As one could guess by the title, Snowboarding: Learning to Ride from All-Mountain to Park and Pipe is a book aimed towards newbies hoping to pick up the sport for the first time. While I wouldn’t traditionally think of reading a book to learn how to snowboard, Liam Gallagher has partially changed that thought.
The Mountaineers Books has published quite a few books on learning an outdoors sport in the past; several of which were featured in our list of the best mountaineering books. We have been very pleased with the quality of the publisher’s previous educational books, and the latest addition to their lineup is no exception.
This book assumes you have no prior experience on a snowboard and takes you from the foundations to what could be considered a fairly proficient rider. Mr. Gallagher starts with a thorough overview of the required equipment for snowboarding and how to set everything up (including quite a few handy reference images). A brief overview of the history of snowboarding is included, and then begins the actual instruction on how to ride a snowboard.
I particularly liked the section on how to ride your first ski lift. A very common fear of first time snowboarders is getting off the lift. This book details the techniques involved and does the best a book can at relieving those fears. The book then covers the basics of how to ride a snowboard. The remainder of the book is broken into chapters based on the type of snowboarding you plan on doing. This makes it particularly easy to refer back to particular sections as you work on specific areas of snowboarding.
While no book will ever replace lessons by an actual instructor, Snowboarding: Learning to Ride from All-Mountain to Park and Pipe does a very good job at teaching a newbie how to ride. I would still take lessons, but reading this book may reduce the learning curve a bit as you’ll have a rough idea of the concepts involved ahead of time. At $21.95, it’s not an expensive addition to your snowboarding education.
Product sample provided by the manufacturer for review purposes.
