Are the Brits worse skiers?

A snowHead

Seeing as its Friday afternoon and we can generalise a bit...

Brits do seem less spatially aware than others, standing around in the middle of the piste, snowboarders cluttering the exits to lifts etc.

That said, I have seen a good mix of both dangerous beginners and very impressive skiers in Scotland.

Austrians seem to do much more on piste boozing. From 3pm onwards their schirm bars get packed with a heady mix of mullets, gluwein and 1000 decibel 'Life Is Life', 'Radar Love' and '99 Luftballoons' .

The collection of wheelchairs at Toulouse airport on a Sunday afternoon as casualties return from Andorra is pretty impressive and whilst the Irish contingent in Soldeu/El Tartar ran them close, pro rata I found the most, out of control 'dont need a lesson' skiers in Jasper, Canada. Disaster evasion techniques seemed to amount to whooping and screaming 'awesome'.

I have had two lessons, one in Telford which taught me to snowplough, the other in Tignes which taught the two of us in it absolutely nothing as most of it was spent in a lift queue, the rest being shown how to ski on one leg.

A snowHead

T-Dub, actually they're Germans, you can tell by the Austrians walking around muttering "f"*çing Germans" Very Happy

Skiing on one leg's a valuable excercise though.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

One reason that the Brits could be seen as bad skiers (and I'm not including any snowheads in this generalisation) is that their ski holiday is taken as just that - a holiday, therefore they don't spend much (if any) time increasing their level of fitness before they go, and for many the apres ski is just as important as the actual skiing, so they go out late every night, and get drunk! Thus not being fit enought really the next day. (There was a thread at one point talking about the 2nd day in resort syndrome, which mentioned this)

I usually divide skiers into three groups -
1. Those who make their living at it - instructors and ski patrol.
2. Those who ski as a sport. (at what ever level).
3. Those who ski as a passtime.

I'd say that most snowheads ski as a sport, else we wouldn't be as obsessed as we are about talking about skiing! But for many Brits it is just something to do on holiday!

Actually, Brits aren't the worst skiers in my experience - ever watched the Indians?! Shocked

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must keep mouth shut . . . must keep mouth shut . . . must keep mouth shut . . . more codine please nursey . . . bedbath?

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

Many Brit snow sports enthusiasts lack competence but are overly confident w.r.t. their ability - A disastrous combo IMHO.

Observations about Nationalities
Brits - Dangerous
Dutch - Loudest
Italians - Fastest
Germans - Rudest (not really but couldn't think of anything else)
French - Laziest (all sun, coffee and deck chairs)

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Boardski, Septics are?

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

Masque, ah, good question, something of the Elephant in the bedroom there. As a nation formed by immigration from those nations they'll be most of those things.

After all it is free

And the Americans are??

pollittcl, Ummh... if you hadn't heard the term 'septics' before , it's ryhming slang .. Septic Tanks ==== Yanks , think that is where masque and ise were coming from .

All in the best possible taste of course

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My little travel book's blue too. wink

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Masque, Guess there aren't that many Saudi citizens posting about skiing here.... wink

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Newbie50, it's called reading whilst others are posting! Embarassed

(and trying to get some work done in between reading!)

Masque, I've got a blue one and a red one - I'm sooooooo confused! Very Happy

You know it makes sense.

pollittcl, Think the joke is on me .. given the multiplicity of ctizenships held by those around here ( and my daughter who also holds red and blue ) . Don't worry you only have a few more hours before the weekend ... and remeber we will back in work on Monday morning while you are having your last Sunday night drink...

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

Newbie50,

A snowHead

With reference to the idea that Brits take less lessons, I don't know if this is true when compared with Canadians. To me, from surfing these forums, it seems like most of you guys take some sort of lesson on most of your ski trps. The Canadian skiers and boarders I know take lessons VERY irregularly. I know many people who easily get 20+ days in per season, and generally not one lesson. This may have something to do with the fact that they are university students though, so alot less disposable income.

A snowHead

ponder, Oxymoron alert . . . student and income

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

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but by statistics the Brits do better than the French on the roads. with a much lower accident rate. French drivers seem to think it an insult to their manhood not to drive at full pelt round snowy mountain roads and I generally pull over, indicate, and let them go. But on piste, it's all so different. their culture of ski hols is a family, traditional, affair, not something you do with your mates in competitive mode, with anyone not in the latest gear feeling embarassed.

Small French resorts are full of people in ancient one piece suits - a recent newspaper article in UK even sneered at French skiers in one piece suits. Even very good French skiers, and many young ones, seem happy to visit a small family resort with no challenging or dramatic slopes. Many young Brits seem to want to hunt in packs, drink too much, ski too much too fast, never do the same run twice and are obsessed with "doing blacks". However that does mean that Brits like me, who spend weeks each season in a small French ski resort, don't have to put up with the lads boasting and hurtling and hurling because they would not be seen dead in a dump like this with all those Frenchmen in one piece suits and stupid British old bags trying to learn to snowboard. It also means that in around 20 weeks ski-ing in the last three years I have only seen one collision. Mind you, I get out of here during the Paris half term holidays. The most serious injury I heard about was a woman who had broken her neck, and had been a guest of the same chalet in La Rosiere, the previous week. She and her daughter were in a ski school and had asked their instructor to "do a black". He explained that they weren't yet ready to do that, so she had gone back in the afternoon, and did it without the stupid man. And broke her neck. That is not "clumsy", it is criminally stupid as she could just as easily have broken someone else's neck. Of course there are stupid and reckless young French skiers, but they really do not seem to epitomise the whole culture. And most young French people seem to be able to enjoy themselves without boozing themselves silly at every opportunity. It would be interesting to see how many ski accidents are alcohol-related.

But then again, they get into their cars and - whoosh!

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

pollittcl,

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pam w, maybe a non-native English speaker uses clumsy in a slightly different context to you?

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I think the reason why so many British skiers seem to bad is (apart from being 3/4 drunk most of the time) is to do with the culture of boasting to your mates in the pub. The "if you didn't do a black on your second day you're a wimp" rubbish. I always try to persuade my students that if they know people saying this sort of stuff they must be poor skiers. Good skiers would shut up - anyway good skiers wouldn't think it worthwhile to tell everyone they'd skied a black would they? So what.

pam w, the woman you spoke about deserved everything she got - hopefully crippled and never to darken a ski slope again! Twisted Evil

Snowheads, naturally are a completely different breed, and perhaps we should all wear T shirts with "we're not like all the other Brits" on them???????????? wink

After all it is free

easiski, the Mark 2 Model. When I lived in Cairo I had a T shirt which said (in Arabic) "I'm not a tourist - I live here". Stopped the touts wasting their time and mine at the famous sites.

This view of British skiers goes back a long way. When I was a child skiing at Lech (about 45 years ago) I remember a hotel put on a show which included a little skit on skiing where the protagonists skied down the short flight of stairs onto the dining/dance floor. Each acted the part of a different nationality. The one that came out worst was the "Englishman": he had silly clothes, tiny skis and huge sticks..... and fell and "broke" his leg at the bottom of the stairs.
Hmm.

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T-Dub,

snowHeads are a friendly bunch.

I. Shall. Resist. Making. Comments. About. British. Skiers. (oh for the love of god self-control is a hard taskmaster!)

Couldn't resist.
Right.

Brit culture doesn't support participation in sports to the same degree as many other nations and so - compared to many other nations - there is a larger chunk of British population that hasn't had developed a sporting background/skill base on which to draw from when trying out new sports later on in life (which is odd, as a large chunk of the British population is more than willing to WATCH televised sporting endeavours)

Add that to pollittcl's comments about the typical British approach to sking holidays.

= recipe for greater risk of injury. In theory.

I'm not saying I have evidence of Brits being more dangerous on the slopes, mind. Are indigenous Alpine populations any better at avoiding injury? I tend not to fall over, and so far the people who've crashed into me on the French Alps were French! Am interested to see how the Swiss are when I visit there this Easter.

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Boardski,

Help!!

Are the Brits worse skiers?

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