Adventure Ski & Snowboard Schools

What a first class a-​hole the owner «Kent» is. To be honest, I didn’t even get as far as giving him my business because of how rude he was to me for simply asking questions about getting our two daughters lessons. Kent, you’re a true prick and I hope someone opens up another carpet and puts you under. Perhaps I will. Hope to see you soon.
BTW — Unilocal doesn’t offer a zero star rating or you would have received it. Congrats on the absolute worst customer service I experienced in a very long time.

Adventure ski and snowboard school was a top notch experience in every one of our four visits so far. The owner, Kent is a highly efficient and effective operator. You can truly tell that he has thought through every detail of his operation and it makes everything from booking, to FAQ’S, to your actual on «hill» experience smooth if you listen to his instructions. The entire staff at Adventure is genuinely concerned with the student learning as quickly as possible. They do a great job assessing the students current ability level, dialing them into appropriate levels of lessons, and then executing as much curriculum as possible over the allotted time. Every detail of our experience was positive and pleasurable. We never felt like they were selling us anything, their attention was on progression of our ability on the hill. We will continue to take lessons and refreshers here.

Instructors were great, very nice and easy to work with. However the manager (maybe the owner) just rubbed me the wrong way. Very uptight. Just not the person you want dealing with customers. Just makes the overall experience poor. Would not go back or give them money again.

I normally don’t write negative reviews but in this case I feel like the picture given by other reviews on Unilocal is incomplete. Prior to taking my 3 year old son, I read all the reviews and realized that the owner has a reputation for being a jerk, but that the instructors are good. I figured I could deal with a little rudeness from the owner as most of our interaction would be with the instructors.
If I could go back and do it over again, I would have waited and sent him to lessons at the ski slope. When we first signed him up we were told that he would start on the stationary carpet but could expect to move to the moving carpet after a few lessons. We signed up for 5 lessons.
During our first lesson the owner was rude to me three separate times. I wrote the check out for the wrong amount and got a «What part of my explanation was unclear?». I sat on the wrong bench to watch my son and was rudely told that parents aren’t supposed to sit there. Finally, I missed a signature on one of the forms and again was rudely asked to «finish». In case I thought I was the exception, he managed to get in a yelling match with the parents of the only other kid coming to the lesson as they were late — they ended up leaving and not coming back.
The rudeness I could have handled, but it got worse. After two lessons on the stationary, we are told that he is doing really well and could go on the moving carpet but the instructor sees better results at this stage with staying on the stationary. So we agree to stay on the stationary carpet, even though you only get a fraction of the skiing time. After the third lesson we were told the same thing. Finally after the fourth lesson we were told he was definitely ready for the moving carpet as he hadn’t got that much out of his fourth lesson. We show up to his final lesson and it is stationary carpet again.
We try to correct it but as is par for the course, were told too bad, we could pay for an additional lesson at the same rate we had been paying. Supposedly both me and my husband had misunderstood them and had been incorrect in telling our son right in front of them and all the following week that «next time you get to go on the moving carpet!» Then he stated that in his 38 years in business he practically never has a 3 year old go on the moving carpet, which is quite a change from what we were told initially. We were told that we were wrong and when we feel like «acting like adults we can call him back on a day that he is not busy».
To top it all off he actually asked me to leave because I was giving my 10 month old some water from a cup and she was spilled a little bit on his OUTDOOR floor. I don’t think he cancels instruction if there is water on the ground but that is how me made it sound.
Overall, if you have young kids (less than 7) I would wait until you get to the mountain. I could have gotten just as much instruction in a couple hours on the slopes for less money. For older kids, buyer beware. I honestly feel the only reason this man is still in business is because there is no competition. His business model feels more like a bait and switch. He keeps you on the stationary carpet and encourages you to buy more lessons. He is also unclear about the length of his lessons. Each lesson is only 25 minutes. You must be there, booted up and ready to go at the start time as ever lesson stops at 25 minutes whether or not you started on time.

If you’re looking to learn to snowboard before you head up the mountain, I highly suggest this place. It really helped me prepare. And who wants to a class when they’re up the hill, while they’re friends are having fun. I suggest doing this before going up.

I came here last year and took a couple of lessons for snowboarding. When I’ve got to snowboard I still take lessons there in the actual snow. Without the lessons here, I wouldn’t have been able snowboard. Even with the lessons on the mountain, I find myself going back and remembering my lessons from last year. I would recommend that for those not sportly inclined to take lessons here. They’re the best and you get a lot of one on one time. The things you learn there transfer over to the snow really well.

Our 7yo was awesome on the actual mountain after the carpet lesson. Zoomed to level 3 on first day. Very valuable $ 70 compared to $ 240 on the mtn

The owner (a short older guy) berated this really nice blonde kid who was working there when I went to sign up. I watched aghast and cringing. The kid was twice his size and should have beat the old man senseless for the way he treated him. I walked away. He is a BULLY and will never receive a penny of my money ever. He should be ashamed.

I took two snowboarding lessons with them to improve the linking of my turns and to get more comfortable on my toe side. This is the third season i have been snowboarding and i have never felt as comfortable on my board as i did after the lessons. We went to the snow the weekend after the lessons and i was doing blacks toe side and linking my turns with ease. I even tried some jumps i was so comfortable on my board.
Thank you so much and i look forward to taking more lessons to improve my skills. My instructor was great as well and very patient with me while i was trying to learn it the right way.

I just went to Colorado to snowboard for the first time. I had never skied or snowboarded before. I found these guys online and took two lessons on just the heel-​edge a couple days before my trip. The instruction was absolutely fantastic! And Kent was very professional and informative setting up the appointment.
In one hour, they taught me the basics of riding the heel-​edge on a snowboard. The instructor was super friendly and knowledgeable. I went to Keystone this passed weekend and I was able to ride down the entire mountain on the beginners course (from the very top to the very bottom)!! Of course I fell a whole lot too, but I was able to incorporate what they taught me so at least I knew what I should be trying to do when I was on the mountain.
The cost is a bit on the high side, but for me the lessons proved to be invaluable and worth every penny. I had a great time during the lesson, and I had a blast on the mountain using the fundamentals they taught me.
I highly recommend these guys. I’m planning to go back for the additional lessons to learn the toe-​edge.

This review is long overdue. My daughters and I (10 yo, 8 yo and 40+) signed up earlier this year to learn how to ski for our Spring Break with friends in Tahoe. We had taken a long break between our last few trips, and never seemed to get very far with the 1 – 2 day beginner camps. So our goal at Adventure Ski was to be able to parallel ski.
I have to say that the lessons worked perfectly. Both my older daughter and I were parallel skiing in Tahoe, and my 8 yo was easily keeping up as an advanced beginner. Ken, the owner, recommended signing up for the 5 lesson package and I think that was just about right. The first couple lessons were spent mostly adjusting to the burning sensation in our legs (ever do a 30 min squat?), while it took another 3 lessons to build the muscle memory and technique refinements. All the while we had a great time.
The one on one instruction can’t be beat, as well as the convenience of not having to get to the mountain, renting, and having snow collect in your sleeve after a fall. The lessons are not cheap and scheduling can be a bit of a pain, but they are definitely a good value you/​your kids will appreciate while gliding down the mountain.
We’re back this winter for a brush up, and will likely be back when my daughters are ready to pick up boarding.

I bought a Groupon for one class. The person who answers the phone who I believe is the owner (Kent, or something like that), told me that if I needed to cancel or re-​schedule I had to call 48 hours before the class.
I called them and left a message that I needed to re-​schedule because something came up. I called 48 HOURS BEFORE the class.
Then, the same person who I talked before, called me back saying that I called in late however, he was going to OPEN AN EXCEPTION because I called MINUTES BEFORE the 48 hours expired?! Really… He gave me the hardest time. He was so rude. I was really upset.
Horrible customer service! I ended up cancelling the class and getting my money back from Groupon. Be careful because they take a CC number in case people don’t call to cancel or re-​schedule before 48 hours of the class.

Fantastic instruction, no time wasted and my 6yo daughter is making turns on the revolving «snow» (its a low friction revolving carpet at an angle) on her first day. Just seeing how excited she was about skiing was worth it alone.
We did a 5 lesson plan. She did the first two back to back and I would definitely recommend that. It kept her on a roll with what she had just learned and helped her advance a lot on the first day. They also give you a flyer for a mountain high deal. The Mtn. High deal is a mid week lift ticket, (2) 2 hour lessons, lunch and snack and rentals for $ 79.00. We are going to head up right after her 5 are finished here. With that she will have had a lot of instruction at a great price.
5 lessons are $ 275 which seems pretty expensive but the quality of the instruction is awesome. They are one on one lessons and keep them going the whole time.
Highly recommended

Wanted my kids to learn snowboarding before going for spring break. It was helpful for technique and conditioning. It is the only way to «practice» and enjoy while you’re vacation instead of learning on vacation. I did it to teach them to ski 3 years ago and now for boarding and would do it again. Giving only 3 stars because the mgr over explains things and it was hard to schedule with them.

I purchased 2 of the LivingSocial vouchers for a 30 minute ski lesson for me (first timer!) and a snowboarding lesson for my fiancé (he is great at skiing but had never tried snowboarding.) I was excited to get the basic mechanics down before heading up to the snow.
Making reservations was a pain. No one ever answers the phone — you are supposed to leave a message and they will call you back at their convenience, not yours. We were driving down from Ventura (about 3 hours) and making a quick overnight trip out of it. When I first called to schedule about 2 months in advance I was told it was much too early and they were not accepting reservations that far out. Um, okay, I’ll try you back in a month…
A few weeks later I tried again and played phone tag for three days before I could actually schedule our lessons. That’s ridiculous. I agree with the previous posters about the super hard up-​sell for a second lesson. I puposely booked the last appointment of the day to make it clear there was no way we would be spending an ADDITIONAL $ 140 for another 30 minutes. I was REALLY annoyed at this point and truthfully didn’t even want to go anymore.
The day came quickly and we arrived a little early so we got to watch a more experienced class on the slope machine. We were fitted with boots and when it was our turn I was happy that the «hill» wasn’t moving. It took me the full 30 minutes to get the hang of starting, stopping, and positioning my skis. My honey caught on to snowboarding in about 5 minutes, so I guess it depends on the person.
I’m still giving Adventure Ski & Snowboard school 4 stars based on the heavily discounted price I paid and the fact that the actual lessons were great. Would I do it for full price? No way.

Had a horrible experience before we even stepped foot in the door. Found them via a Groupon solicitation and paid $ 35 for a lesson for my son that thought he’d like to try snowboarding. Called to redeem it and found out that one lesson doesn’t really cut it, you need a full hour. SO, I agreed and tacked on another 30 min. lesson that I was paying full price for (we’re up to $ 105 now, but if I didn’t have GROUPON it’d be $ 140). I had to leave a msg, when the owner called back, it took 23 minutes on the phone to set up the first appt. He called back during dinner hour and honestly it was all I could do to get him to stop talking. Appt. set, and unfortunately my son got injured the night before. I completely failed to call to cancel. Totally my fault. I was mortified when they called to see where he was. Apologized profusely and explained we had actually just walked in from DR. He explained policy of paying if you miss appt. I said, «charge my card, delete my Groupon, whatever you need to do» again, trying to get off the phone to deal w/​injured son. He continued lamenting, well, if you’d like to reschedule, what did the Dr. say about when he can do activity!!! Are you kidding?! I said I couldn’t think of any of that now, maybe we could talk later. So, he asked me for the group on #‘s, I didn’t have handy. He said I could call back AND btw, would I send a ck for $ 30 to cover the cost of the 2^nd lesson too. So, $ 65 later, they didn’t have to do a thing but show up. If they were ever hoping we would have come and tried it and gotten a few more lessons in before hitting the slopes they are seriously wrong. And they were awfully close to bait and switch on the Groupon anyway. yucky way to do biz.

HORRIBLE customer service. So I was very excited to learn of this place so my son could try out snowboarding before hauling him all the way to the mountains in the cold. It took forever to get a lesson booked but once we finally did we arrived about a half hour early to check things out. My son was really excited to start when he was watching others on the «hill». Once it was his turn it was very hectic for the instructors trying to figure out who was teaching who, finally we find out that Ken (owner or mgr) is teaching my son, I thought this would be a good thing he should be the best. Well turns out it wasn’t a good thing. 15 minutes into his lesson, which only has 5 minutes to go Ken said to me VERY rudely «see, this is why we suggest that they learn to ski first». Wait? WHAT? We were here for 30 minutes getting boots and board fitted and talking to you before we started and you NEVER said anything about skiing first. If you don’t like to teach kids to snowboard don’t offer it. I asked why he didn’t talk to me about this before we started and he said something about how since we booked snowboarding and they already had the instructors assigned it was too late anyway to change. So I asked him if he also was a ski instructor he said yes then ignored my origional question and said he would talk to me after the lesson which he didn’t he just kept telling my son he would need to listen better if he wanted to learn to snowboard. I’m really dissapointed because this seems like a really cool idea but with such crappy customer service at such a high price I would rather take the family to the mountains for the day and have fun. I think it may be time for someone to retire and let someone interested in teaching kids to ski and snowboard the opportunity to do it. Also, this place has been around since 1977, why do you think they don’t have more Unilocal reviews???

I didn’t realize that this place is completely outdoors. In my mind, I thought that it would be set up in a warehouse so I was very surprised. I recently got a Living Social deal in order to prepare for my upcoming ski trip since I have never skied before.
I had Derek as much instructor, and he was fantastic! He gave me a lot of helpful tips and really good information about slopes that are near San Diego. He was really patient with me, and we started working on turns since I progressed quickly.
During my first lesson, I learned how to start, stop, and start turning on the still carpet. I think overall the lesson was really helpful and was reassuring that I would do fine on the slopes.
I do have a couple of gripes.
I wish we could have gone a little faster and done some work on moving carpet. I wish there was a way to book the lessons online instead of playing phone tag to book a lesson. Also the message that you get when you call is really long — press * to skip.

I have seen this cool carpet mountain my whole life and was so excited to have my kids try a lesson when I saw a deal pop up on living social. I think it’s very expensive regularly ($ 70 a lesson), but half price seemed like a good deal. I took my four kids to a lesson and was soooo disappointed. The person running the operation was very disorganized and spent half the time I paid for helping other people check in or out while he was supposed to be teaching my daughter. He was grumpy and was not into teaching her at all. We tried to say something about how the other kids had gotten more time with a coach and way more «runs» but he got very defensive and treated us very rudely. I was seriously bummed after waiting so many years to try this. I’d say since it’s the same price or more then a lift ticket, take a chance on a real mountain instead.

I got a 3-​lesson pack as a gift and really didn’t know what to expect as I’m already a snowboarder and didn’t really have anything to learn. The instructors were very friendly and helpful but truthfully my lesson was pointless. I spent the whole time just trying to get a feel for the moving carpet and I rode like I was a beginner again from years ago.
Rather than waste the following lessons, I decided to swtich to ski lessons since I’ve never tried it before. They provide the gear as part of the lesson cost, which is nice. I had no idea what skiing ‘should’ feel like on snow or carpet, so the lesson was great. The instructor focused on mechanics and could point out even minor corrections. After the back-​to-​back lessons in skiing I feel confident in heading up to the mountains and giving it a shot.
Anyways, in short, If you’re brand new to snowboarding or skiing and want to learn the mechanics and feel without falling on your face and butt up on the mountain, give this a shot. I don’t know if they have deals for families, but I can see this being particularly helpful for everyone, adult or child, to each get individualized lessons. If you’re already experienced then skip this and just spend another day on the mountain.