I am a pretty good skier, have been skiing for 15 years on and off. I am comfortable with almost every skiing condition except moguls and true powder. Since I ski mostly in New England, any moguls tend to be very hard and icy and we don't get much powder - even on a big storm day it is skied off, compacted or groomed pretty quickly. I have skied a few places out west also, under a variety of conditions.

I ski on both 'regular' long skis, and also on skiboards. I tend to be happiest on my skiboards, as I can do little jumps etc and goof off on them more. But I like the variety of both.

I have tried snowboarding twice. Once probably a decade ago at Stowe in VT. I remember falling and hitting my head/butt a lot. It was not fun, and I gave up after a day (was supposed to do a 3 day graduated program) to go back to skiing. Conditions were not bad for EC, no ice, but snow was compacted.

About a week ago, I tried it at a little mountain outside of Vancouver called Cypress. I'd skied Blackcomb the day before, and my sibs took their little ones (ages 3-6) for a ski lesson, and I was the driver. So I decided to take my own lesson.

I don't know if this is normal, but they had better snow on a very early season day than I would hope for mid season at a NE area. I love skiing out East, don't get me wrong, but it is just a very different kind of experience. I took the "never ever" lesson since I didn't think I'd recall anything from 10+ years ago.

Wow, it was a lot of fun! First of all falling didn't hurt (of course these were all low speed), but I fell a lot. I had trouble facing uphill (i.e. eyes could look to top of mtn) and doing the maple leaf (think of this as a sideways W across the hill), but facing forward seemed surprisingly familiar from years ago. I was able to stay upright and in control for that. Skating also seemed a little strange. And finally, getting back up facing forward requires some good core strength, which I guess I need work on. I found the technique of grabbing the board edge the only way I could stand back up, and it took a little while to be able to do it. I am a little embarassed to admit that my abdominals are still sore (actually more like strained) and it's a week later. I was sore all over day one, but everything's gone back to normal except my stomach (which was very important for the getting up). But I had a lot of fun, and definitely want to take more lessons. However, I think I'll reserve those for places/days where the snow is fresh and quite soft. I enjoyed it enough that I am thinking about picking up a used beginner board just to have in the fleet, so I don't have to rent if the opportunity presents itself on a local snowstorm day (I think we have some very good sledding type hills that might be amenable to me learning a bit on my own).

Regina mentioned the 'S' being the hard part - and this is where the maple leaf eyes facing uphill is important. You're naturally shifting from a facing downhill body to facing uphill body. I didn't get that far in the lesson, so I can't really comment, but I know I have to master that before I can think of S curving.

Re helmets & wrist guards & injury... Well I now always wear both when skiboarding, and just helmet when skiing. I didn't have either for my recent lesson and was a little nervous about it. I would recommend them both as basic gear though. Just keep in mind that hitting your helmet on snow can still hurt - whiplash or concussions not being terribly uncommon), but I'd take those side effects over a direct impact any day. And wrist guards do protect against falling with arms out, as one is quite likely to do when boarding (or skiboarding).

If you are amenable to new things, you might try skiboarding. I think it'd be fairly easy to pick up (can't say for sure since I came from years of skiing already). My husband and I both skiboard, and we think it's perfect for carving packed/groomed terrain. We've been on boards since 1999-2000 season. I tried it for the first time at Breckenridge and couldn't believe how freeing it felt. It is sort of looked down on tho - to put it into words I'd say this: the young guy twin tip skiers think they are the cool free riders, and the young guy snowboarders think they are the cool park riders, so... a variant with a small following that can do both is beaten up on by both groups. I guess skiboarders are a common enemy to their versions of hipster culture. But me, I love it for what it is. I do care about having fun. Not being a young teenaged male, what the teen & 20something boys think isn't all that interesting to me (but I am aware of it as noted here).

Put another way, there are some days you want to go for the mtn/trail ride and some days you want to go for the road ride. Variety is what makes it all fun!

Ok, sorry for the longwinded response.