Looking for powder skiing clips of an instructional nature that meer mortals might achieve. (not so much Cliff jumping, 50 Deg+ or snorkel deep stuff where you can't see what is going on).
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?
Haha, I know that girl^ and yes hilariously terrible vid, it's better to use your ski anyway. The top vid is just an advert with no real advice, and some pretty shoddy skiing to boot.
Shot in Niseko too, but some much better skiing. Not a lot of chat about what's going on though.
One thing to say is that driving in the knees isn't generally taught in BASI nowadays because the view is that knees weren't designed to be "driven" sideways and it puts them at an unnecessary vulnerable position. (The French, however, do still teach it. Vive la difference!)
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
CMH must have survived the drop in business that the "how to ski perfectly nice powder like you're trying to hold a poo in" video precipitated.
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Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
waynos wrote:
DB, is that a joke? I found this totally useless this video on finding a lost ski in powder. Really bad, makes the vid above seem almost good.
There are plently of good powder skiing clips on youtube but to be honest most of powder skiing instructional the clips I found were really bad - virtually all are adverts. The driving knees movement did look dodgy to me but I wanted to hear other peoples opinions. Interesting that the French are still teaching it
Was hopeful someone would be able to come up with something better ....
Examples of more bad powder skiing instruction clips .....
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
DB, I did a similar scan of youtube the other day and yes most the instructional powder videos are awful. There's an opportunity there for a snowheads powder tips vid? If only there was some powder I'd pop out now a get videoing. That Pro Ski video, Brian the chap introducing it is rather used to super fat skis, getting away with some scrappy skiing, though I'm more old school in powder, bouncy rather than carvee. The other 2 vids with the old guy and the other old video, god I hope I don't ski powder like they suggest when demoing on piste. Why not demo in powder? What's this straight back thing and hands wider apart, they should be apart and forward all the time.
I think the big things are weight 50/50, keep fore / aft the same, maybe back slightly, keep near the fall line, emphasis unweighting and the bounce factor and turn. Start on a very gentle slope, just enough to get moving in the powder, practise pushing both skis into the snow and extending and feeling the skis unweight. Can then start adding some turning in as skis unweight, at this point by patient for skis to come around fall line, push back in and start again. Not sure any of that makes sense, pretty hard to put into words, there's sure more going on than I describe.
So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
waynos,
Thanks.
I can to a fair extent ski powder and as with all my skiing I try to mix it up with short and long turms. Was trying to put something up that non-ski pro's could aspire to in the offpiste as opposed to fantastic cliff jumping feats and snorkel deep face shots. Such as this http://youtube.com/v/XVmAcG0xsuI
Yes I'd agree the Pro-skiing bloke is surving with wide skis rather than skiing. He's playing catch up most of the time in the backseat but the width of his skis is keeping him in there. I imagine a lot of people go wider for this reason.
IMO the following two clips appear to be really old school type offpiste (the purple pant guy has really old ski gear - they even look like straight skis). Josh Foster is the best of a bad bunch. I like the short turn skiing in the Bad Gastein Version 2 clip I posted earlier today. The white jacket guy appears to be doing what Josh Foster was doing (i.e. bounce change edges, land, smear, repeat). This is demonstrated in his on-piste turns too. Now I'm not a ski instructor but to my mind that's not the best way to ski on piste short turns or the way it would be skied by an on-piste demostration team (or taught by a ski instructor). Question for the pro's - Are short turns onpiste better carved but offpiste better with a slight smear? or should they both be carved / smeared?
To me the short turns offpiste are like jumping from powder cushion to powder cushion - the skis take longer to react in the soft powder (vs hard piste) as if in slow motion.
You know it makes sense.
You know it makes sense.
Horses for courses, short turns are very useful in the trees ....
DB, OK Abma is well paid to be one of the top freeskiers in the world but what he does isn't vastly different from what most people could achieve on the right equipment at least technically (leave aside the flow and the actual terrain). The slopestyle guy was headed in the right direction just that his skiing came out as a bit sloppy. I think a lot of the bouncing in "modern" powder clips isn't a deliberate action - its a reaction to what's going on under the surface (e.g. are you running on a base of bumps or older crud) or a release of pressure that's built up and modern skis on powder really don't need to be bounced into short turns - you can GS if you want quite easily. It might also be because bounicing is just fun - after all the joy in powder skiing is about weightlessless and the bounce from platform to platform is just that.
Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
DB, just watched the john foster video, (in between doing some work). By far the best but not really enough powder to demo properly, he's having engage the edges too much as there's not enough powder to slow him down. The gastein 2 video is how I'd aim to ski powder, the other technique is more speed bigger carve turns but I find this needs a big ski to give the continuous float rather than popping in and out. Off piste skiing is very much about the amount of edging to use, (amongst other things) think about deep powder, no edges required, breakable crust, spring snow, all skied with little or no edging. Piste skiing tends to be carving and hence riding the edges .Now there's a whole gradient of edging to applying in between the extremes. The terrain in the no 2 gastein looks excellent, was wondering if that was in fact sport gastein. Hope to get up to sport gatein soon, hear it's got good off piste once it's filled in.
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
DB, the Revelstoke video is pure tree skiing pornography.
Last edited by Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person on Mon 21-11-11 15:33; edited 1 time in total
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?
fatbob,
As I see it - the short turn bounce unweights your skis and makes them easier to turn. With wide skis (esp in longer turns) the skis provide more float (less sink) and so the bounce to pop them up isn't as critical.
waynos,
As with piste skiing I don't see there being one way to ski offpiste.
e.g. Breakable crust - I'd either attempt to ski it with long turns and low edge angles (smearing) or short turns and punch through with force.
e.g.2 Steep deep powder, wideopen without trees. Low ski angles and short turns but only a little bounce allowing the snow to slow you down or big GS turns and higher edge angles.
Short turns work everywhere but can be tiring, long turns can be more efficient (e.g. large bowls, breakable crust) but not ideal in other areas (tight trees & couloirs )
I've also heard the Gastein region has some good offpiste let's hope it's gets filled in soon I'm gagging for it
The terrain in the no 2 gastein looks excellent, was wondering if that was in fact sport gastein. Hope to get up to sport gatein soon, hear it's got good off piste once it's filled in.
Yep, that's Sportgastein.
Kersh
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
waynos wrote:
DB, the Revelstoke video is pure tree skiing pornography.
Rubens is the man for Revelstoke and even runs a B&B there with his girlfriend.
fatbob,
As I see it - the short turn bounce unweights your skis and makes them easier to turn. With wide skis (esp in longer turns) the skis provide more float (less sink) and so the bounce to pop them up isn't as critical.
waynos,
As with piste skiing I don't see there being one way to ski offpiste.
e.g. Breakable crust - I'd either attempt to ski it with long turns and low edge angles (smearing) or short turns and punch through with force.
e.g.2 Steep deep powder, wideopen without trees. Low ski angles and short turns but only a little bounce allowing the snow to slow you down or big GS turns and higher edge angles.
Short turns work everywhere but can be tiring, long turns can be more efficient (e.g. large bowls, breakable crust) but not ideal in other areas (tight trees & couloirs )
I've also heard the Gastein region has some good offpiste let's hope it's gets filled in soon I'm gagging for it
Pretty much what I go for too, although I prefer big turns whenever the terrain/my balls allows.
Lets hope the rest of Austria fills in too, apparently things aren't looking great right now 'round IBK
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
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I havent looked at all these clips but the few i did were terrible and use techniques from 20 years ago that arent applicable with current equipment.
DB, instead of just sticking up every clip you can find on youtube why dont you pick a top 2 or 3 and delete the rest... This is a very good idea to do this as there is so much bad information out there on how to ski powder effectively a few good instructional clips would be a good resource....
Ski the Net with snowHeads
Ski the Net with snowHeads
skimottaret wrote:
I havent looked at all these clips but the few i did were terrible and use techniques from 20 years ago that arent applicable with current equipment.
DB, instead of just sticking up every clip you can find on youtube why dont you pick a top 2 or 3 and delete the rest... This is a very good idea to do this as there is so much bad information out there on how to ski powder effectively a few good instructional clips would be a good resource....
skimottaret,
If I started deleting many of the clips the thread wouldn't make much sense anymore. Probably better people vote on which to keep then I start another thread with just these clips.
Which of these should I keep in (bearing in mind the intention is for instructional/demostration and not superhero powder skiing) ......
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
rob@rar, like the "subtle pressure on the heel will help..." and balance evenly on both skis comments....
So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
skimottaret, yes, I shadowed John delivering that lesson a couple of seasons ago and he kept it simple and effective.
You know it makes sense.
You know it makes sense.
DB, Keep the last clip, which was great to watch , but would love to hear the English version
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Neilski wrote:
DB, Keep the last clip, which was great to watch , but would love to hear the English version
Can't find an English version but here is basically a rough translation .....
The clip starts off with a series of drills.
1. Fore - aft balance weighting the front and back of the ski in powder.
2. Weighting each foot one at a time as you traverse across the slope.
3. Turning across the slope with the skis equally weighted.
4. Starting the turn by putting the weight onto the front of the ski. The front of the skis dive under the powder snow.
5. Finish the turn by dropping the heels/ski tails and the front of the skis will surface.
6. Get from one turn to the other by lifting/unweighting the heels again then go start the next turn with point 4 and repeat.
Its important to point out that the skier is not just leaning forward or back to shift the weight on the skis but tipping the skis very slightly forwards and backwards while trying to remain centered on the skis.
Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
DB, cheers , that helps loads, have been practicing weighting the front of the skis as an exercise in the fridge this summer , and this was a good visual of how it works in the powder , staying centered whilst achieving all these small movements is the key , looking forward to putting into practice on saturday in hochfugen
That's a lot of words for the kids! Probably quite a lot of words for adults as well, but way too much for kids. Nice demo about why leaning back is a bad thing.
I like the bergfex one best...wish my German was better. I stumbled across that video a couple of years ago and then could never find it again. Thanks for posting it!
For me, the big breakthrough was learning to consciously put weight on or (in my mind) stand on the uphill ski towards end of the turn so that in fact my weight was even. Bingo! Stopped shooting off and falling over at the end of the turn. Then in January this year another tip from the wonderful and endlessly chirpy Dave Cowell (ICESI/ Mountain Masters of Val d'Isere) said you should imagine you are trying to grip a glove between your knees which stops my legs going off in different directions.
God, I wish I was skiing. Looked at a couple of webcams today and saw what looked like fresh stuff....and we really didn't get enough powder at the right time when we were away this year....
Re the Steamboat one - I was bored with her chat after 2 minutes and I don't have lots of pow in front of me that needs slaying . Those kids deserve a medal for pretending to pay attention.
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Dave of the Marmottes wrote:
Re the Steamboat one - I was bored with her chat after 2 minutes and I don't have lots of pow in front of me that needs slaying .
Have to confess, I didn't make it to the end of the clip. Did they get to ski anything deep?
After all it is free
After all it is free
No I only made it 2 mins.
Mind you she does have an Olympic Gold so might be worth paying attention to
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Dave of the Marmottes wrote:
The Josh Foster one wasn't bad but he wasn't skiing very deep snow - looked more like dust on crust.
Agree on the dust on crust, it wasn't the best conditions to demo powder skiing. But Josh Foster happens to be a hell of a good skier and an extremely experienced instructor (Runs the ski school at Big White and is a senior CSIA trainer) so he certainly won't be talking any crap.