I think perhaps some are putting too much emphasis on Carv for their enjoyment, or lack thereof skiing? OR maybe just allowing it to put to much pressure on you? This is a very interesting phenomena to me. Why are people looking to Carv as some sort of validation, one way or another, on their skiing and joy on the mountain is the question.
I have a very different experience with it:
1) I love it as a tool to get unedited feedback on whether I'm achieving something or not on each metric or on an individual one when that's the focus. Is that frustrating at times? Absolutely. But it's not any different than when an instructor tells me I'm not doing something right or that I think I am in my skiing. That happens all the time too given that I participate in an adult seasonal program. Maybe I am just a glutton for punishment?
2) I really like the tracking of stats like days, number of turns, distance skied, etc. that are on leaderboards right along with SkiIQ. I don't care about the global leaderboard, but I like to compare with those on my same mountain. I've had random people find me on the mountain from Carv last season... so random but also kind of cool! I spoke to some I never would have if they weren't like... do you use Carv by any chance and are you Melissa? True story... and it wasn't about scores at all, last year I was on top of many of the metrics that were tracked (more were tracked last year than this year for whatever reason) and a few people noticed that.
3) It's super fun to break a scoring record, however, I also tell Carv to get the heck out of dodge when I feel like I'm skiing awesome and she disagrees. Eh who cares? The fun is what matters, and I ski how it feels fun to ski unless I am working on stuff. I know I'm making good smooth turns when I feel good skiing, even though some technical aspect is not what Carv is looking for that doesn't equate to me to feel bad about my skiing. I know I'm a good skier with or without Carv telling me so. Do I want to get better? Of course... but I'm not a bad skier where I am now either. Conditions play a big part too, and I ski on ice so it is what it is that Carv doesn't love all of that. The technology isn't perfect, accepting that is key and knowing that there are some variables much beyond your control is helpful too.
I would challenge others to make your own happiness on the mountain with or without Carv, just like in life. Fun and happiness is always partially a choice, as is becoming so wrapped up in technology that you lose the outdoors connection to skiing. If we wait for the perfect conditions or to be a better skier "some day" etc. to allow ourselves to be happy and have fun skiing... well there is a lot of time wasted in between. Carv doesn't dictate any of this, unless we let it for some reason. It's not that deep, don't overthink it so much. If that is not possible and it is just making you feel bad, definitely better to move on from it because it is definitely not for you and not worth feeling bad about. But if there was a reason you wanted Carv to begin with and it happened to get off track, I would try to reframe what you are using it for and seeing if you can get that out of it without it turning into a drag on the enjoyment aspect or feeling bad about one's skiing just like you would in a lesson. Perhaps that is part of it, maybe only using it for shorter burst for live feedback and making it silent for other parts of the ski day would be a better compromise. After all, we are not usually in full day lessons from bell to bell when we ski, and there could be feedback fatigue with a device that is always on for some.
Thank you, that’s so sweet! I always feel like skiing as a snowboarder has given me a unique look at terrain and how to ski it.
My edge similarity is always very good, so that does not seem to be connected to my g-force issue as she told this student in his case where he had an issue with it.
