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#11
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snip
S. Gione is right, take some skiing lessons to brush up your skiing skills. One more thing: skis have become better in the past years. I replaced my very old skis with carving skis - and it did make a great difference. Rent a pair of new skis, do some training for a day or two - and enjoy the rest of your stay. I don't think you forget how to ski, but remembering may take time depending on the equipment you are lumped with. My second week took 4 days to get to where I was on the last day of my first time on skis. I've always ended up with rented 185-190 non-carve planks, and the first day or so each time felt like a nightmare trying to turn them. By the Wednesday, there were definitely muscles I never knew I had!!! Last yr I got (newish) 175 carvers for the first time, and was back to normal by then end of the first warmup run. I've never been able to turn so easily, handle the bumps, and link so many turns. I don't know what it is, but in Lech I was advised I was not expert enough for carve skis for my 4th/5th week on snow, but in Les Gets they were dishing out carvers to newbies. snip It's not a puzzle. Carvers are designed to turn easily. All skis turn by a combination of being bendy and having a sidecut (ie narrower in the middle than at the ends. Your weight and centrifugal force bend the skis, so they attempt to follow the curve so created. The sidecut increases the bendyness and accentuates the curve. QED. However, all skis are a compromise. A carver ski will not be so stable in the straight line, and if you ski very fast or are very heavy for the length of ski the amount of turn created will be excessive and the skis will feel unpleasant as they try to 'overturn' inside the line you are setting. At speed, too, it can be difficult to 'ride' the carve in a long-radius turn if the ski is too soft. There is an additional problem with some skis (especially with French ones ?) that they lack torsional stiffness, and tend to twist out of the correct curved shape. This is accentuated in carvers by the sidecut. To test this, hold a ski upright in front of you with the tail held firmly between your feet. Try and twist the tip longitudinally. A good ski will twist very little, a bad ski will twist a lot. This is nothing to do with bendiness, which is a choice you make - more bendy for a slower skier, less bendy for a faster skier. Excessive twist means that the ski doesn't adopt the correct curved shape all along its length, but (usually the tip) twists out of line. In summary - the advice you were given in Lech was exactly wrong - newbies should ALWAYS have soft, short carvers, experts may prefer longer, stiffer, less sidecut skis depending on the sort of skiing they are planning. HTH. Jim Hutton |
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#12
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James Hart wrote:
Jim Hutton wrote: On Tue, 6 Jan 2004 09:45:06 -0000, "MoonMan" wrote: Chris Wilburn wrote: My question is do you ever forget how to ski?? Is it like riding a bike were once you have mastered it you really never forget or will I have to start from the beginning. I am guessing the answer will be somewhere in between. I would suggest spending an hour or so at your local dry slope or SnowDome/zone. this should at least start to bring your unused skiing reflexes back. you don't lose them they just have to be used. From my massive experience of livigno (1 day last year) I would say you should have a great time. I would seriously recommend NOT going to the dry-slope (snow dome may be better, I don't know). It is the received wisdom that some dry-slope before you go back to skiing is a good idea, and for years I did this. I found that despite this it took at least a morning to even feel comfortable on snow, let alone be back to last year's standard. I assumed that this was the best I could do, until one year due to circumstances I couldn't do any dry-slope. The difference was amazing - I felt at home on the snow immediately, and was skiing with my usual over-confidence within an hour. Has anyone else found this ? I too find it takes a few runs on snow after running on plastic to get a real 'feel' back but I know I feel a lot more confident after getting a few hours on plastic under my belt before doing the real thing. I've got no direct comparison but next weekend about half our group hasn't skiied since last year whereas the other half will have had a couple of hours on the dry slope. It will be interesting to see the difference between the 2 groups. in my experience it is the change back to plastic from snow that is more difficult. I teach and race on plastic and i find that the first run on snow is wonderfull your skis run so much more easily, but the first run back on plastic is horrible as you have to cope with "Sticky Ice" as my coach described it on monday when several of us had just returned from a week on snow. I do find the plastic is bad for your skiing attidude very strange, ok it's not snow, but it's better than nothing! -- Chris *:-) Downhill Good, Uphill BAD! www.suffolkvikings.org.uk |
#13
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I suspect the shop has something to do with it - my wife was given carvers
in Lech last year - same level of experience! "AndyM" wrote in message ... Turan Fettahoglu wrote: My question is do you ever forget how to ski The wise choice would be for you, having only a week 7 years ago, would be to spend a couple of days in ski school before heading out with your mates. A lot of skiing is "remembered" but the question is whether you have enough experience that can be "remembered". S. Gione is right, take some skiing lessons to brush up your skiing skills. One more thing: skis have become better in the past years. I replaced my very old skis with carving skis - and it did make a great difference. Rent a pair of new skis, do some training for a day or two - and enjoy the rest of your stay. I don't think you forget how to ski, but remembering may take time depending on the equipment you are lumped with. My second week took 4 days to get to where I was on the last day of my first time on skis. I've always ended up with rented 185-190 non-carve planks, and the first day or so each time felt like a nightmare trying to turn them. By the Wednesday, there were definitely muscles I never knew I had!!! Last yr I got (newish) 175 carvers for the first time, and was back to normal by then end of the first warmup run. I've never been able to turn so easily, handle the bumps, and link so many turns. I don't know what it is, but in Lech I was advised I was not expert enough for carve skis for my 4th/5th week on snow, but in Les Gets they were dishing out carvers to newbies. If all the others are advanced, and you are the only beginner, then take some refresher lessons. But saying that, I believe that skiing with one/two better skiers helps you to improve. -- AndyM |
#14
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On Wed, 07 Jan 2004 00:25:10 +0000, Jim Hutton
wrote: On Tue, 6 Jan 2004 09:45:06 -0000, "MoonMan" wrote: Chris Wilburn wrote: My question is do you ever forget how to ski?? Is it like riding a bike were once you have mastered it you really never forget or will I have to start from the beginning. I am guessing the answer will be somewhere in between. I would suggest spending an hour or so at your local dry slope or SnowDome/zone. this should at least start to bring your unused skiing reflexes back. you don't lose them they just have to be used. From my massive experience of livigno (1 day last year) I would say you should have a great time. I would seriously recommend NOT going to the dry-slope (snow dome may be better, I don't know). It is the received wisdom that some dry-slope before you go back to skiing is a good idea, and for years I did this. I found that despite this it took at least a morning to even feel comfortable on snow, let alone be back to last year's standard. I assumed that this was the best I could do, until one year due to circumstances I couldn't do any dry-slope. The difference was amazing - I felt at home on the snow immediately, and was skiing with my usual over-confidence within an hour. Has anyone else found this ? No. I find that a couple of hours on dry slopes before I go, and I am happy within a run or two on the snow. I don't know if it makes any difference what level of skier you are, but for reference, i am a reasonable intermediate level, happy on pretty well anything pisted, not so good in the moguls or off the piste. -- Alex Heney, Global Villager Vuja De - The Feeling You've Never Been Here To reply by email, my address is aDOTjDOTheneyATbtinternetDOTcom |
#15
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![]() Chris Wilburn wrote: My question is do you ever forget how to ski?? Is it like riding a bike were once you have mastered it you really never forget or will I have to start from the beginning. I am guessing the answer will be somewhere in between. Thanks to all for the advice. Reassured me at least that I should have some kind of base to work from. I think I will get a days tuition just as a refresher, and try some of these newer types of ski. From what I have been told on here and by friends dry sloping may not be such a good idea. Chris |
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Dont`t forget | Martin | Snowboarding | 0 | October 8th 03 07:31 AM |