Carving is Boring..

A snowHead

"How many of you lot have, in the past number of years, chucked away your conventional ski's for carving ski's..parabolics or whatever.. That is a big mistake because you are chucking away your real talent for and in being a good skier. You are throwing away your penchant as an experienced and accomplished skier. You are saying you want to do away with standing ever so lightly on the centre of your skis and dance to the feel of the surface of the snow. When you do acquire such specialised ski's..do you actually carve proper on such skis.. (now be honest).
Do you want to spend your entire precious skiing hol, carving long boring turns on every piste, everyday of your holiday to justify paying half a century for such ski's.
Do you want to forgo all that is Equisite, panache, inventive, poetic and elegant in recreational skiing.
Carving skiing is a copout to all skiers that fail to maintain the aptitude to enable themselves in the intrinsic art of recreational skiing.
Carving skiing isa discipline of recreational skiing!. It is not apart from recreational skiing!.

A snowHead

Maximus,

c'mon!

Carving has always been the holy grail in racing, and some of us with racing bias have been looking for true carving for decades.

Carving certainly isn't everything, but it is a mighty effective way to ski.

I do carve a lot on blues and other groomers (I even carve on cat tracks and try to do it just with my feet). I also love to play with the slope, experiment with line, ski bumps (when they're soft), and ski pretty much any condition above treeline (besides powder, I think windpack is my favorite).

Frankly, I see far fewer people who know how to carve than people who think they are "skiing" when they are really sliding sideways in a sliding sideslip down the hill! Shocked

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

Well then. I haven't had the remarkable good luck youve obviously had to have been born earlier than me.
I learnt to ski on a pair of so called carving skis. I love it. I've paid a lot of money to get good at it and I want to get better.
I'm not going to try skiing on a pair of 15 year old skis just because you think I'm cheating or something by letting technology, or 'progress' as we call it here on planet earth help me out.
Who's to say I can't adapt my modern carving technique to an old pair of skis anyway?
Your the type of skier who gives us a bad name with the darksiders.. Wink

You need to Login to know who's really who.

ssh, I agree with you about carving is the holy grail of ski racing.. but it is not an effective method as far recreational skiing is concerned. You have all these carver ski's on the market..you have only carver skis on the market but to the majority of skiers who buy them, they either havn't a clue how to complete a turn or they are the new young generation of ski club reps that interprets that real..& true skiing must either be off piste or carving on steel slopes!!

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

Modern carving skis, yes, they are ideal for long carving turns on easy pistes, but also also they are so much more versatile.

I used to manage to carved turns on my old 205cm slalom skis, but they were a handful in moguls or off piste. Do I want the panache of skiing on old style skis or the versatility and enjoyment of modern carvers......erh.... I'll have the carvers please!!!

You'll need to Register first of course.

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

Maximus, I'm intrigued by your stance, but don't agree. Most sports equipment changes over time with new ideas and new technology. Some prefer the old stuff. I used to play squash with a wooden Dunlop Maxply. I still have one. We occasionally get it out for a bit of fun. But I prefer the new graphite rackets. I dont think I am playing an inferior game.
So with skiing. Skis have changed. Skis I understand were pretty static until boarders forced complacent manufacturers to wake up. The torrent of new skis is to be applauded. If you want to stay with the old stuff (or telemark or whatever): do. I do think you are wrong though to suggest carvers in some way inferior (less skillful, less artistic).
(I hope I have not misunderstood.)

After all it is free

*Ski* the Net with snowHeads

snowHeads are a friendly bunch.

Maximus, why 1978? I used to teach carving in 1963. You are so right in saying it's the person, the skier, not the boards that he uses.

Why do you call the new skis carvers and not sliders since they slip as easy as they carve? On the old equipment carving had to be done on a high edge, as now, but the forward pressure with the shin on the boot transferred that pressure to the shovel of the ski and bent it as it bit into the snow and carved.

The only difference with the new skis is that because of the wider tail it follows more in the same grove than the shovel while the old skis used to brush the tails out since the carve took place from underfoot to the shovel of the ski.

But the result were the same as now, the skis moved along their long axis and not sideways and the radius could be controlled by how much forward pressure and resulting bending of the tip took place.

For fun this season I took out my 210 Blizzard straight skis and skied behind another instructor in fairly tight carved turns and had no problem matching his.

The new skis make it easier for intermedite skiers to carve than it would have been on the straight skis since they start biting at a much lower edge angle and at slower speeds, all to the good.

And I'm with you, always carving is boring, like always choosing the same line, playing the terrain is much more fun.

...Ott

snow reports

So, Maximus, are you saying that because I (that's ME, a SKIER) like shorter skis with a generous sidecut, because they allow me to enjoy skiing more of the mountain, at higher speeds, and with more style, elegance, panache, etc, than I could if I had to unnaturally lock my legs together, and make abnormal movements (for me) to turn?
When I walk, my ankles don't bounce off each other. When I stand still, I like to stand stable, so why shouldn't I ski in a natural stance?
If you want to ski on old straight skis, that is your prerogative. You may enjoy it, and you may look down on anyone who skis on shorter skis. But before you entrench yourself in the Luddite camp of "Old is good, old is right, new is bad & wrong," perhaps you need to open your mind to the possibility that some people enjoy the more modern aspects of the more recent developments in this recreational activity, and would be wasting their time to unlearn modern techniques, just to satisfy your desire for people to ski like you.

BTW, are you posting using a typewriter, or a PC?

Deleted!

You know it makes sense.

Fuxup . . . "with more style, elegance, panache, etc,"

gota go, just wet me'sen! snowHead too

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

Well spotted Mark.
The original post was the biggest troll yet seen on this site.
Never has one man been wrong about so many things so often...

A snowHead

Maximus- You will remove your helmet and me/us your name! Is it Kevin perchance? Twisted Evil

A snowHead

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

You need to Login to know who's really who.

Maximus, Another disagreement here, I started skiing in 1971, so no carving skis then, I can remember in the 1990's when carving skis started to take off and I was a little dubious at the time, however after my old GS straight sided skis had their edge ripped partway out by a nasty hidden rock I switched to a pasir of race carvers, not a huge sidecut but for me a good compromise, I had a good level of stability and I found a slightly neater turning style, I can still use all my old techniques but I have also discovered some new one, if we didn't have progress we'd still be driving Ford Model T's and skiing on unedged wooden planks.

Now I'm nver likely to switch to short carving skis with a big sidecut as that would not suit me personally but why shouldn't other people have the choice ?

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

Michael B, markP, Unfortunately not, the perp owned up on Lost & Found - hence the deletion of my jumping the gun post! Embarassed

You'll need to Register first of course.

According to my school motto- " straight is the way" - cant argue with that!

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

oh Nadenoodlee, it obviously wasn't a boarding school. rolling eyes

After all it is free

Masque, you should be taken outside and shot for that one!

Was actually - but was a girlies one!

*Ski* the Net with snowHeads

WTFH Nahh that would be too easy on him, have him run over by a heard of wildebeest (sp) Cool

snowHeads are a friendly bunch.

Masque, Only kidding Wink

snow reports

Carving is not as boring as the Channel Tunnel. When I think of carving I recall taking first lift (8am) up to Galzig at St Anton and doing big snaking turns down a local run. Huge space, no one there, freshly groomed, long skis, lovely feeling.

But what about carving generally? As a vegetarian I don't have to carve anymore, unless you include nut roasts (which are not much challenge)

Mark Hunter, it couldn't be Kevin. He never made more than one entry per thread.

You know it makes sense.

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

David Goldsmith, Laughing

A snowHead

A snowHead

I used to enjoy carving on my long straights. It took not a little hard work to ski to the level I wanted. Then along came the revolution which I withstood for a while. I was secretly annoyed by friends that came to skiing late and immeadiatly jumped onto so called carver skis and seemed to be able to miss out on the pain and anguish of learning. It looked like a much shorter learning curve as they were soon carving beautiful turns after a few short weeks. Then imagine my secrect delight as in failing conditions and icey pistes they turned into bambi, as I carried on attached to my rails Twisted Evil

Moving from 2 metres down to 1.68 has been a revelation. I feel fortunate to have learnt the hard way and now reap the benefits. Pain free effortless skiing in and on any terrain Very Happy

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

Ken Lingwood, That's exactly it, because we have learnt pre carving skis we have more capabilities when conditions deteriorate, like it Cool

Mark Hunter, Look I'm sorry ok, I had a late night and I'm not really thinking straight at the moment, mind you they do make a lot of noise so whilst not fatal they might be deafening Confused

You need to Login to know who's really who.

D G Orf, Late night's an understatement!!! spoo

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

Masque, At least some errors now corrected, even I don't know how I turned thinking into thing though, next thing I know the creature from the black lagoon will make an appearence Exclamation

You'll need to Register first of course.

D G Orf, Dam! I knew I should have captured that classic bit of typing with your feet!

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

Actually it was the cats feet, he just came up and complained that he was hungry and decided to do so by walking over the keyboard, I usually use my nose when I'm that tired Laughing

After all it is free

So who is Kevin now? I've had a look around and I can't see any reference etc.
I used to enjoy Kevin's one line grenades. Where is he now?

Michael B, where indeed. The fallout from some of his "grenades" was highly entertaining. Oddly enough, another (snow orientated) chat forum is bemoaning the loss of one of their characters at the moment. I wonder if kevin posted under another name elsewhere.......

*Ski* the Net with snowHeads

Help!!

Carving is Boring..

snowHeads Forum Index >>> The Piste