J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by Jan I Stenmark

Yeah!! and we had nearly half a metre in Niederau !! :D

It's all on the trees and everything !!

Hi, I live in Niederau and I think SkiGirl has it about perfect! The ski school is very flexible and personable so shifting classes is not a problem.

The hotel Austria is the only 4* hotel in Niederau, has a swimming pool and is directly opposite the slopes so that?s perfect. Do be aware that in Austria (not just Niederau) the church bells will ring early in the morning!

My one hesitation is the level of shopping / non-ski activity for an expectant mother. The bus runs along the valley to Oberau and there are some good shops there or you can go down the hill to Worgl which is a town with all the modern shops you could need!

If you are happy with swimming and reading I think you will be very happy.

As for eating there are lots of very good hotel restaurants within Niederau and the Austria has one of the better ones or there is the Hotel Simmerlwirt which has a great non-smoking restaurant.

Oh and for interest it is snowing today and we have about 50cm at the top !! Who says low resorts don?t get snow, and it?s only September! Bring on the winter !!!

Any questions, just shout!

Jan

ellistine, you must either be very rich or sponsored by a base repair company to spend your summer months carving on plastic - don't you just love the smell of burning bases??

As for the theory bit you are so right that the other leg just joins in :) My only observation is that I feel that this is a great visualisation aid for the first time carver (is that a word?) but would probably expect the technique to mature to a more two footed (knee'd) style after a few weeks (on snow).

I have seen some very exaggerated examples of carving on plastic which involve the (normally young) skier canting their knees over to extreme angles to force the skis to carve but in the process the lower leg loses its straightness which can lead to all kinds of knee problems in the developing body, not to mention a near total loss of skeletal balance / strength. (Although it is fun to watch the same skier on their first run on snow at the annual race camp!)

I am sure you don?t fall into this category but I bet you?ve seen the ones I mean!

Be safe

Jan

Having read many of the posts about ?How to carve? I felt duty bound to contribute my sixpence worth. I should point out that perhaps this post is more aimed at those who can carve and wish to find (discuss) innovative ways to convey (teach) others to do so than as in instruction manual for the aspiring, non-carving community. Finally, I apologise in advance to all one legged skiers (and I have been humbled whenever I have had the pleasure of skiing in your company) as most of my points refer to the biped community.

Some definitions first:

Fall-line ? This is the path that a ball will follow when rolled down a slope. (Science bit caveat: If the ball did not exhibit the properties of momentum)

Outside ski ? (only applicable when turning) ? This is the ski farthest away from the imaginary centre of the arc made by the skis. For clarity, when making a turn to the right, the left ski will be the outside ski. The outside, and its counterpart the inside ski, will continue to be referred to as such until a turn is complete and the skis are allowed to run straight. The inside and outside skis will be known as such regardless of their position relative to the fall-line.

Turning radius ? The theoretical distance between the centre of the ski and the centre of the arc described by the ski when in reverse camber (i.e. when carving). During a single turn the actual radius of the turn may vary from the start of the turn until the finish and at any point during the turn between the inside and outside ski.

Phew, that?s way too much like a science lesson for me, but sometimes the obvious are only that when expressed!

So what about carving ?

There is one fact that I feel gets overlooked in almost every account I have read about the ?mystical? art of carving. What is this fact? (Remembering my initial apology) ? Most of us are fortunate enough to ski with two legs! Why then do almost all descriptions of carving fail to discuss this essential point? For those who have ?mastered? carving, you may never have considered this point before. I noticed one of the posters here says that ?It?s not a turn if your hand?s not in the snow?, now leaving aside skiing in chest high champagne powder, how would this look on a corduroy piste at 08:01? You can imagine the shape of the skier, upper body slightly inclined towards the inside of the turn, waist laterally flexed to near its maximum, inner knee flexed nearly to it?s fullest and the outer leg very nearly (but not quite) straight. Now imagine freezing that image and rotating it so that the thighs were upright. What you would see would be a skier with one knee lifted right up as if trying to step forward onto a very high step.

So how does this huge difference between leg actions get translated into effective descriptions of carving? Well as the speed of skier reduces and the forces reduce the differences becomes less obvious to the point where, as a description of the carving process, the temptation is to treat both legs as one. IMHO this is the root cause of confusion in teaching carving - not addressing the importance of ?Independent Leg Action?.

So now we have two, independent legs both performing different actions at different points during a turn we have a much better chance of describing the actions required to make the ski carve!

Many of the descriptions of carving I have read concentrate on the importance of inclining and weighting the (future) outside ski to initiate the turn. I find this results in skiers who ?A? frame. Typically, they will create some form of non-skidding action with the outside ski but as they lack the speed or confidence to truly create a carving action that they can rely on, the inner ski will be flattened, rotated and skidded so that the lack of centripetal (centrifugal) force which would have them fall into the turn is balanced by their supporting (inner) leg. Having repeated this action over and over the resulting muscle memory is far harder to correct than the relatively simple action of carving requires.

So I believe that it is more successful when trying to create a mental image of the activity for a non-carving skier to give the following direction:

1. Buy, borrow, rent or beg for some ?carving? skis. (a.k.a. parabolic, shaped or wasted). As an aside, I think it?s possible to carve ?almost? any ski but to learn it definitely easier on skis designed for the purpose.
2. Find a gentle, consistent gradient slope of at least 10m width. The longer the better. The smoother the surface the better. Ideally a straight run from top to bottom should not produce a speed beyond the skier?s ability to control.
3. From a standstill aim directly down the fall-line.
4. Allow yourself to glide down the slope in a straight line with equal weight on both feet. Ankles, knees and hips should be gently flexed. Upper body gently forward. Hands forward, arms relaxed. Poles (if used) pointing behind with tips converging.
5. Now start to move one knee (let?s say the right knee) to the right. Immediately the knee starts to move, think about increasing the weight on the small toe of the right foot. This will have the effect of edging the inside edge of the inside ski (?Horror!!?). At this point you will need to ?soften? or relax the right leg to start to create that essential independent leg action where the right leg is flexed more than the left. Now, to avoid this situation (skiing on the inside edge) becoming terminal, start to bring the left knee across towards the right knee and think about weighting the left big toe.
6. Both skis should now be rotated about their longitudinal axis i.e. edged and your weight should be centred over the ski. You are carving!!!
7. Before turning entirely up the slope and losing the little bit of speed you have, soften the left (outside) leg and move the left knee to the left (inside of the new turn), weight the left little toe and continue as above.

It has been my experience that by making the learners focus on the inside leg and ski ?A? framing never (or very rarely) happens. The progression from here is to work to minimise the inner knee initiation but to continue to make that your focus.

Now as speed, confidence and conditions allow you will be able to increase the lower leg inclination to the slope, which will require you to increase the difference between the actions of each leg and you will start to emulate those glossy marketing brochures! Who knows you may even be able to make turns with sufficient dynamic balance to allow you to ?Touch the Snow!?.

In reality, there are many more subtleties involved in developing the carving action from my first description to the ultimate ?carve anywhere? technique but my focus in this post is to develop the concept of independent leg action and to think about inner leg initiation. Discuss!

Cheers

Jan

Hi Pavel (& everyone else!),

Here's the thing, I'm not a great fan of vices and whilst I don't want to stop anyone else using them I just thought I would mention my thoughts on the subject.

I like to hold the skis while I work, I like the contact or connection I get from being able to position them in exactly the right place for any given task. When I use a vice I feel restricted and forced to work at the height / angle dictated by the bench and vice set-up.

Whilst writing this I have been trying to think of any tuning task that I have undertaken where I "had" to use a vice and I can't think of one. Naturally, once the course is underway, I will doubtless learn many techniques which are impossible to do without vices, but it should be interesting to see ...

In closing, I think the process of (hot) wax removal when holding the ski rather than using a vice allows a delicacy of touch to be developed that makes the process almost organic, more like a dance if you like, which brings you into a relationship with you skis which remains distant and elusive when the object of your labours is clamped in the jaws of a vice.

I was tempted to make a comparison here about human relationships and clamping your loved one in a vice whilst trying to created a special ambiance but wasn't sure if this was the time or the place!!

Obviously its all just MHO but I wonder what the rest of you think ??

Regards

Jan

Hi Gareth,

Here's a thought for you.

A couple of years ago I was in Pitztal skiing on some Slalom Race skis at a training camp where I was allowed to free ski in the late afternoon, I was just wanting to cruse around and "play" which was not so easy in tuned race skis and so I went into a ski rental shop. They had loads of skis to try which were not designed specifically for the rental market. Now here's the good bit, after a week of trying all kinds of skis I decided to buy my favourites and the shop discounted the skis by the full value of the rental I had paid over the week :)

I should say that I got a brand new pair of skis with bindings drilled and mounted to my requirements NOT a pair of ex-rental skis ...

Just thought it might be a possible plan if you can agree a similar deal wherever you are!

Cheers

Jan

"Skis are for life not just for Christmas!"