 Poster: A snowHead
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freebie, start the turn by relaxing your edges, starting with the downhill ski (take a look at those links I posted, above). Don't move your weight around! Use your body simply to balance over your skis as the skis turn you. Don't work at turning the skis, or use bodyweight or muscle strength to force anything! That's the key to effective and efficient skiing.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Yeah thanks ssh. I just read through both of thoes links and it totally opposite to my way of how I thought a turn worked.
Im going dry sloping this weekend so I'll try just relaxing the downhill ski and letting the slope pull me round. One question though - what happens when im pointing directly down the fall line? Will my momentum keep me turning to (hopefully) traverse across the other way?
Also what happens when im taking a more direct line down the slope (not traversing) and making smaller turns? Are the motions the same, but just a little more subtle?
NB. I can do all this already but just not sure how the mechanics of it all works - so dont worry, im not gonna go out this weekend and kill myself!
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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freebie, you have it right. Try it. You'll be surprised at how well the skis do the work!
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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ponder, It all depends on what you mean by "high speed". When you're ski-ing in control, you generally don't feel that much speed.
ssh, Absolutely, you have to teach them to turn up the hill to stop. The poor things need to stop thinking that the snowplough is a way to stop asap, but that doesn't mean it can't be useful in the first couple of days though.
freebie, You've go the right idea now, combi of all the advice! Be careful on plastic though - remember that if you try to force the ski on dendix you often fall over - and it hurts.
ssh, Have you ever skied on Dendix? Very interesting experience!!  BTW got 2 kids this week, skied a little bit on plastic before but never on snow, It's now day 3 and they're starting to turn parallel. Mum's taking a bit longer though. (fear)
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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easiski, no Dendix for me. I think I may have skied on plastic once in the 70s. Long time ago...
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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ssh, Oh - what you're missing! It's a lot like ski-ing on very slow ice (if you can imagine that). Good for technique though, but hurts like mad when you fall - no sliding!
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I agree with others that probably the wedge/snow plow was bypassed in an effort to get to carving sooneer.
IMHO this is a mistake. You should definately get a feel for what scraping edges at different angles and with different weights on them can do.
I first learned to ski from reading an old book I found at a second hand store and watching the crazy Canucks Downhill race in the 1970s. The progression went from snow plow to snow-plow turns to what they called stem-christies, to pivoted turns. There was a bit of a jump from the pivoted turns to carved turns, but being able to do the pivotted turns allowed me to ski at a speed sufficiently high to be able to feel myself turning by shifting my cm into the turn, sort of like leaning a bike. After learning how to turn at high speeds, I think the book had something about a coma shape (angulation as opposed to pure banking) in it which I discovered allowed me to turn at slow speeds without skidding. I didn't realize I was "carving", until one day someone selling me a pair of racing skis showed me how a ski carved a turn due to it's sidecut and flex pattern and everything clicked. I carve turns just fine. So do many people who started out on a wedge.
I used a backwards snowplow to stop just last weekend. I saw a learner who was stuck on the hill trying to get his skis back on, and he was still there when I came down. Naturally, I did a hockey stop from speed, only my edges need sharpening and no longer grip well on ice, and the tips hit a bit of snow so I was instantly skiing backwards. There wasn't time to reposition, but I had plenty of edge to stop exactly where I wanted to by digging in the edges in a backwards snow plow.
I didn't realize that it was only recently that most other skiers learned how to carve. I really thought everybody carved after a dozen or so days on the hill. But appearently people can go for years and years and never learn how to carve unless they buy some new shaped skis.
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Ghost, I had a client just this week who's skied 14 weeks or so, and was just pushing the flat ski around without any edging. She wondered why she felt insecure on red and black runs! 
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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| GrahamN wrote: |
| use the plough only as a brake in v tight spots like lift queues or the odd v narrow track. |
Well I certainly got some practice at that last week - after a slightly hairy descent through a forest we ended up snowploughing for about a mile down a track to just below Kublis (down the valley from Klosters) that bore more resemblance to a bobsleigh run than pretty much anything else (about 2m wide and about 1m high walls). At the end of that, even with trying to relax into the position, the leg muscles weren't half burning  !
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FAQ
