What a difference a lesson makes

I went to Ski Apache yesterday, a nice weekday jaunt and we'd had some
snow there, so that almost the whole mountain was open. A shop in
Ruidoso has a deal where you can demo three skis. I also planned to
take a one hour private lesson since it was strongly emphasized here
that the new skis ski differently.

When I got to the mountain, they told me that instead of the expensive
private lesson, they'd just put me in a class, since nobody else was
there, and I'd have a two hour private lesson essentially, and could
have a second in the afternoon for a small upgrade.

My instructor started off by having me ski. Long story short, I was
doing things completely incorrectly. She ended up pretty much spending
the whole day with me, minus a lunch break. Each run down, she'd focus
on something different, or have me do some exercise to emphasize a
point. I could do each thing but usually reverted to my bad way of
skiing. Finally towards the end of the afternoon I started seeing how
all the parts fit together: balance and position, correctly timed
extension and compression, turning the knees into the hill instead of
leaning my whole body into the hill, using one's ankles, not shoulders,
to stear the ski, keeping weight forward, and keeping arms forward,
and extending forward and up, not up and back, and keeping ones shins
against the front of the boot, taking weight off the back tips so the
skis could be turned by the ankle. By the end of the day I could follow
her tracks almost exactly, slowing myself by letting the back of the
skis slide a bit (as opposed to digging the whole edges in like big
anchors), to control my speed so I didn't run up on her skis. What a
revelation it finally was, and glorious: for the accomplishment, but
mainly just for the pleasure of smooth, controlled turns with little
effort, instead of skiing across the slope, throwing myself at the snow
with my edges dug in and my body stretched away from it, looking like a
cartoon character trying to skid to a stop, then going back across the
hill and doing it on the other side. When I asked earlier in this group
about a ski that would let me carve without it coming out from under
me, I was wrong in thinking it was the ski. It was me mostly. True, the
skis I demoed did hold the edge way better than the beginner skis I
rented that first day. But I no longer needed the edge to violently dig
in in order to have a prayer of making a turn or to traverse the slope.
I went from being out of control to being in control.

It was a lucky happenstance that I went on a day when the place was
empty, an instructor had nothing else to do all day and was happy to
make the bucks, and I had lots of runs with her to work and practice
until I was able to put it together.

So, time to buy some skis....

BillJosephson wrote:
I went to Ski Apache yesterday, a nice weekday jaunt and we'd had some
snow there, so that almost the whole mountain was open. A shop in
Ruidoso has a deal where you can demo three skis. I also planned to
take a one hour private lesson since it was strongly emphasized here
that the new skis ski differently.

When I got to the mountain, they told me that instead of the expensive
private lesson, they'd just put me in a class, since nobody else was
there, and I'd have a two hour private lesson essentially, and could
have a second in the afternoon for a small upgrade.

My instructor started off by having me ski. Long story short, I was
doing things completely incorrectly. She ended up pretty much spending
the whole day with me, minus a lunch break. Each run down, she'd focus
on something different, or have me do some exercise to emphasize a
point. I could do each thing but usually reverted to my bad way of
skiing. Finally towards the end of the afternoon I started seeing how
all the parts fit together: balance and position, correctly timed
extension and compression, turning the knees into the hill instead of
leaning my whole body into the hill, using one's ankles, not shoulders,
to stear the ski, keeping weight forward, and keeping arms forward,
and extending forward and up, not up and back, and keeping ones shins
against the front of the boot, taking weight off the back tips so the
skis could be turned by the ankle. By the end of the day I could follow
her tracks almost exactly, slowing myself by letting the back of the
skis slide a bit (as opposed to digging the whole edges in like big
anchors), to control my speed so I didn't run up on her skis. What a
revelation it finally was, and glorious: for the accomplishment, but
mainly just for the pleasure of smooth, controlled turns with little
effort, instead of skiing across the slope, throwing myself at the snow
with my edges dug in and my body stretched away from it, looking like a
cartoon character trying to skid to a stop, then going back across the
hill and doing it on the other side. When I asked earlier in this group
about a ski that would let me carve without it coming out from under
me, I was wrong in thinking it was the ski. It was me mostly. True, the
skis I demoed did hold the edge way better than the beginner skis I
rented that first day. But I no longer needed the edge to violently dig
in in order to have a prayer of making a turn or to traverse the slope.
I went from being out of control to being in control.

It was a lucky happenstance that I went on a day when the place was
empty, an instructor had nothing else to do all day and was happy to
make the bucks, and I had lots of runs with her to work and practice
until I was able to put it together.

So, time to buy some skis....

Wow! Thanks for sharing. You provided an excellent summary of what
you leanred and it seems that you learned a lot. Nice.

And yes, it's the skier not the ski - to a point. Eventually, your
equipment will make a difference. Even more importantly, the condition
of your equipment will make a difference.
--
Marty