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Questions from a new skiing family
First of all, I am duplicated my response to your post to
rec.skiing.alpine as I was told by others that the newsgroup rec.skiing is becoming obsolete. Rich Heimlich wrote in message . .. My family has just gotten into skiing (wife and I went 10 years ago for our first experience and after many falls I was on intermediate slopes by the end of the day). That is great. Just one word of caution though... Don't be in such a hurry to ski ahead of yourself -- if that is the case. I know it's ego boosting but being able to advance with confidence is far more satisfying than hacking it -- not mentioning the higher risk of getting hurt. I now have a 9 year-old who had his first experience Saturday and the two of us (my wife was otherwise engaged but will re-join us next week for another trip) spent the entire day (after some classes) on beginner slopes and Big Boulder in the Poconos. IMHO, skiing is one of the few sports that can be genuinely shared amongst family members by doing it side by side year after year. Frankly, my family is the biggest reason I love the sport so much. Our son was so taken with the experience that he just cannot stop talking about it so we've decided we want to foster this endeavor. We've never seen him so happy or confident in himself (he's quite a normal kid but this was something quite different). It sound like a great start. Congrats! First, on technique, apparently going once every 10 years isn't enough (joking) as the 10 years added a bit of fear to my situation. I want to be in control before I brave anything more aggressive and my son felt the same. Sound good to me. We can J-turn decent, wedge-slow, wedge turn, etc. However, for both of us we're stuck with two confusing things: First, we J-turn down a hill (it was mainly ice so that didn't help) but sooner or later something forces us to take a more direct line down the hill which catapults us into a free-for-all chaotic run down the hill where we don't dare attempt to turn and attempts to wedge even feel like a waste. What are we doing wrong here that we can correct in time (hopefully shorter than longer)? It is very likely that you (and your son) are sitting back on your skis. It is the biggest error that many skiers (particularly with the beginners and every once in a while with the more established) experience is that they are sitting in the back seat. Putting pressure (as much as you can) on the tongues of the boots with your shins will help you hold your skis in place while sliding and in turn steer. The trick here is to flex your ankles and not just bending your knees so that you're not sitting. Picking up your toes in attempt to touch the roofs of the boots will help too. Another couple of less obvious things are keeping your hands forward (straight arms and about shoulder height) and looking ahead. These two things will naturally help you to bring your weight forward. Make sure your upper body is quiet and following your skis. Throwing your arms and body around will not help you steer but will definitely help you fall. Second, we see the more experienced skiers managing to just do a quick stop by doing a hard turn and we cannot fathom how to make that adjustment. Does this just come with lots of trial and error? Somewhat. Actually, a nice quick stop amounts to a tightly rounded (not sharp) turn followed by a abrupt hockey stop. For that reason, I believe that stopping by turning until the momentum is gone (I think what you refer to as a J stop) is a far better way to stop than with a traditional hard wedge (even for a newby). So, in a way, the first step to a quick parallel stop is the turning stops (with a wedge or in parallel). We are going to get private lessons on this next trip for an hour or so and hopefully we'll get help on these issues. I will say that the introductory lessons we got at Big Boulder (called Discovery) were exceptional. They really took time to work with each and every skier and made sure we got the concepts and went down the hills with us initially. Very helpful. Although all (or just about) self-taught skiers will disagree, you are absolutely doing the correct thing by taking lessons. For the others, once "self-taught", it's hard to swallow the pride to give in (or justify) for a lesson -- plus it will really difficult to break those bad habits. Now that we're going again, I'm thinking about equipment. We are pretty adamant that we'll be skiing for many years now as the whole family really did enjoy it and it took this trip to drive that home. However, I also don't want to jump in and spend thousands on equipment to find that we go 3 times a year. We're complete novices so I have NO idea what good skis are, what types we want to consider (my wife and son were given skis everyone referred to as "cheater skis" while I got what looked to be very similar to what the instructors were skiing on) and so forth. A good ski shop can help you with that. In general, all major brands are pretty comparable in quality but you are really paying for is in performance and in feature. That is, the higher the cost gets you the better performance/feature. For a starter, the more novice skis are probably adequate for your needs. There are skis that you can "grow" into but they generally start at the intermediate level and they are more expensive. Many ski shops offer seasonal rentals and they are guarantied to fit you for the season. (In fact, some of the online places are doing that as well. I don't know how that works though.) That is a good option, especially for your son, who is constantly growing. Another good bet is to go to a ski swap just prior to the beginning of a season. (The ski club that we belong to -- 4 hours from you -- runs a good sized swap during every Holloween and the weekend after if you're interested). For right now I KNOW I want to get my own boots so that they're comfortable, warm and not worn which the rentals were questionable on. Much of the cost of the boots is in the liners. Don't worry about spending money on a high performance pair of boots for now. Getting boots with a good (i.e. durable) pair of liners is more important. This is more so with the front entry boots. Just by merely stepping into the boots does a job on the liners. One liner on my first pair of boots literally disintergrated. I also know that I want to get goggles but have no idea what I should get. I also wear glasses and wonder if goggles can easily accomodate glasses as I'd rather avoid having to get prescription goggles. I did notice many wearing tinted goggles and wonder about night skiing and their impact. I wear prescription glasses as well. I myself do not recommend wearing contacts unless you are planning on using your goggles all the time. Between the wind, the snow and the dryness in air, I don't think I need to explain why contacts are bad for skiing. However, I can share with you what works out quite well for me. Instead of wearing my normal glasses, I got myself a pair of these sports glasses that have a wrap-around but small profile. (I don't mean one of those with the RX inserts) The better makes of these glasses allow for prescription lenses. On top of that, you can get transitional lenses that are made out of polycarbonate. My lenses work really well in both bright and dim situations. My frame is by Oakley, who makes a huge line of frames of that sort. Now, get yourself a pair of goggles that can fit over these glasses. I have a pair of UVEX myself but Oakley again has at least one model that serves that purpose. I'd consider skis and poles if I could get something at this point that would be sure to last and that I can comfortable grow into and get solid use out of for some time. Skis are a bit more tricky but there isn't much to the poles (except for the real fancy ones). Lastly, if anyone is familiar with our area, we live in Southern, NJ just outside of Philadelphia and we're now looking at where to go this weekend. We could go back to Jack Frost/Big Boulder, Blue Mountain, Camelback, Big Bear or any others. We're looking for a place that would have some pretty good diversity for beginners (aside from one hill or two, and possibly something cross-country-like). Although I have not been to it, I have heard many good things around Elk, which is another 45 minutes or so from Camelback. |
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Questions from a new skiing family
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#3
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Questions from a new skiing family
Sven Golly wrote:
rec.skiing was rmgrouped as a result of the big split-up. It is not supposed to be used or carried. Don't tell me what to do, dumbass. Uh...What was the question again? -- //-Walt // // http://tinyurl.com/3gg3e |
#4
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Questions from a new skiing family
Hey, I'd say the kid has earned his own ski trail sign. That's the
sign of a real skier. Get him one at... www.mytrailsign.com FREE SHIPPING offer through Feb. |
#5
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Questions from a new skiing family
In message ,
" writes Hey, I'd say the kid has earned his own ski trail sign. That's the sign of a real skier. Get him one at... www.mytrailsign.com Pity you don't do French draglift-crossing signs. They're yellow and triangular with a graphic that looks like someone sking uphill while holding onto their six-foot penis extension, and they say DANGER TELESKI. Telemarkers from North America can hardly bear to leave 'em in place, locals can't see what's so funny about a draglift. -- Sue ]) |
#6
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Questions from a new skiing family
Chuck wrote in message . 4...
(Wai Chan) wrote in om: First of all, I am duplicated my response to your post to rec.skiing.alpine as I was told by others that the newsgroup rec.skiing is becoming obsolete. Would be nice to see this entire thread. The german server doesn't carry messages from rec.skiing though. It's just there to complete the heirarchy. Try google.com under Groups. They keep all the archives of everything including rec.skiing and rec.skiing.*. In fact, I'm using that for this follow up as we speak. |
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