Teaching GF, Lesson Questions & Tips

Put her in a smaller group lesson so she can get more attention/direction from the instructor.  If you're able to get her out on some local hills before going to Breck.  The more time she spends on a snowboard the more she should enjoy being on a real mountain.

Agreed.  Get her on a board with an instructor asap. 

Definitely get protective gear. If you want her to stick with the sport, do everything you can to keep it fun for her. Falling hard on her behind isn't gonna be fun without some cushion. I reccommend a few things:

For pads, there're padded shorts and tights.
I use Nike Combat football padded tights. Paddings for side hips and tailbone. I like these better than the padded shorts.

If you're planning on teaching her, watch the videos together. It'll prepare her and give you an idea on teaching the sport.
I'll recommend her taking a lesson still.

Yes, definitely get her on your local hills as much as you can before your trip... it'd be nice if she can link her turns before Breck.  It would seem like a bit of waste if she were to go up there and be stuck on the baby hills.  I'm a +1 for the smaller group lesson as well (maybe not for the whole day so she can go put in some good practice on her own as well - with your support).  Hopefully the instructor is one that really cares for beginner development, I've seen and heard of quite a mixture out there so ymmv.  

Thought I'd throw this out there, some of my personal tips for how to S on her first day:
http://www.trusnow.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=53417&PN=1

You mentioned she's not really an athlete but is very flexible... perhaps her flexibility is something you don't want to test on her first day (splits)  but definitely she's going to get quite a work out on her first days with balance, falling, and getting up so you should definitely advise her to warm up, do stretches, and be well nourished before she goes out there.  She'll expend a lot of energy fast on her first few runs.   With some dedication and repetition, she should be able to link her turns on her first day!  Best of luck!

Originally posted by joemac84 thanks for the tips and pointers everyone! We watched some videos together and I have her working on my balance board with me. Have you guys seen any of those snowboard addiction videos? the teasers i've seen look pretty good. may need to invest.

Originally posted by milutinho i taught my girlfriend, now wife, how to ride myself and the one thing that really helped her get better was understanding that she wasn't going as fast as she thought she was. this also seems to be prevalent with all the women (sister, sister-in-law, friends WAGs) i have taught how to ride. if she is like most of these women i have helped, she will probably not believe you so see if you can make like a video on your phone of how fast they are actually going. when i did that and showed them, they finally believed me and took a few more risks outside of their comfort zone...i did this on a local hill too and now we enjoy riding together yearly all over the country. Good luck!

Take an ITC if you want to teach her yourself.

Originally posted by JDiggidy Originally posted by milutinho i taught my girlfriend, now wife, how to ride myself and the one thing that really helped her get better was understanding that she wasn't going as fast as she thought she was. this also seems to be prevalent with all the women (sister, sister-in-law, friends WAGs) i have taught how to ride. if she is like most of these women i have helped, she will probably not believe you so see if you can make like a video on your phone of how fast they are actually going. when i did that and showed them, they finally believed me and took a few more risks outside of their comfort zone...i did this on a local hill too and now we enjoy riding together yearly all over the country. Good luck!     2 things:   1) the video thing is a really great idea.  I'm going to use it on the new riders.   2) You tought the lady friend how to ride... and now you're married?? impressive!  I'm pretty sure that guys teaching gal pals how to ride is the leading cause of divorce in the West.  :)

Thanks! Yea it was pretty miserable the first 2-3 times we went out but thank god it was in Wisconsin so no real riding days were wasted. I definitely have some friends that went out West with their ladies with no experience and their patience was very limited which resulted in them putting the ladies in for lessons. I think the ladies defo like the personal attention from their men more so than the lessons.   

I don't know if you saw this or not: http://trusnow.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=33092