Wedge vs. Stem; The Difference.

foot2foot wrote:
OK, Britt wants to know the difference, (he claims, maybe he
just wants more argument for argument's sake) and it actually
comes up all the time, you try to explain magic turns and sooner
or later somebody pipes up and says "yeahhh that's just the old
stem christy". But it's not.

People have for all modern skiing time learned to ski in a
wedge for the most part. The question then arose and still does,
how do you get the student to move from wedge turns into
making parallel turns, often called "matching the skis"?

Today, use magic turns.

To make a magic turn, traverse, make a wedge to set the
edges of both skis, transfer weight to the outside ski and
pick up the tail of the inside ski (while leaving the tip of the
inside ski on the snow) and put it back next to the outside ski.
Always hold hands well in front of you, shoulders square to
your direction of travel. Or, at first, keep the shoulders square
to the skis. Skiing is done with the legs, not the shoulders.

To do the old stem that comes out of the twenties or thirties,
traverse, put *all* the weight on the inside ski, (unnatural
and difficult at best), while leaving that inside ski in the traverse
path you're already on, extend the fully unweighted outside ski
to make a "v" shape with both skis, tips close, tails spread
apart. *THEN*, transfer all the weight from the inside ski
(if you haven't fallen over yet) to the *outside ski*, *THENNN*
pick up the inside ski and put it next to the outside ski, and
*TTTHHHENNNN* even out the weight onto both skis a
bit and turn.

Cmon. You *really* can't see the difference?


See, there's a lot of unnatural steps and extra motion
to the stem that doesn't happen if you initiate a turn
with a *wedge*. Right?

Serious replies only please. No subject changing,
small talk or giggle posts.

Pretty please?





Picking up from some of the discussion later in this thread, I was
wondering if some of the std turns and techniques will apply to snow blades.
I am an xc skier (classic, touring, hiking trails and such )and can
wedge turn and sort of get the second ski around for something that I
might believe is a parallel turn on my xc skis. This year I am trying
snowblades (thanks for the previous advice!) and have a pair of 120cm
(with releasable bindings!!).
Questions;
Do the same turn techniques apply that you are discussing, or are
snowblades just to far different?
I am guessing that if I learn the reasonably proper technique on the
short skis, I may someday want longer ones and want to be using the
proper technique.
Is a hockey stop still reasonable?
From an old book on short short skis I gather that making a parallel
turn is almost automatic, but does that induce bad habits? Also, seems
like the parallel is getting a lot of flak as being old fashioned (I
guess in favor of carver turns).
thanks!
GR