"foot2foot" wrote in message
...
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.

I don't think it could have been explained any better.
BTW you say you ski the North Wet.
when can I get you out here to the Seattle area to do some turns, and maybe
have you give my second year*skiers a lookover and a tuneup?
I'll pick up your ticket /lunch and beer.