Skiing and snowboarding lessons in or near Munich

As this is going to be my 3rd winter here, I've finally decided to give the winter sports a try. However, I think I should learn first. Does anyone have any suggestions as to what would be the best way to learn? Who offers lessons, are there any beginner trips that involve lessons? etc.

I can speak German, so I don't care if the lessons are English or German

You can book lessons at most resorts when you get there, although I would book in advance.

If you're serious I would also take a week's holiday and do it properly, that way you'll be skiing or boarding fairly confidently after about 4 days or so and you'll be sorted from then on. If you do it in dribs and drabs, a day's lesson here and a day there, you won't benefit as much and you'll take a lot longer to get the hang of it - I'd say you'd need twice as many skiing/boarding days to reach the same level as you would if you did it "intensively" over a week or two.

Hazza, I did a Sport Schuster course a couple of years ago. On a beginners course they provide you with your equipment, a teacher and a bus. OK you leave Munich at some unearthly o'clock in the morning. But it is worth it - at the end of a day on the slopes you just collapse on the bus!

Koala - one day can't be enough though can it??

No, one day wouldn't have been enough - nowhere near enough. I did a course, every Saturday for six weeks. It was enough to get me started. This was about three years ago and if my memory serves me correctly it cost about 120 DM.

It included bus travel, and all day lesson (with a lunch break) plus skis. We left at seven am and were usually on the slopes by ten, they took us where the snow was... and made sure we went to a different resort each week if at all possible. I needed to buy boots and sticks but the skis came with the course. I had to go in to Schuster to be measured and then I had go back to pick up a pair of skis from them in the week before the course started. And basically the skis were ours for the duration - so if you wanted to go and practice on the Sunday you could!
They even supplied us with mini bigfoot skis to play with one weekend.

They run snowboard courses with similar conditions I believe.

There's an American guy who runs a series of lessons over 3/4 weeks. He uses the short ski method and is absolutely fabulous. I went from never having skied to hard reds / blacks in 4 weeks - it is the ONLY way to learn

The info is in another thread:

Parallel Skiing courses with Ken Lawler

Cheers,
David

I've signed up for that course in January. Thanks for your help!

My manager also learnt to ski from him, and recommended him highly.

I went to the information night and there's still a lot of spaces available if anyone's interested. Basically it's over 3 weekends - leaving Friday, back on Sunday. Each weekend will set you back around €180-€200, but that's including everything - use of boots and skis, accommodation, lesson fees, lift passes, food, etc.

I thought it's pretty reasonable.

Anyone used Skischule Garmisch-Partenkirchen before? I've just sent them an inquiry about a beginner ski lesson this weekend. Decided to get on this learning thing before I return from Christmas holiday & everyone is off skiing without me every weekend! That 3 weekend course sounds great for learning but committing 3 full weekends in a row is too much for me.

If your'e after some quality ski lessons at any age & level, then I have the gang for you!! Last weekend we went to reit im winkl to Ski With The Pros ski school. Proffesionalism & quality is all I can say! They offer lessons the whole season long. E mail them at www.ski-with-the-pros.co.uk and check out their web site.
I've already booked for the christmas week

Hi Mix twix,

If you're thinking of trying out snowboarding, there is a club called Schoenerboarden (www.schoenerboarden.de). They are a very friendly bunch and they organise day trips and week-end trips. They offer all-day courses for 29 Euro. Bargain! If you become a member (10 Euro/year), you pay 10 Euro for the coach trip. If not, it's 15 Euro. They usually go over to Austria and always wait for the snow report the day before to pick the destination with the best snow. Have a look at their website, it will tell you more about them.

By the way, they have a Snowboard fleamarket coming up on sunday 18 of November where you can pick up decent gear for not very much, so it might be worthwile stopping by.

I was a skier(intermediate) and swapped over to snowboarding a few years ago and absolutely love it and wouldn't go back to skiing even if someone paid me ! I think it's easier to pick up than skiing but that might just be me.

In any case, have fun, whatever you decide to do!

The Munich International Snowboard and Ski School have a new website this year.
The ski Saturdays have run for 30 years. The program offers alpine skiing, cross country skiing and snowboarding. They employ a team of highly qualified instructors. I can definitely recommend them.

(I wish I could work out how to insert a web address as a link)

thanks for all the replies! You've been very helpful. One quick question though- I do speak German but it's not anywhere near fluent! Do you think the instructors will be able to speak English if needs be?

Twix

At the bigger resorts there will definitely be English speaking instructors.. at the small local ones around Munich, maybe not..

At The Munich International Snowboard and Ski School all lessons are in English. All the instructors speak German too I think, as many are from the Garmisch ski school.

Most of the instructors speak english I think. When I first joined the club, my german was absolutely terrible but it didn't really affect my learning. The teachers usually show you the movements anyway so if you only understand in general what they are saying, you usually get a pretty good idea of what you need to do when they show you the body movement.