Published on February 20th, 2019
While the spring and summer might seem like the best seasons for playing sports, the colder months can provide plenty of opportunities for excitement and exercise with a sprinkling of competition thrown in for good measure.
There are a lot of winter sports to consider, and if you’re a newcomer you might not know the best way to get into this scene. To help you out, here are a few of the most popular and accessible options around.
1. Ice Hockey
For team based sporting fun in the winter, ice hockey is an excellent choice, even for those from warmer parts of the world. You don’t need to wait until your local lake freezes over either; a quick Google search will let you find your nearest indoor rink where you can take your first steps into the sport.
Bear in mind that you will need a certain amount of equipment, including skates and skate sharpeners like this one, if you decide to get serious about ice hockey. In the short term, it’s also easy enough to rent the necessary kit rather than buying it outright.
2. Snowboarding
Once seen as the young upstart of the winter sports scene, snowboarding has since become an established staple and a viable alternative to traditional skiing. While it may not be at the peak of its popularity any more, that means it’s actually much more affordable to find the right gear and get involved.
Honing your skills at a dry ski slope or indoor artificial winter sports center before you book a trip to the Alps to take on the real white stuff is sensible. Snowboarding lessons provide a good way to get a grounding in the basics and it’s best to assume that you will need some guidance, even if you have experience with superficially similar pastimes like skateboarding.
3. Curling
As a prominent part of the Winter Olympics, curling is one of the less physically demanding winter sports to consider and is therefore better suited to players of all ages, rather than those who are in their prime.
Another thing which sets curling apart is that it features a degree of strategy; it’s all about pitching the perfect speed and angle of a 44lbs (20kg) stone made of granite to get closest to the center of a target, while also knocking aside the stones of your rivals and blocking their progress.
Once again, you can search for curling rinks online and will usually encounter one relatively locally, although be prepared to travel a little further to find a venue with the right facilities to get started.
4. Skiing
If you happen to live in a mountainous area where temperature dips significantly in the winter, then you have probably been skiing from a young age. For everyone else, this winter sport can seem both aspirational and daunting in equal measure.
Getting a taster of skiing at an artificial slope is worthwhile, and you can also find like-minded beginners to join forces with. Once you know that it is the sport for you, taking a ski-centric vacation will be the best way to immerse yourself in this sport.
