Skiing down the fall line!!!

Tony_H wrote:I only hockey stop close to a collection of boarders, usually hidden over the brow of a hill, and make sure they eat snow.

This I have been witness to, I was not expecting it either each of the times as I was almost fast asleep at the side of the run waiting for you )

As with the other posters, complete the turn.

Face down the hill. Keep your hands forward, sticks angled slightly back.

Make sure you always keep you weight forward. On the balls of your feet, but putting the turn pressure on with the toes.

If you spot a nice bit of terrain, use the change to assist the turn.

If you get a sudden change in steepness, be confident to push your weight a bit more forward. This is helped if you are looking 2/3 turns ahead, as well as at the immediate turn.

And, a good technique to learn is this. At the point just before you are ready to turn, move your knees one to one and a half inches in towards the hill. This sets the edges, and your forward speed will make you sink onto the ski, and you will slow down. Release the edges, and push the skis away, as you make the transition. This is worth practising, as it is especially useful when on a narrow steep piste.

Piece of cake, innit?

All good experience here & appreciated, no doubt, by others as well who read only.

It's a common issue building speed without managing it & ending up in a pile of powder, poles and red faced.

I have skied since I was 4yrs old, now 56 and still fully maxed out when careeing down the fall line.

Looking forward to getting to Val D'Isere 1 March 09 with lots of snow after a couple of months in hometown Perth, Australia sweltering in 32-40 Deg C.

Rolling in.... Tony.

Barb&Sven wrote:I need some help.

I can hockey stop in either direction whilst heading down the fall line when I am not travelling too fast.

But as soon as I build up speed my brain flips into "I can't do it - I'm going too fast mode". This results in slight panic and thoughts of snow plough stops. I am travelling to Val di Fassa in two weeks and really want to crack this.

Can anyone give me any tips?

Thanks

Fantastic advice thus far, just take it slow :wink:

What's a hockey stop? :(

I too have been wondering what a 'hockey stop' is, having been skiing for many years and never had this term before. I think this is what the rest of us will refer to as a 'whizzy stop' i.e. you come down the hill, and stop sharply with a whizz and hopefully a cloud of snow (down hill skiers do this at the end!) so I think hockey stop is a whizzy one! the only disadvantage to this is that sometimes you do tip over and do a face plant - but hey! you've stopped!!

I think you also need to practice on a gentle slope and realise that you can make the turn accross the fall line.

For me, there was a big mental thing connected with this. I learnt that yes you do go faster and faster in the fall line but if you commit to the turn your making eventually the ski will run out of the fall line and begin to slow you down.

If you know you can do this you just have to stay with it, keeping the pressure on the ski you are turning with and knowing that the physics of what you are doing will eventually mean that your ski will start to resist gravity and you will slow. Sorry, the above is not a particularly good technical explanation. What I'm saying is let the speed happen in the knowledge that while you continue to affect a turn you will eventually slow down (or stop). But it really is a mental thing as well as a physical process. You have to believe you will make the turn. It won't happen immediately, just as you have gained speed, it will take you time to slow down with a big wide turn. Of course as you end your turn you will then be begining the next turn as you come down the mountain.

Another method would be just to make a single turn out of the fall-line until you reach a point where you are almost skiing backwards - so you keep turning in your arc eventually the ski will stop and then go back down backwards (you can show yourself, in this way, that you are able to turn out of the fall-line and arrest your speed). Then you can link this with other turns.

A hockey stop is an abrupt stop an Ice Hockey player will execute to stop him colliding with the wall, another player or the ref!!!!

A kind of 'whizzy stop' on ice!!! :D