bounceswoosh
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Wouldn't that be sweet!! demo boots!!
There's a backcountry store in Breck that demos boots - but they're all AT boots for Dynafit bindings.
Wouldn't that be sweet!! demo boots!!
How do you experience the true turn radius of the ski and also manage to ski slowly? That seems like a contradiction to me ... unless on a green, which can work, but it's tricky with all the obstacles ... I mean, beginners .... in the way.
In clinics, we do the carving drill in a traverse as explained above. You are doing nothing but putting both skis on edge and letting them carve at their turn radius. Look back at your tracks to see if you indeed made those nice railroad tracks :-)Although now that I think about it, in the last few years, they always had me start the carving drill headed down the fall line ... not starting in a traverse.
What are leg sleeves?
In clinics, we do the carving drill in a traverse as explained above. You are doing nothing but putting both skis on edge and letting them carve at their turn radius. Look back at your tracks to see if you indeed made those nice railroad tracks :-)
To force a ski to a smaller-than-construction-radius non-smeared but carved turn you need quite some power and speed would help.
I wouldn't want you to risk a fall at those speeds until your knee is feeling better!
We do have a limited ability to tighten the radius of our ski's designed arc by using our weight plus big G forces (think speed) to max bend it.
Me, neither! That's why I started this thread - I'm not so much interested in carving as in speed control, and I was hoping to accomplish that using short radius turns, because blue slopes are crowded enough that I don't like going wide.
I got into a bit of an argument with my husband today about this, because he said of course you can tighten the turn radius without having to skid - that the TR is a multiplier, and you just have to be skilled enough to bend the ski. After some back and forth, in which I pointed out that I personally am not a competitive slalom skier with quads to match, he said that to him, skill is the same as strength .... anyway, I think he finally came around to agreeing that while it is possible to do a pure carve at a tighter TR than the sidecut of the ski, it might not be possible for *me* to do that to any great degree. Which, like, I thought that was the point of the conversation ...
But, again, carving at speed is not the goal here! Skiing well at slow speeds on groomers is the goal, which in turn I think will help me all over the mountain. As @jellyflake said, skiing slow is harder than skiing fast.
I feel like the whole "ski the fast line slow" thing is relevant here, but I never did understand it despite many attempts, and I suspect it's a more dynamic movement than I'd be comfortable with just yet.
BUT HEY! I went to yoga today, and I was surprised by some of what my knee was willing to do. I was able to do hero pose a lot lower than I expected, with a block in the middle position and a blanket under my knee. Hot yoga helps with mobility, but still. Frog squat, on the other hand - I was able to do it, but there was a lot of pressure in my knee, and I just didn't think it was worth holding it and finding out if it was good or bad.
@Skisailor , how is your leg doing these days? Is it back to full function? Did you find that you had to fight for confidence, or was it just there for you?
Although now that I think about it, in the last few years, they always had me start the carving drill headed down the fall line ... not starting in a traverse.
@bounceswoosh I wouldn't worry so much about carving with your knee. Keeping your edges a bit flatter with more skidded turns won't aggravate it as much. Just work on shaping your turns more (easier to do with skidded turns) and treat your knee more kindly. Years after knee surgery, when I spend all day carving a lot, I still get a bit creaky feeling in that knee.
I used leg warmers after rehabbing a knee. Not that often while skiing unless it was really cold. But did feel good to have it over the recovering leg for a few hours after skiing.I love this thread! Lots of useful information, and it just so happens to be pertinent to what I am working on right now!
On that note, I pulled out my Kastle LX82s today, since my Kenjas are kind of skiing me this season, at my new lighter weight. Boy, a full-camber, softer ski is a real hoot! The tails on the Kastles won't let me cheat at the ends of my turns. I'm going to ski them a LOT more to work on my skills.
Leg sleeves are better known as leg warmers. I wear them mountain biking sometimes.