach and how to teach it).
In my opinion, there are three main levels of coaching in snowboarding:
- Taking lessons from an instructor at the resort (group or private)
- Hiring a personal coach
- Going to a snowboard camp
The cheapest and most convenient is taking a group lesson at your local resort. This is a perfect starting point if you’re a complete beginner.
When you’re ready for some more personalized instruction, you may opt for a private lesson.
And if you’re really serious about things, you may hire a personal snowboard coach and spend a couple weeks at a snowboard camp every year.
It all depends on your goals, learning preferences and budget.
But if you prefer the DIY approach, there’s also plenty of online resources to learn from (you know, Professor YouTube and Google Sensei).
Go Mental Snowboarding
Our minds are powerful. So let’s take advantage of this.
Let’s do mental rehearsal for snowboarding.
Mental rehearsal is the act of practicing something in your mind by imagining yourself doing it, without actually doing the thing in physical reality.
It’s a strategy many athletes do and at the risk of sounding a little too woo-woo, there’s real science to back it up.
Research published in Mater Sociomed found that nurses who mentally rehearsed procedures made less mistakes and performed tasks more effectively.
Other research found that student athletes who visualized strength training exercises were able to lift more weight compared to those who did not.
Research from Neuropsychologia found that participants who visualized muscle growth and strength training (without actually performing any physical movements) increased muscle strength by ~13%.
And a review from Stanford showed that mental rehearsal does indeed prepare our minds for real world action.
So what’s this all mean?
Apparently, we’re all wizards and have the power of the force.
By strongly imagining yourself doing something mentally (snowboarding), you’re actually creating neural pathways in your brain as if you were doing the thing in real life.
It’s all visualization. And as crazy as it may sound, it works.
So close those eyes.
Imagine yourself riding and feeling the breeze and emotion of shredding. Feel your back leg push into a turn and hear the sounds of crunching snow as you glide down the hill.
Now keep doing that throughout the rest of the week. Then go try to do it in real life.
You may find yourself snowboarding better.
Keep Showing Up
This next tip is the always popular (and slightly obvious) golden rule to succeeding in almost anything.
Just don’t quit.
If you truly want to get better, then just keep showing up and pushing yourself to grow.
We often forget how much time and effort goes into real skill building, like how long it actually takes to be an “overnight success”.
We live in an on-demand world full of “get rich in the next 30 days” and “discover your hidden six pack in 1 week” offers.
But the truth is far less sexy.
It takes time to get good (or rich, or in shape). But rest assured, if you just keep showing up and develop your skills, you will get better.
It’s inevitable.
Remember, Have Fun
Perhaps the most important thing to remember is to have fun. I mean, that’s why we’re all here, isn’t it? To have a good time?
So this last tip is a friendly reminder to put away the stress of skill building or any feelings of frustration.
Get back to a place of play and have fun with it.
You’ll reach a flow state better this way and skill building from a place of fun is simply more effective.
So smile. Now go shred.
Conclusion
There are a few main snowboard skill levels riders can focus on moving through.
While not everyone will pass through each stage, they are great benchmarks to track your progress and use for goal setting.
But whatever stage you’re at, the most important thing to do is just have fun with it.
Snowboarding (and skill building) is simply better when we’re having a good time.
