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Carving/Skidding

Kano

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Here I go again with not knowing how to title the thread -- it'll come to me by the time I'm done!

I was just about to put the computer away and go buy new tires and goggles, and do a couple of more errands on my way to work for a few hours, when I remembered I've been meaning to post yet another question!

DH said the other day, you're doing really well, but you should practice CARVING your turns on the way back to the lift. (I'm thinking, well, yeah, I'm always thinking "carve, carve" between all the buttoverboots and hands chants) You're SKIDDING them when you get going fast, he said. I'm thinking, but, I don't FEEL like I'm skidding my turns, and I'm thnking about the carving process as I make my turns....

So, with the understanding that SEEING what I'm doing would be better to answer this, what MIGHT I be doing that I can look for and think about next time I get a chance to practice carving at speed? (I'm skiing on 153cm '05/6 K2 True Luvs, I'm 5'4, 165# and shrinking)

Kano
 

tcarey

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Hey Kano,
Many folks may think that skidding is a bad thing but the fact of the matter is you need to have this skill in your bag of tricks.With that said carving should also be included in your bag.
Some visual cues for carving would be seeing two clean arced lines in the snow.Maybe you could start out on a groomed run early in the morning and look back at your tracks.It's pretty easy to see if you are skidding or carving.
There are some activities that you can do to learn how to carve.

Find some easy terrain and just try some traversing across the hill.Tip you ankles and knees up the hill and see what the ski can do.Try to resisit the temptation to twist your feet.You also need to do something with your upper body so you don't just tip and fall over.Try reaching down the hill with your downhill hand.Keeping your shoulders level with the pitch of the slope. I wish I could find some video.I hope this helps in the meantime!
 

Severine

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Try these videoes:

https://www.sportskool.com/videos/carving
https://www.sportskool.com/videos/better-turns

It seemed to sink in better after watching these. Conditions weren't optimal the last time I was out to get really good carved turns, but I felt like I made a lot of technique progress trying to institute some of what I had seen on these videos. (Though I'll admit that I'm a skidder through and through... I only recall carving once, and it was distinctly different feeling.)
 

altagirl

Moderator
Staff member
One of the things I like to do to get the feeling of a pure carve on my ski is to make long skating strokes on a nearly flat traverse. The kind where you can just barely keep moving by gliding flat. But you if you skate, you can cruise along at a good clip. But not steep enough that you'd be tempted to scrub speed at all. And then you either skate one foot at a time or turn normally with both feet, but just purely carve. You're trying to go as fast as possible and it's completely safe to do so. If you're not purely carving, the turning is going to slow you down. If you are just slicing through the snow on edge, it feels extremely fast and smooth. If your ski is flat, it picks up the bumps in the snow and skitters around a little bit, and any skidding is penalizing you by slowing you down. A pure carve (railroad tracks) is going to feel efficient and fast - like an ice skate cruising along.

And like tcarey said, the goal is not to carve 100% of the time. You obviously want to know how to carve and do it when it's appropriate, but it's not always appropriate.
 

Gloria

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Agreed with the responses above, it sounds like you might be making check turns, which are handy to have in your arsenal too. If you are making these turns to maintain speed and stay in your lane on a road cut or similiar to a lift, I don't see a problem. I would even say to practice carving somewhere else until you are comfortable making small carve turns, it is ussually not prudent to make big carvers across such high traffic areas. Perhaps you can advise hubby on this one.
 

volklgirl

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
While you're doing some of these exercises, or just skiing, try listening to your skis. If you're carving, you should hear nothing more than sssssss. Listen for a change in the sound and, just as important, when it occurs during the turn. Most likely, you'll hear sssss change to something else near the middle to end of the turn indicating overrotation and a rushing of the end of the turn to kill speed.

If that's what's happening, try slowing the end of the turn down and aim your skis farther across the hill (or even up the hill just a touch) for speed control instead.
 

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