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Questions from a new skiing family



 
 
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  #1  
Old February 16th 04, 07:04 AM
Wai Chan
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Default Questions from a new skiing family

First of all, I am duplicated my response to your post to
rec.skiing.alpine as I was told by others that the newsgroup
rec.skiing is becoming obsolete.


Rich Heimlich wrote in message . ..
My family has just gotten into skiing (wife and I went 10 years ago
for our first experience and after many falls I was on intermediate
slopes by the end of the day).

That is great. Just one word of caution though... Don't be in such a
hurry to ski ahead of yourself -- if that is the case. I know it's ego
boosting but being able to advance with confidence is far more
satisfying than hacking it -- not mentioning the higher risk of
getting hurt.

I now have a 9 year-old who had his first experience Saturday and the
two of us (my wife was otherwise engaged but will re-join us next week
for another trip) spent the entire day (after some classes) on
beginner slopes and Big Boulder in the Poconos.

IMHO, skiing is one of the few sports that can be genuinely shared
amongst family members by doing it side by side year after year.
Frankly, my family is the biggest reason I love the sport so much.

Our son was so taken with the experience that he just cannot stop
talking about it so we've decided we want to foster this endeavor.
We've never seen him so happy or confident in himself (he's quite a
normal kid but this was something quite different).

It sound like a great start. Congrats!

First, on technique, apparently going once every 10 years isn't enough
(joking) as the 10 years added a bit of fear to my situation. I want
to be in control before I brave anything more aggressive and my son
felt the same.

Sound good to me.

We can J-turn decent, wedge-slow, wedge turn, etc. However, for both
of us we're stuck with two confusing things:

First, we J-turn down a hill (it was mainly ice so that didn't help)
but sooner or later something forces us to take a more direct line
down the hill which catapults us into a free-for-all chaotic run down
the hill where we don't dare attempt to turn and attempts to wedge
even feel like a waste. What are we doing wrong here that we can
correct in time (hopefully shorter than longer)?

It is very likely that you (and your son) are sitting back on your
skis. It is the biggest error that many skiers (particularly with the
beginners and every once in a while with the more established)
experience is that they are sitting in the back seat. Putting pressure
(as much as you can) on the tongues of the boots with your shins will
help you hold your skis in place while sliding and in turn steer. The
trick here is to flex your ankles and not just bending your knees so
that you're not sitting. Picking up your toes in attempt to touch the
roofs of the boots will help too. Another couple of less obvious
things are keeping your hands forward (straight arms and about
shoulder height) and looking ahead. These two things will naturally
help you to bring your weight forward. Make sure your upper body is
quiet and following your skis. Throwing your arms and body around will
not help you steer but will definitely help you fall.

Second, we see the more experienced skiers managing to just do a quick
stop by doing a hard turn and we cannot fathom how to make that
adjustment. Does this just come with lots of trial and error?

Somewhat. Actually, a nice quick stop amounts to a tightly rounded
(not sharp) turn followed by a abrupt hockey stop. For that reason, I
believe that stopping by turning until the momentum is gone (I think
what you refer to as a J stop) is a far better way to stop than with a
traditional hard wedge (even for a newby). So, in a way, the first
step to a quick parallel stop is the turning stops (with a wedge or in
parallel).

We are going to get private lessons on this next trip for an hour or
so and hopefully we'll get help on these issues. I will say that the
introductory lessons we got at Big Boulder (called Discovery) were
exceptional. They really took time to work with each and every skier
and made sure we got the concepts and went down the hills with us
initially. Very helpful.

Although all (or just about) self-taught skiers will disagree, you are
absolutely doing the correct thing by taking lessons. For the others,
once "self-taught", it's hard to swallow the pride to give in (or
justify) for a lesson -- plus it will really difficult to break those
bad habits.

Now that we're going again, I'm thinking about equipment. We are
pretty adamant that we'll be skiing for many years now as the whole
family really did enjoy it and it took this trip to drive that home.
However, I also don't want to jump in and spend thousands on equipment
to find that we go 3 times a year.

We're complete novices so I have NO idea what good skis are, what
types we want to consider (my wife and son were given skis everyone
referred to as "cheater skis" while I got what looked to be very
similar to what the instructors were skiing on) and so forth.

A good ski shop can help you with that. In general, all major brands
are pretty comparable in quality but you are really paying for is in
performance and in feature. That is, the higher the cost gets you the
better performance/feature. For a starter, the more novice skis are
probably adequate for your needs. There are skis that you can "grow"
into but they generally start at the intermediate level and they are
more expensive. Many ski shops offer seasonal rentals and they are
guarantied to fit you for the season. (In fact, some of the online
places are doing that as well. I don't know how that works though.)
That is a good option, especially for your son, who is constantly
growing. Another good bet is to go to a ski swap just prior to the
beginning of a season. (The ski club that we belong to -- 4 hours from
you -- runs a good sized swap during every Holloween and the weekend
after if you're interested).

For
right now I KNOW I want to get my own boots so that they're
comfortable, warm and not worn which the rentals were questionable on.

Much of the cost of the boots is in the liners. Don't worry about
spending money on a high performance pair of boots for now. Getting
boots with a good (i.e. durable) pair of liners is more important.
This is more so with the front entry boots. Just by merely stepping
into the boots does a job on the liners. One liner on my first pair of
boots literally disintergrated.

I also know that I want to get goggles but have no idea what I should
get. I also wear glasses and wonder if goggles can easily accomodate
glasses as I'd rather avoid having to get prescription goggles. I did
notice many wearing tinted goggles and wonder about night skiing and
their impact.

I wear prescription glasses as well. I myself do not recommend wearing
contacts unless you are planning on using your goggles all the time.
Between the wind, the snow and the dryness in air, I don't think I
need to explain why contacts are bad for skiing. However, I can share
with you what works out quite well for me. Instead of wearing my
normal glasses, I got myself a pair of these sports glasses that have
a wrap-around but small profile. (I don't mean one of those with the
RX inserts) The better makes of these glasses allow for prescription
lenses. On top of that, you can get transitional lenses that are made
out of polycarbonate. My lenses work really well in both bright and
dim situations. My frame is by Oakley, who makes a huge line of frames
of that sort. Now, get yourself a pair of goggles that can fit over
these glasses. I have a pair of UVEX myself but Oakley again has at
least one model that serves that purpose.

I'd consider skis and poles if I could get something at this point
that would be sure to last and that I can comfortable grow into and
get solid use out of for some time.

Skis are a bit more tricky but there isn't much to the poles (except
for the real fancy ones).

Lastly, if anyone is familiar with our area, we live in Southern, NJ
just outside of Philadelphia and we're now looking at where to go this
weekend. We could go back to Jack Frost/Big Boulder, Blue Mountain,
Camelback, Big Bear or any others. We're looking for a place that
would have some pretty good diversity for beginners (aside from one
hill or two, and possibly something cross-country-like).

Although I have not been to it, I have heard many good things around
Elk, which is another 45 minutes or so from Camelback.
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  #3  
Old February 17th 04, 10:07 PM
Walt
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Default Questions from a new skiing family

Sven Golly wrote:

rec.skiing was rmgrouped as a result of the big split-up. It is not
supposed to be used or carried.


Don't tell me what to do, dumbass.

Uh...What was the question again?

--
//-Walt
//
// http://tinyurl.com/3gg3e
  #4  
Old February 19th 04, 03:57 AM
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default Questions from a new skiing family

Hey, I'd say the kid has earned his own ski trail sign. That's the
sign of a real skier. Get him one at...

www.mytrailsign.com

FREE SHIPPING offer through Feb.
  #5  
Old February 21st 04, 09:02 PM
Sue
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Default Questions from a new skiing family

In message ,
" writes
Hey, I'd say the kid has earned his own ski trail sign. That's the
sign of a real skier. Get him one at...

www.mytrailsign.com


Pity you don't do French draglift-crossing signs.
They're yellow and triangular with a graphic that looks like someone
sking uphill while holding onto their six-foot penis extension,
and they say DANGER TELESKI.

Telemarkers from North America can hardly bear to leave 'em in place,
locals can't see what's so funny about a draglift.

--
Sue ])
 




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