fear of speed when learning parallel sking

Fear of speed for me is a problem. Yesterday I was out on blue, some icy and steepish bits, with the aim of improving technique, keeping parallel through turns. But fear of speed holds me back, and the fear is not totally irrational.

A word about the skis as one question I have is how much the issue is to do with this: I have rather flexible, but comfortable new boots, as for the skis, I have written elsewhere on the board about using old skis, in fact they are not straight, they are Elan first generation carvers, with gentle side cut, 180cm, & I suspect in their day they were pretty good.

So, transfer weight and the skis will turn. I can keep the inside ski parallel most of the time, and make a nice S down the slope. My aim is to make a much tighter S.

Question 1. to turn tighter must I have skis with smaller radius? Or can I use my large radius, very old carvers, with a mix of skidding and carving? Is it possible to use these skis for pure old-fashioned tight zig-zag? I accept I would progress faster on newer skis, and I am looking out for some at a bargain price, and will try some, but it is useful to understand a bit more about the equpiment. After all these skis were made to carve, they are called Pro Carve...

On these skis, transferring weight does get the skis turning, alebeit rather a wide radius, and keeping the skis parallel does work for me (though my pole plants, when they happen, are hit and miss). But if the slope is at all steep I find myself going too fast. By making a straighter or uphill traverse, as way of taking off speed without skidding at, some point (epsceciallly as there some iciness around here) I find myself skidding anyway, which does at least slow me down, but is what I am trying to get away from.

Question 2. Is it possible to do neat, parallel turns down a steep slope without going too fast? Or must I just keep practising on gentle slopes until I have the balance and reflexes to deal with speed safely?

In case anyone asks what is too fast, I am far slower than some good skiers (and one does see a few excellent skiers here in Tirol), and there is an element of risk-averseness, nervousness, age etc. But I also believe rationally that I do not have the reflexes or balance or confidence to stop, or turn, or deal with a mistake when one of the tails catches, at some of the speeds I am reaching. On the contrary, as I get faster the risk of losing posture and balance increases. Nothing bad happened, but at one moment, going down the blue at the lowest speed I could before skidding sets in, I found myself hurtling towards towards a steep piste edge without being able to turn, and not sure if I could stop.

Question 3. I know two kinds of parallel sking, one with a nice S-shaped track and only a little if any skidding, with inside ski controlled thgouhout to stay parallel, and a second kind where I force a turn, quickly and slightly lift and reposition the inside foot on the turn (if done neatly the skis pretty much stay prarallel) and then a traverse with varying amounts of skid depending on steepness and icyness. Is there a difference between the first kind of parallel sking, and carving in its true sense? Or is 'carving' just a fancy word for all good prarallel sking?

Question 4. Any other thoughts or advice please. :)

Thanks for attention, anyone who read this through. Yesterday was a practice day. At the end of my 4 hours practice a German guy on his own, like me, and a near beginner like me, saw me in the car park and said 'anstrengend' (=it's a strain!). I know what he meant, and sometimes I wonder whether having to push through the fear factor of dangerous or seemingly dangerous speeds in order to get the to an elegant paralllel technique is really an enjoyable game for a sensible, over-50s driver.

This may sound silly, but practising braking (stopping) may actually help with confidence at speed. If you know you can stop under any circumstances then you will ski relatively comfortable to the speed where you know you can stop in control.

I spent some time practising this by straight lining a couple of metres down an EMPTY slope, then braking. As I got more confident I went a bit further in a straight line and slowly built up the speed I was comfortable with. I still won't be entering any world cup DH events, but it certainly helped with the fear of speed that you pick up with turning.

BTW... in this case I am talking about parallel stops, not snow plough.

Good idea! Thanks.

I have worked out that snow plough/wedge stopping is not great at speed. Learning a parallel stop (rather than my first season's 'arret Briancon' as Wikipedia calls deliberately throwing oneself to the ground in order to stop), was one of my most satisfying steps, but I should practice it at higher speeds.

I think you are about to get a lot of replies saying get some lessons and I have to agree. Skiing is fantastic fun but what if you hit someone at speed? Get some lessons.

As well as the lessons buy Ultimate Skiing by Ron LeMaster it explains a lot about the mechanics of skiing, its a very good book.

Also get some lessons.

When you have done that, get some lessons.

And then think about having lessons.

Good Luck

Mike

Why don't you try renting some new skis, just for a day even, to see if it makes a difference.

The new skis turn much more easily than the old ones. I hadn't skied for 30 years and then I rented some new ones, and I couldn't understand why I was slaloming about the place, until I realised how easily they turn. They seem to be built to carve.

Ally

You sound the same as my mum, when traveling at what i would class as slow she has very good techinic but one she picks up speed it all goes out of the window.

What i have found is that when she is traveling at speed she does not complete her turn fully.

What i mean by this is when she finishes her turn the skis are pointing towards the bottom of the slope. instead of across the slope which maintains your speed at a constant pace.

Also you would find that on newer skis you will find this easier. i believe that a ski with a larger turn radios has a sharper tern. Skis have progressed so much in the last 10 years that it would probably be worth trying a new ski to see weather that helps.

I guess even if I do finish the turn (as I think I do, sometimes I end up on a flat traverse 90 degrees to the fall line), since the skis' natural radius is big, I am gaining more speed through the turn than I would on skis which like to make tighter turns. Is that the point?

Nowadays, on groomed snow, making a turn without the skis skidding is generally referred to as carving. Some people like to blend turns, starting a turn with an element of skidding, and finishing with solid carving for instance, but a carved turn is carved throughout, from transition to transition.

With skidded turns, you can vary the turn shape on any radius ski, but with carved turns, the turn shape is greatly, but not exclusively, determined by the radius of the skis. The smaller the radius, the tighter the turns. Smaller radius skis do not like high speed turns as much as large radius skis, so controlling speed becomes important.

Just switching to smaller radius skis will make turning easier, but controlling turn shape is the way to control speed

If you want to learn to carve, it is much easier on smaller radius skis. You can carve tight turns at lower speeds. and make use of less steep slopes.

Trencher