J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by elgius

this is such a cool idea :-)

Shame I recently chucked away my last ski pass. WOudl have been interesting to see how many miles I did. Wonder if it can tell how many miles I spent sliding on my arse :-)

Hi Rasca,

dont get me wrong, I enjoyed Slovakia & I could have explored more resorts etc but in terms of what I actually experienced at that High Tatras resort I wasnt particularly impressed.

It is quite pretty, the beer was cheap (at that time) and it was a good way for me to learn skiing without getting too lost or out of my depth but its not the amazing undiscovered bargain I was hoping it would be.

I'm in no way slagging-off Eastern Europeans or their serving attitude. My missus is Czech so I've been back a forth quite a bit to Czech / Slovakia and she agrees as do all of her friends that the service there is still a bit old fashioned in what we're used to in the West. Doesnt mean they're rude or bad people etc, they just havent adopted the niceties you come to expect from western service culture.

Sorry if I sounded a bit opinionated folks -nothing worse than some mingmong shooting his mouth off (fingers off?) about something they know nothing about, I was just trying to give an impression of that area :-)


I still think that for the relative costs involved - you're looking at better 'ski fun per £' from the Alps & Pyrenees etc.

Just my humble opinion.. (and I dont know everything :mrgreen: )

Cheers,
Lee

hahaha FLUORESCENT romper suits! Genius! :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :lol:

Ok, apologies if this post is like teaching your granny to suck eggs (why oh why would anyone do that??) but for all the other beginners who havent got a clue (like me :-) )

I tried skiing for the first time last year & didnt have any problems with leg-strength / flexibillity and was in a lot better condition after skiing all day than my regular skiing counterparts...

I used to do Taekwondo (martial arts) for about 7 years and it does have some very great benefits for skiing.

The warm up stretches are brilliant for skiing, namely stretching quads & hip rotations, knee rotations.

Stretching quads: stand up straight with your legs together & grab your right ankle in your right hand. Keep your knees together and try to touch your foot to yoru bum - you shoudl feel teh front of your thigh pull.
Do the other leg etc.

Open your stance so you're legs are shoulder-width then hold your right knee in your right hand & lift your knee straight up - keep your foot at right angles (i.e. opposite of pointing your toes).

Put both legs & feet together & bend at the knees with your feet FLAT on the floor, go as low as you can without your feet lifting, then straighten up etc.
After doing a few of the above, keep your knees slightly bent then rotate your knees in a circle one way then the other way. Try to keep your hips still so your knees do all teh work.

Take a very wide stance with legs locked out,then lean down to the right & touch your toes with BOTH hands (or get close to them), then to the left & touch your toes then down to the centre & touch the floor. Pause for a few secs one each full stretch.


Hips: feet together standing, legs locked, lean out your hips to the left then back & to eth right & back. Keep your shoulders & heads ine the same place if possible so that your hips are bouncing against their limit (you will look a bit silly but its' good honest :-)

If you did about 10 of each side for every exercise then you're probably minimising the probably of overstretching your legs when crashing or skidding etc etc


In terms of leg power, shallow squats are great for building legs strength, also holdig your leg out (imagine a slow motion kick) and tryign to hold your own leg weight uysing just your thigh muscle.

The other killer is to stand with yoru back flat against a wall (or door etc) and feet flat on eth floor, lower yourself into a 'sitting' position until your thighs are almost parallel with the floor (you look liek you're sitting on an invisible chair). Hold this position for 20 secs then stand up & repeat 5 - 10 times. Good for strengthening thighs!

These should be used alongside cardio like swimming or running or cycling.


Again sorry if all this is old-hat but you cant beat a bit of enthusiasm for a new sport eh :lol:


Cheers,
Lee

good info. thanks everyone :-)

Hi folks,

is there anything I need to think abotu with regards to buying poles?

I've tried them at a ski shop & I need to get 120cm ones but I've had about 1 week of skiing in my life so I'm not bothered about Carbon poles or anything racey.


Are they just "sticks for helping you stand up after cartwheeling down the mountain" or shoudl I be looking for them to do something?

Thanks,
Lee

Hi folks,

I'm kinda new to skiinng so I'll be firing questions for a while :-)

I've just bought a nice new shiny bootbag to carry my skiboots around in. Can you take them onboard a plane as cabin luggage or do you have to book them in as hold luggage? Physically I reckon they're small enough to fit in overhead lockers but obviously they woudlnt be particularly light with my size 11's in them.

Anyone know?

Cheers,
Lee

I went to the High Tatras in Slovakia last year with the girlfriend (she's a ski-monster but I'm a total beginner).

The resort was Strebske Pleso (or somethign very much like that) and it wasnt fantastic to be honest.

Lifts:
Extremely busy when the weather was anything better than horrible and the slopes were not particularly well managed.
Big queues, quite busy slopes with lots of people to crash into (I'm not very good :-)
They had a few snow cannons so even though the weather was pretty warm & sunny there was still slopes available.

Pistes:
There are 3 runs down off the top of the mountain so you can get pretty bored, pretty quickly. I'm only a beginner (that was my first ski trip) and after a week I was doing the red run because I'd learned where all eth corners & bumps were.

Accomodation:
Was reasonably cheap, but then with the Euro at 1:1 with £ Sterling, you are not getting any bargains any more.

Food:
We ate out every night at the limited restaurants & the food was great and relatively cheap but they havent introduced the No-smoking bans yet, so expect to be smoked all over while you're eating.


The people were reasonably friendly but Eastern European service culture is still years behind the West so dont expect to get smiles when you're being served.

I think in summary, with the current Euro exchange rates being so bad, you arent saving much by not going to France, Italy, Austria etc and the slopes are VERY poor in comparison.
Dont bother unless you get a very very cheap deal.


Cheers,
Lee