J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by skiNH09

Hey I'm back for some follow up!

First off I'm not left-handed, sorry. And my legs are the same size, etc.

I'm not "pole planting" during my turns. When I initiate the left turn, I turn my right ski and wind up putting 100% of my weight on that ski at the point during which I have to pick up my left ski and turn it to match the right one. And for whatever reason I find the turn more difficult to make when I'm moving slowly...I can't even do a pi wedge and then make a left turn. Although that's not really how I learned to turn in the first place anyway. When I'm on steeper stuff it's almost like I'm jump turning and it's not as much of an issue.

Also, I should also mention that I am able to get down the mountain reasonably well and in one piece (somehow) despite this obvious flaw in my skiing. Basically I learned to ski the entirely wrong way...a couple runs on the bunny slopes and then they brought me to the top of the mountain and said "let's do this". So I've adapted but I think it would be nice to learn the right way so that I can enjoy skiing more.

Wow, OK lots of responses...thanks everyone. I know it's hard to pinpoint anything without a video or picture or anything, but what you'd be seeing is probably pretty simple...for a right turn everything looks good, for a left turn I initiate the turn with my downhill (right) ski and for whatever reason I can't seem to get the uphill (left) ski to 'turn' to the left, so before I wind up crossing my skis I pick up my left foot and plant it to complete the turn.

Strangely enough this seems to be more of a problem for me on the slow, easy trails, than on steep stuff.

I'm thinking maybe I'll try some different boots out...I've only ever had one pair, so maybe that could be contributing to my problems.

Yes I know I should probably take a lesson or something but I'm a broke college student!!

I've been skiing for about 5 years, a handful of times each year. I've never had any formal instruction, just kind of picked up what I could from friends. I'd say right now I'm at an intermediate level, but I'm having a frustrating time with making left turns. For whatever reason I can't seem to "force" my left ski to turn left on the snow...I literally have to lift my boot up off the ground and re-plant the ski to get it parallel with my right ski. I have no problems with either ski when turning right.

I feel like this is hampering my progress because I have so little confidence in my left turns as compared to my right ones. I tried to get some advice from my expert skier friends, they watched me carve a few turns but couldn't offer up much more than saying "huh, that's strange, you shouldn't be lifting your leg like that".

Any advice?