 Poster: A snowHead
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somebody recently asked me how many years i have been skiing, and i said 30, to which he replied i must be a very good skier, but in reality its only 30 weeks, with a 51 week break in between, so just when you get your ski legs back and you actually start to ski well the weeks over and you got a very long time before the next one and the cycle starts again.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Obviously, you just need to ski more often  Longer trips sorts the first problem, and the next trip a few weeks later solves the second one.
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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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@compostcorner, very humble of you! I'm sure after 30 weeks, you are indeed a good skier, but you're right, 30 weeks over 2 seasons would make a difference 
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Prefer to bring it down to complete days as some people do 5 days I a week while others do 7 days. Forme this year I will get 16 full days in & if the snow holds until the Ester holidays it will go up to 22 full days.
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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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@compostcorner, you are quite right. How e.g. a tennis player would you expect to be with only 6 days a year?
Not that that means a week a year is not a bad thing if that's what works for you!
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I've only been skiing about 13 years after starting at 44 or so. However I've gone a bit mad in the last 3 years. 97 days last winter and about 55 in each of the previous 2. Started too late to be a really great skier but it makes a huge difference. Already done 13 this winter 😃
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I think the ideal is starting young and skiing lots.
I'm fortunate enough to have started skiing in the 1970's as my parents were skiers. One week a year but then more than that as adulthood has progressed.
My children have skied since the age of 3 , 6 weeks a year. The eldest is 19 so that is 96 weeks -a lifetime of skiing and more for even regular British skiers.
I squeeze 8 weeks in a season nowadays
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Great skiers start between the age of 3 and 13.
Good skiers start before 18.
If you start after 18, the chances of becoming a great skier are almost zero. It is too late.
It takes about 20 weeks of frequent skiing to become good. About 10 weeks for a boarder.
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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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133 days since I started in March 2012.
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Then when you have rubbish coaching, you go from about 0 to 3 to 1, then you get good coaching and crawl back up to 2 and then 3 again as you have to undo all the bad habits 
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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@bobhitch +1
Also what @Whitegold said.
Furthermore, I think there is the whole subjective business of what is meant by "very good skier". As ever it is a relative term and the position of the observer will make a large difference.
I'm in a similar sort of position to @bobhitch, who I don't actually know, in terms of when started etc. Having started in late 70's I had a long break from about 1982 to about 2004 then I took it up again and discovered I really missed it so have rather accelerated the number of weeks I aim for each year now. I think of myself as a "good skier" rather than a "very good skier" or a "great skier" but then who am I measuring myself against? From the perspective of friends who only took up skiing in 2004 and have done approx 1 week a year since then, I am a very good skier.
Having said all that, the comments others have made about going more often is in my experience very material. Having a fortnight trip or two weeks with a relatively small gap between them made a lot of difference in progression. Go more, you know you want to!
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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.
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All valid points above, depends on how you fit those weeks in, how you use them and how quick you learn. An 8 year old with 3 weeks will likely be better than most people that start at 50 but have 6 weeks.
It's a question that people seem to ask if they don't ski. Guys at work will say 'are you a good skier' and I have no sea how to answer them. I do okay, I'm comfortable with my skiing on pretty much all pistes, but I wouldn't consider that to be good. However someone that hasn't been or has just spent a week on nursery slopes and gentle blues would probably disagree.
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I started at 58 and I think I'm grrreat! (More accurately, I think skiing is grrreat.)
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You know it makes sense.
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I have nor real idea of how many weeks I have skied. Haven't kept a log book.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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I think you do learn quicker if you have less time between sessions.
I find that attitude helps more than age, and I personally refuse to accept age as a limit for any sport. I don't believe in "natural ability": to me, you just have to put the hours in and the rest follows. I'm not a sporty person, but that's worked every time for me.
The average resort has very few expert snowboarders, which suggests perhaps that it's not easier than skiing to master. 10 days won't get you close.
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Poster: A snowHead
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@philwig,
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The average resort has very few expert snowboarders, which suggests perhaps that it's not easier than skiing to master. 10 days won't get you close.
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Few expert snowboarders because there are actually not that many snowboarders around any more - 5 - 10%, but percentage wise I would say they are more skilled than skiers. To me, who has rarely snowboarded, about half of boarders looke compentent versu less than a quarter of skiers.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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@philwig, agreed that attitude is a big help, and that there's no limit on learning (dragged my folks along to the MYAsH Bash last year to try and turn them into skiers)...however I don't think that there's any doubt that generally children learn far quicker because their minds are better at taking on board new things.
Completely disagree with your stance on natural ability though, some people are just good at things, others aren't. I see it all the time in motorsport, there are drivers that have huge backing and loads of track time but simply don't 'get it' as quickly as others. Same goes for any other sport, some people just learn quicker than others.
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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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this is a conversation which is always interesting to us especially form a retail perspective.... when trying to match a boot to someone we base the selection on foot shape, body weight and skier level, i recently had a customer in the shop (mid-late 50's) who, when asked if he really preferred steep black bumps runs to anywhere else on the mountain proclaimed... where i ski not many people ski better than me, and those who do don't speak english! i actually wanted to hand the guy a tape measure...... hopefully he thinks long and hard about what he said at some point
nobody is going to judge anyone... if you started young you can be good or crap, same with someone who starts skiing late, it is all a matter of what YOU want to get out of it, but please just remember wherever you are buying kit, honesty will get you a ski or a boot best suited to where you are now and what you want to achieve, being a cock doesn't
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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I often wondered if there are other activities where you can do one week a year and get competent (or even "good")? Using @under a new name's tennis example, I don't think you'd progress whatsoever playing one week a year and after 30 years you'd still be a rubbish player.
Part of it is very few people compete at skiing and/or there are very few benchmarks. To continue with the tennis example, if someone says they are good at tennis but don't belong to a club and play at least some sort of competive matches, they are probably running around like a headless chicken and hitting the odd good shot by luck. In other activities you can typically gauge someone's standard in discussion i.e., someone that says they like to run, and they can run 10k in 50 minutes then it's clear they are good.
Reassuring to hear that starting skiing at age 35 I can become a "good skiier". Been skiing now for 5 years, but like @Claude B gone a bit mad (or as mad as work and a non skiing wife will allow) and managed about 30 days last season and hopefully same again this. My son started the same time at age three, and although I've sneaked off to do summer ski courses and the like, he is better.
It depends on your outlook. Speaking to a mate who had done one week a year over quite a long period, his aim was always to be able to ski the whole piste map (if he felt like it). I appeared to start with a more technical aim of improving different aspects of my skiing.
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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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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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endomondo keeps a log for me.
14 6-day weeks plus 2 days since the last time I got boots fitted.
That's what I classify as the "reasonably acceptable" duration of my skiing ability, mostly on sH and IO bashes.
Only counted that since we were talking about number of weeks skiing before it's time to think about new boots again.
I could count the number of 6 day weeks before that if I wanted to. That's my ski history with wobbly boots and cementing bad habits, so it doesn't really matter if that's 3 weeks or 12 weeks, other than the first of those 14 1/3rd weeks above being the one trying to undo everything. I used to say that it would take until the wednesday to get back to where I left off the previous year, with 1 week per year skiing, when taking no tuition (starting at age 27)
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Lessons + time on snow + good equipment + fitness = desired outcome
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I never ski in reality.
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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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| philwig wrote: |
I think you do learn quicker if you have less time between sessions.
I find that attitude helps more than age, and I personally refuse to accept age as a limit for any sport. I don't believe in "natural ability": to me, you just have to put the hours in and the rest follows. I'm not a sporty person, but that's worked every time for me.
The average resort has very few expert snowboarders, which suggests perhaps that it's not easier than skiing to master. 10 days won't get you close. |
i'll look forward to red bull dropping travis rice and replacing him with philwig, age 62 in a movie sometime down the road 
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@compostcorner,
If 30 weeks skiing equates to 30 years, a 51 week break makes you over 80 !! (or does it.......!)
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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| Quote: |
I often wondered if there are other activities where you can do one week a year and get competent (or even "good")?
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It all depends on what you mean by competent. Does it mean being able to participate in an activitiy in safety with enjoyment?
I have a friend who comes climbing one week a year with us to the Dolomites. He never leads, but seconds up to grade IV. Is this competent? Actually his belaying technique worries me a bit, but he really enjoys being in the mountains and achieving something.
He also goes scuba diving one week a year. He is a master scuba diver and does this safely.
He goes skiing or boarding once or twice a year as well.
Though we can see skill levels in climbing in the sense of smooth elegant movement (and lack of profanities) and in diving with slow gentle breathing I have noticed that in the bar afterwards no one seems to get quite as fixated as we do in skiing with looking good and nuances of technique.
My friend just likes going away and doing things. As I suspect do most people who have a single 6 day skiing trip once a year.
As to good. Well I know a few good skiers. I know even fewer good (as in grade VI leaders) climbers. To get good you need natural ability, fitness and lots of training. Few of us have even one of those. Yet most of us can get out into the mountains when we can and enjoy ourselves.
Sorry, @philwig, natural ability does exist. No matter how much time I put in I will never, ever even come close to Usain Bolt. I simply do not have the fast twitch muscle. Nor will Mo Farah win the All England Lawn Tennis Championships.
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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.
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| Quote: |
Though we can see skill levels in climbing in the sense of smooth elegant movement (and lack of profanities) and in diving with slow gentle breathing I have noticed that in the bar afterwards no one seems to get quite as fixated as we do in skiing with looking good and nuances of technique.
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Interesting. Why is skiing/boarding so obsessional? Is golf the same?
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Interesting. Why is skiing/boarding so obsessional? Is golf the same?
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I have never met anyone who plays golf
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You know it makes sense.
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@johnE, ha ha
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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I'm not sure that the majority of weekly tourists do care or are fixated on looking good and nuances of technique.
These days from what I see the majority care about; number of km the resort has, number of kms they skied, how many/which Blacks, reds, blues, greens they did, how fast they went!
As for the "how many weeks" reality is that by skiing 1/52 weeks you'll probably spend at least 2 days re-learning/gaining legs, 2 days consolidating learnings and then 2 days learning... if you really want to improve you need to spend a lot longer on the piste each year.... if you want to be "really good" (or probably as good as the majority of weekly tourists think they are) then you probably need to live in resort somehow.... a season of 18 weeks 5 days a week makes you as good at a weekly skier who's been skiing 45 years (based on previous assumption weekly tourist spends 4/6 days relearning/consolidating)!
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Poster: A snowHead
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@philwig, altitude is also helpful
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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@marcellus, I think how quickly you get your legs back depends on what type of skier you are and what kind of day you do. I generally feel that I'm taking 'baby steps' in learning over the first couple of days but by day 3 I'm building on things...although that's based on going more than once a year.
Also 'days on piste' vary, some people aren't on the lift until 10, stop for coffee at 11, lunch at 1, another stop before 3 and back in digs by 4. On the other hand some people are a lift a 9, home at 5. The people in the latter camp get about double the time of skiing to the same 'day'. In reality though most skiers fall some place in the middle, I tend to like skiing early to late but with a stop or two along the way.
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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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Must say that I don't think I began to become a "good" skier until doing my first season as a "ski host" - so skiing ~6 days a week for the ~16 weeks of the season, in more or less all conditions.
This is despite about (?) 35-40 weeks skiing ages 4-25 including some race coaching and school and uni racing, much on dry slope.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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I've done 17trips/weeks. By the time I've accounted for 2 injuries and one hangover (incapable of walking) I've skied 96days. The first trip I was useless, the next 1/2dozen I thought I was getting pretty good, the next 1/2doz was a dawning realisation I'm actually crap... so that leaves 4 weeks of reality (5 if you include the first one) 
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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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Have done 13 seasons (60-100 days per season) + 10 week long trips, split roughly 60/40 boarding/skiing.
Am comptent, and know my limits. I think you need to be able to compete in something like the Derby de Chavanette to be "good".
TBH Getting back to the carpark in one piece each day wearing a big smile is my goal.
Becoming good probably won't happen for me, but its a possibility for my kids who have done 12 full seasons before this one.
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i dont consider myself a good skier, i think i am competent, and can get down any slope exept for moguls, i guess a lot of you are fortunate that you can have more than one ski holiday per season, but some of us can only afford one, as skiing is quite an expensive holiday, i consider myself a holiday skier, i want to just cruise around the mountains taking in the scenery, stopping for drinks, i dont want to go down mountains that are to steep for me, its just to much like hard work, and i want to enjoy my holiday, i guess i"m on the so called intermediate plateau, and thats good enough for me to enjoy a skiing holiday
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@WindOfChange, re Derby de Chavanette - do you mean "enter and finish" (which I don't think requires a great deal of skill having just watched vid from 2010) or "be competitive in" which other than a lot of strength and stamina probably does require some skill (though a couple of them were just straight lining  )
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| CEM wrote: |
| this is a conversation which is always interesting to us especially from a retail perspective.... when trying to match a boot to someone ... honesty will get you ... what you want to achieve... |
It's a significant issue with off piste stuff, where you really need to know people's ability before you put them in a place they don't want to be.
It appears that objectivity is sex/ culture dependent. Blokes almost always exaggerate their ability; women mostly don't and may be over modest. Trump's people almost always exaggerate, Canadians and Brits less so. Some European cultures seem over confident. Back in the day you'd often come across American males with very long skis which they could not handle. I think I can guess what was going on there.
I think it may be partly if you're from a snowy country that your national pride is at stake, not something which Brits have.
I think it's a good point to suggest that you're unlikely to become expert at any sport you only do one week a year.
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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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| Whitegold wrote: |
Great skiers start between the age of 3 and 13.
Good skiers start before 18.
If you start after 18, the chances of becoming a great skier are almost zero. It is too late.
It takes about 20 weeks of frequent skiing to become good. About 10 weeks for a boarder. |
Arbitrary nonsense.
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During school: 5 weeks
During Uni: 2 weeks
After Uni: 1 season where I skied 10-20 hours per week
1992-2006: 2 weeks
Since 2006: 12 weeks
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FAQ
