Mary Malmros wrote in
:

David Harris wrote:

Mary Malmros wrote in
news:zPadnb6fFbW4AWbcRVn- :


David Harris wrote:


Pure carving, w/o skidding is a racing technique.

How come Bode Miller skids? Deliberately?

IOW, in the real world, it ain't all as cut and dried as that.



I agree with that - I should have been more clear.

My point was that pure carving carries the most speed through a
turn,which makes it important and suitable to racing, and less
essential to free skiing.

So how come Bode Miller often skids deliberately? Because he doesn't
want to use a tool that is important and suitable to racing? Because
he's so much better than everyone else and doesn't want to make them
look bad?

He does this when he has to, I assume. As do all racers. Why else would
he do it?

Racers also need to lose speed on occasion to keep to an achievable
line. Slalomers also need to snap their skis around faster than a
pure carve allows, and will do that as necessary.

It's much more than "on occasion", given current course sets and
conditions. Go browse the SR archives; there's a link in there to an
off-the-cuff (but still excellent) explanation by Bode.
What are the SR archives? Actually, there's probably no need, I think we
are in agreement.

If you disagree with the amount, i.e. "on occasion", then no big deal.
It was just a phrase - not intended as an absolte measure. If it's
something else, please explain.

I'll try again - the point I wanted to make is that a lot of people seem
to be obsessing over two-ski carving as the ultimate goal in skiing. I
thing there a number of other ways to enjoy a day on the slopes, and that
pure carving is of primary importance to racers, who are measured. If I
skid a bit on the way down, I'm losing time, but no one is measuring
that, so I'm not all that concerned - which I think is the same for the
majority of recreational (i.e. non-racing) skiers.

Thanks,

dh