• Women skiers, this is the place for you -- an online community without the male-orientation you'll find in conventional ski magazines and internet ski forums. At TheSkiDiva.com, you can connect with other women to talk about skiing in a way that you can relate to, about things that you find of interest. Be sure to join our community to participate (women only, please!). Registration is fast and simple. Just be sure to add [email protected] to your address book so your registration activation emails won't be routed as spam. And please give careful consideration to your user name -- it will not be changed once your registration is confirmed.

New Skier

freeskier

Diva in Training
Thanks SkiDiva for letting me part of this group! Here goes my first post...
A bit of background...I'm in my late 40's, took skiing lessons on a local ski hill 2 years ago. It would be considered a bunny hill ( good steepness to it, so not close to being flat at all) Felt comfortable, finshed the classes and then Covid hit. Fast track to now, I've tried an easy green hill, Pakenham hill in Ottawa and was nervous when coming off the chairlift (never fell off...big win for me :smile: but ended up doing pizza most of the way down. Then did Blue Mountain on the Graduate hill ( beginner's hill) and same thing...did pizza all the way. I feel that I can't turn because of the fear of the speed I start feeling and lock into pizza. Feeling discouraged that I won't overcome my fear. Also, I'm a solo skier...none of my girlfriends are interested ( got into it to encourage my kids to try it...they are doing blues hills now, which makes me a very proud mom). Anyone take private lessons at Blue Mountain or recommend a place in Ontario? Looking forward to feeling that freeness of going downhill again.
 

ski diva

Administrator
Staff member
Welcome to the forum and of course, to skiing, too! Lessons will do a lot to improve your skill and your confidence. Hopefully, someone here will have some recommendations for you.
 

freeskier

Diva in Training
Wow, one end of the province to the other....Have to look up some instructors at Blue for you. Or..have you ever been to Brimacombe?

And welcome to the Ski Diva's!
I haven't been to Brimacombe, but will definitely look into it.
That would be fantastic if you could look up some instructors at Blue. I'm a passholder, so I will be going back there this season. Ideally an experienced female instructor would be the best:smile:
You can email me any info to my email. Thanks so much!
 

Iwannaski

Angel Diva
@freeskier ... I’m not that far different from you in terms of ability.

There are two things that keep me from pizza’ing.
1) pizza’ing hurts my knees. Is it not painful for you?
2) I find that it’s easier to not pizza and parallel when I’m going a touch more….not just faster, but moving. If you’re scared, the moving is scary, and then you might pizza to slow yourself down, when what you NEED to do is actually move down the mountain to turn and across the mountain to slow. Does that make sense?

I did a lesson when I felt stuck like you do… you’re absolutely right to do a private. I love skiing solo for the meditative quiet it brings. You’ll be able to ski with your kids and solo when you’re ready. Read all the stuff here…there were a lot of tips that I found super helpful.

Welcome.
 

freeskier

Diva in Training
1) slight pain in the knees that lingers a bit, but more in the thighs.
2) Thanks for your tips. So speed comes in the turn...this is when my heart rate increases :smile: Just have to overcome this on steeper hills.
Thanks for your reply!
 

newboots

Angel Diva
Hey, @freeskier ! Your question reminds me of myself six years ago. We have all been there. I, too, applaud your plan to get a lesson (or more) at exactly this point. There are some ways to teach you control that, once you have them, you'll be much more comfortable heading down the trail. There are two things: learning how to stop readily, and learning how to control speed without the pizza, so you can save the pizza for lunch. :bag: (corny joke apology)

(But the pizza is always there for you!)

And congratulations for taking up skiing at your age! I started at an advanced age and, while the learning curve is slower, one does make progress! And it's great!

:welcome:
 

Iwannaski

Angel Diva
Couple of youtube series and channels that I found conceptually valuable in addition to lessons and in addition to reading the experts here.
1) Ski School by Elate Media
2) SkiPT
3) StompIt Tutorials

I’m an overthinker, so feeding the thinking beast while also practicing and taking lessons was helpful. I’m MAYBE a year ahead of you, so take anything I say with that in mind. LOL.
 

newboots

Angel Diva
Couple of youtube series and channels that I found conceptually valuable in addition to lessons and in addition to reading the experts here.
1) Ski School by Elate Media
2) SkiPT
3) StompIt Tutorials

I’m an overthinker, so feeding the thinking beast while also practicing and taking lessons was helpful. I’m MAYBE a year ahead of you, so take anything I say with that in mind. LOL.

I’ve found all of those helpful.
 

freeskier

Diva in Training
Couple of youtube series and channels that I found conceptually valuable in addition to lessons and in addition to reading the experts here.
1) Ski School by Elate Media
2) SkiPT
3) StompIt Tutorials

I’m an overthinker, so feeding the thinking beast while also practicing and taking lessons was helpful. I’m MAYBE a year ahead of you, so take anything I say with that in mind. LOL.
Will definitely check these out! I find I overthink things too, so hopefully these will help me get more confident. Thanks!
 

EdithP

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Dear Freeskier, your post is so close to my heart. I started much later in life than you - at 58 (OK, maybe by then I was what you call in language classes "a false beginner", but still.) May I assure you, yours is a great age to start! How I wish I could have started at your age! Our motivation, patience and perseverance are usually in a better place than in ego ruled younger years. Also life circumstances are usually more favourable, with schooling completed, kids easier to integrate into skiing plans, finances more stable, health usually as good as it will ever be, etc.

As to your finding yourself going slower than you had hoped: It was totally my experience too. A lovely Member here explained it to me thus: the longer we live, the stronger protective reflexes of our subconcious muscle actions. Kids and teenagers don't have them so well integrated yet, which means they meet with less opposition from their own body. That makes their learning go faster. But people over 25 will have more of a struggle learning a proper ski stance for instance, because our body registers it as a dangerous thing we are about to do, and resists. So please please do not think there is anything the matter with you or your ability to learn this, you just need to change the conditioning your body now has engrained so thoroughly. And it takes time.

Fwiiw, I would like to recommend one more thing in addition to what other Divas have. There is a short , downloadable series of self taught online ski lessons called "Eliminating the Wedge" by Harald Harb Ski, here: https://harbskisystems.com/collections/books-videos ., at 10 USD each. I found it very useful indeed for myself, especially the first two called Engage and Release, I have not quite graduated to the third one yet, but trying. Having said that, the best thing is to have lessons, it is a great investment in your fitness, enjoyment, safety and continuing appetite for learning more. Good luck!
 

freeskier

Diva in Training
You rock! Thanks so much for your supportive words...really helps, especially when you nailed it that I truly doubted myself that something must be wrong with me. It also doesn't help when at the slopes they are all young and I'm the only slow poke:(
I will continue to try:smile:
 

Latest posts

Forum statistics

Threads
26,237
Messages
497,689
Members
8,503
Latest member
MermaidKelly
Top