How young can you teach riding-

little kids are fearless and shred!

i dont know if you know anyone that works at the mountain but thats a suggestion. if not then ask some friends or family maybe someone else has a connection and you could set up a lesson and just throw whoever a few bucks or something. my little cousin wanted to ride and i dont live by him so my uncle just asked around to his friends and sure enough someone knew someone. my two cents... hope he gets to shred

good luck on trying to teach him, the earlier he learns the better he'll be when he gets older

I have seen two or three year olds boarding
They just need help getting up

go on youtube and search for little kid snowboarders... their center of gravity is so awesome.  Its like they don't even fall, they just bounce around it seems lol.  I wish I could have started at a much younger age because I wouldn't be as scared to try new things like they are . 

I am trying to teach my niece who is 6 to ride and it is a tough proposition because you have to keep you patience.  I have learned that you can't push and it is all about fun.  It gets frustrating at times but you have to just grin and bear it.  But when you see progress it is there is a lot of statisfaction.   Patience and encouragement seems to be the key.

Ugh. The plastic piece of crap doesn't fit the kids feet-- the straps are too big, even jacked down all the way, so we returned it. I'm debating trying to come up with the cash to pick up the Grom Freestyle Jr and Burton Chopper, but my $30 board purchase just jumped to a couple hundred. I think we'll be renting first. :D

BTD-- What makes you say your son wasn't ready? I'm flip flopping back and forth from teaching the boy to ski vs ride. I think he only wants to ride because that's what I do, and his uncle, but we both grew up skiing, so when we take him, we could easily swap back (my bro still skis about a 1/4 of his days anyway-- I'd probably pick up some snowblades or something just to teach the boy on).  I think if we were modelling skiing, he'd be just as psyched, and I think he might have an easier time of it...

I met a 5 yr old who was already in the half-pipe on skis. Try your kid on the Flow kid bindings that he can get in and out of easy.

theres no reason a kid that young cant snowboard first.  lame idea.. and i dont even know where it comes from, really.  i mean, at least not from a realistic idea.

Well on my first or second day snowboarding I got on a 3 person lift with a guy and his son.  The kid looked soo little but had a sweet board and i asked the guy how old he was and i believe he said 3 or 3.5 but i dont remember.  That little kid made my self confidence go wayyy down.  Even though his dad held him up while they got off the lift that kid really shreded.  I mean he just bombed strait down the hill with no fear and didnt even fall.  So if your son really wants to try, just let him rent a couple of times and see.  the worst thing that can happen is that after a day or two he dosent want to do it anymore, no bigee, he can try again in another year. Just have fun

I don't know about a good way of going about teaching him, but as long as you try I'm sure he'll get it.  Younger kids have no fear and pick up on things quick.  Well at least the kids I know!

Last week at Mt Hood I saw what looked like about a 2 yr old girl in the beginner area, and her parents were just pushing her down a very slight slope on a board with no bindings. She seemed to be having fun and maintaining balance on it. Go on Ebay now that it's summer and look for a cheap used kids board. 

I wish I had a dad who could teach me boarding that young. It is much easier to teach a younger kid to board because they're smaller and therefore closer to the ground so that fall hurts less and it's easier to balance. They also have a higher patience and energy level. If you start teaching at a young age, they'll have more time to progress and they'll absorb more. The key is to be patient with them and to hold onto them showing them how it should feel like when you're doing that move correctly. So guide him through the steps and also give lots of demonstrations because kids are more visual. A thing that really helped me teach was using my hands as my feet. My sister would show me how my feet should tilt when I stop or turn on the board using her hands.

Do not start with the clip ons, they wrecked me up really bad because the support isn't as good as the bindings. I just got a new board with bindings and they have a much better feel to them. I hope he learns fast! Good luck teaching :)

from a straight developmental psychology standpoint, children should not be put into sports before age 4 ~ there's a ton of research out there... but some studies say introduction to sport is good around 4 but it's best to hold out on teaching anything complicated technically until 5or6 (varies per child developmentally).

my old man set me up on a board when i was 4 1/2 years old. 

Not sure if this helps anyone else or not - we started my son off last winter (at 3 years of age) by having him stand on a sled / toboggan as we pulled him around. This helped us determine his stance and get him used to the idea of balancing himself on a moving object.

Then, this summer, he's been rockin' a skateboard by just standing on it and even getting the odd push on it. He can even kinda do a tail slide.

Now, I have him practicing in our living room, we have laminate floors and I throw down a dry towel. I have him run at the towel and hop on - causing him to slide across the floor in stance on the towel. I also pull him around the house on the towel for added balance practice.

He turns 4 at the end of this month. I bought him a Burton Chopper 100 to rock this winter. It's going to be his first season on the board. We're going to start in the backyard and work our way to a few small hills, then the slopes.

I'm totally looking forward to it!!