My kid is 17 and loves to ski. He has been skiing since he was young. He skis about 12 times a year and has good skills. But he skis too fast. He says he is in control, but the speeds he skis at (regularly 50mph and sometimes more) scare me and I think they are excessive. I am trying to figure out how to set limits /give him guidance on how fast is too fast, for his own safety and for the safety of those around him. I am finding it hard to define in concrete terms since the general advice is to ski "in control" and he says he is in control. I would also like to tell him he can't use Strava or Slopes because I don't want him skiing for time. (He says he doesn't, but I don't fully believe that.) …. Any advice on how to constructively mentor and set limits around this? I am getting to the point where I want to ground him from skiing until he agrees not to make speed the focus, but that will make him super resentful and will be difficult / impossible to enforce. And he is in a phase where he doesn’t really listen much to me as it is. I feel like I need to find mentors that can hopefully get through to him.
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Too fast?
- Thread starter teppi
- Start date
LucieCZ
Certified Ski Diva
Does he know how to ski off piste? Sounds like he's looking for more challenge. I agree, steeps, bumps and trees might slow him down or at least help burn some energy. Racing might be a good outlet too, like others said. If he's never done it, it might give him a better perspective on what control really means. Good luck!
scandium
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Anecdata, but instructor training really helped curb one of my friends who had the speed = better and "I'm definitely in control" attitude - which persisted well beyond age 25 when the frontal lobe is supposedly mature, although he did start to gain insight prior to that. I don't think Mr 17 is likely to listen to you if he hasn't already (teenage brain usually means until something PROVES them wrong they are right and no parent can tell them) but he will probably listen to someone who can obviously ski faster and better than him! So perhaps race training or instructor training?
snoWYmonkey
Angel Diva
@scandium in theory the race coaching could work, but at our hill, the ski club kids are actually the worst offenders about speeding and not being considerate of others. Probably because they often just lap a lift and the coaches stay on the race course that only occupies a small stretch of the run. Most instructors are better, but they ski super fast too. The difference is that they can assess the appropriateness of going fast better than most non instructors, especially teens.
