Best French Ski Resorts for New Snowboarders and Freestyle Beginners

Freestyle snowboarding is now a popular activity in the Alps, with many areas dedicated to boarders that want to try something new. For those that want to up their game on their next snowboarding trip, we have featured some of the resorts with the best facilities for developing freestyle skills and learning tricks, plus some tips and resources for making the best of your time on the snow.

 

Some Top Resources for Beginners

 

Before you head of to the slopes as a beginner, there are a few free resources that will help you prepare for pulling out those 360’s and landing the big jumps. Online resources such as Snomie provide free tips and an introduction to the basics of freestyle, from the basic tricks to get under your belt to guides to rail stunts. There are also videos lessons to learn the skills, step-by-step.

 

Once you get out on the snow, there are also ski and snowboard schools that can provide expert tuition to help you learn practically and faster.

 

Where Should You Go?

 

Alpe d’Huez is popular with beginner snowboarders for its wide choice of blue and red runs, but is also features a beginner snow park. The park provides a number of small features for an easy introduction to freestyle skills with small jumps, kickers and boxes.

 

Morzine is a common destination due to it boasting 8 different snow parks in the Portes du Soleil area, including the snowboard-only Stash. The all natural terrain park is perfect for boarders to advance to when they have mastered the basics, and benefits from being designed especially for performing tricks with snowboards.

 

Many traditional ski operators now also offer snowboarding holidays to Meribel, proving popular due to the presence of ‘Moon Park’ and its labelled courses for beginner or intermediate riders to explore; as well as the ‘DC park’ that allows boarders to work their way through initiation and progression zones as they develop their skills. Another exciting feature of the resort is the airbag, which allows boarders to work on their aerial skills and provides an adrenaline rush at the same time. Meribel also benefits from specialist snowboard schools with courses provided by professional boarders.