beginner skiier technique question?? turning

On Tuesday, February 25, 2014 11:13:09 AM UTC-7, VtSkier wrote:

No. Really...

Don't listen to anything anybody says about skiing unless they are a ski
instructor and is in front of you and both you and (s)he have skis on.

Well, I was a ski instructor.

I wasn't trying to give a lesson. Which I think is something that the original poster understands. But you certainly CAN tell people things that will help.

Steering the ski (pointing the big toe it was called) is an overlooked priority for the beginner. Talk about edging, arc, radius are way over their heads.

I think that the single most important beginner tip I could give, that I learned from instructor training, is to reduce the amount of slope that you tackle to something that going straight down for some distance does not frighten you. THEN practice. Go out and frighten yourself sometimes too. But just get down that! :-)

On 2/25/14 10:13 AM, VtSkier wrote:
All of the words in the world cannot tell you how to ski. You need to be
shown.

People learn differently; some can translate words to self-action
easily, others need demonstration. I once was teaching a physicist
friend who was unable to understand edging until I cut out a cardboard
exaggerated ski shape and showed him the edge behavior under load. That
plus a few vector diagrams on a lunch napkin had him carving in one
afternoon. I'm fond of words - Lito Tejeda FLores' book _Breakthrough on
Skis_ is gospel to me, gobbledegook to others.

I agree that many people do well only from direct demonstration. Maybe
even most.

On 2/24/14 6:38 PM, ajnadel wrote:
when I attempt a parallel turn, my skis tend to end the turn facing
directly downhill, which can turn into a mad tumble down the slope.
people say that I should dig in the edges, but to pull off a successful
turn, it seems like pure luck to come all the way around.
any suggestions?

You are pulling back from the acceleration occurring when the ski passes
through the fall line. That stops the turn cold. Keep your weight forward.

On 2/25/2014 3:44 PM, lal_truckee wrote:
On 2/24/14 6:38 PM, ajnadel wrote:
when I attempt a parallel turn, my skis tend to end the turn facing
directly downhill, which can turn into a mad tumble down the slope.
people say that I should dig in the edges, but to pull off a successful
turn, it seems like pure luck to come all the way around.
any suggestions?

You are pulling back from the acceleration occurring when the ski passes
through the fall line. That stops the turn cold. Keep your weight forward.

And then there's the little trick I pull when I've finished a turn and
am almost stopped, push hard into the tongues of my boots and pirouette
around 180 degrees to parallel park against the edge of the trail. How
can I possibly teach that? and Pigo, I was an instructor too many, many
years ago. Now I'm just an old fart who skis pretty good.

VtSkier wrote:

180 degrees to parallel park

Hand brake turn.....

Now I'm just an old fart who skis pretty good.


I chased you you ski very well, most would have an impossible time to
keep up with you if you pushed it.

On Tuesday, February 25, 2014 4:30:43 PM UTC-6, downhill wrote:


I chased you you ski very well, most would have an impossible time to
keep up with you if you pushed it.


There's a fix for that -- ski ahead of him and then crash. Or better yet, ski behind him until he crashes, and then you DON'T crash.

Actually, I showed a former user of this group a really fun thing to do, on the groomed boilerplate at Santa Fe one snowy afternoon. "Hey bubba, watch this!" Then I crashed, did a 360, and skiied out of it and truthfully said "I meant to do that."

He tried it and agreed that it WAS a cool stunt. The flying ice shards churned up by your ski edges and blown into your face feels better than you can imagine. It's like a cross between an adrenaline rush and a shot of ice-cold single-malt.

I also did the "Or better yet" stunt on him at Taos in Kachina Bowl the next day, but he didn't think that was quite as cool. The most surprising part was -- it was in a triggered-avalanche runout field, and I was UNABLE to crash in that junk.

Those of you who have seen me ski know that I am fearless in any terrain and inept in almost all of it. Still, I was unable to crash when skiing in black-diamond avalanche trash, even though I have no problem falling down on the bunny slope.

But -- I am one of the very, very few people on this group who have ever logged two or more ski days in south Texas. And that's better than skiing at one of the lost resorts.

On 2/25/2014 5:52 PM, wrote:
(snip)

But -- I am one of the very, very few people on this group who have ever logged two or more ski
days in south Texas. And that's better than skiing at one of the lost
resorts.

If I'm not mistaken that might not have been hard to do a couple of
weeks ago.

But then, I'd be interested in knowing where you pulled that off. I can
see a couple of day of snow in South Texas but a hill? Snow on a sand
dune? Curious minds need to know.

On Tuesday, February 25, 2014 5:07:12 PM UTC-6, VtSkier wrote:
On 2/25/2014 5:52 PM, wrote:

(snip)



But -- I am one of the very, very few people on this group who have ever logged two or more ski
days in south Texas. And that's better than skiing at one of the lost
resorts.



If I'm not mistaken that might not have been hard to do a couple of
weeks ago.

But then, I'd be interested in knowing where you pulled that off. I can
see a couple of day of snow in South Texas but a hill? Snow on a sand
dune? Curious minds need to know.

Skiing out of my driveway and down the neighborhood streets, back in the 1990s. South Texas "snow" generally starts with half an inch of ice, and then follows with whatever Ullr decrees. But the major snow events recently reported in Texas were all in north Texas, not south Texas (AKA Austin and points south). All we got down here was a few days of 1/10" thick black ice..

Amarillo typically gets a foot of snow every year. Problem is, that foot of snow is two feet taller than the biggest hill within a hundred miles. It's a lot like how Oklahoma gets all those tornadoes, and half of them do almost $83 worth of damage each.

I've found that I can prevent south Texas snow by waxing my skis. Since I've started, I've noticed that the mere act of THINKING about waxing my skis prevents most snow events, or at least what passes for now here.

But it doesn't work to prevent non-skiiable black ice, tho.

Jim in Texas

On 25/02/2014 19:15, downhill wrote:
BrritSki wrote:
On 25/02/2014 18:14, downhill wrote:
ajnadel wrote:
when I attempt a parallel turn, my skis tend to end the turn facing
directly downhill, which can turn into a mad tumble down the slope.
people say that I should dig in the edges, but to pull off a successful
turn, it seems like pure luck to come all the way around.
any suggestions?




Try...
putting your hand in your pocket and paying for a lesson or
three.


I do.

I might take one for SL on thurday night
then I have two days of downhill training before the DH and I might have
my regular coach at Okemo spend and hour or so with me during the
training time.

Not you, the original poster...

On 2/24/2014 9:38 PM, ajnadel wrote:
when I attempt a parallel turn, my skis tend to end the turn facing
directly downhill, which can turn into a mad tumble down the slope.
people say that I should dig in the edges, but to pull off a successful
turn, it seems like pure luck to come all the way around.
any suggestions?

I think LAL nailed it. You are sitting back after you have come half-way
around and that is cancelling your turn. Keep forward and you should
come all the way around. But see what I meant by skiing being counter-
intuitive? To keep your heels (of your skis) sliding you need to keep
your weight toward the tips.

Again, I repeat...
Find a good instructor
and
We are all (well mostly all) sorry that we hijacked your thread for the
usual nonsense that goes on here.