Messages posted by : AllyG
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Craiggggg5 and Neiltoo,
I'm glad my report on the Tignes trip encouraged you to book a holiday there. It was very good value for money. I hope you both have a great time. We're planning to go back there next October. I hope the J2ski members out there now also report back. It will be interesting to hear how much the conditions have changed in just one week, since the snow fell at Tignes. Ally |
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Fitness is definitely important, and not just fitness in the usual sense, but also flexibility etc.
I found that when I fell over on a blue slope I couldn't get back up - most embarassing :oops:. It is amazing how hard it is to stand up from a sitting position on a flat surface when wearing skis. My legs and arms were really sore from being over bent and the effort involved in trying to stand. Now that I tend to fall over on steeper slopes it's not such a problem. In fact standing up on a black slope after a fall is a piece of cake, because of the angle of the slope :lol: Ally |
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Ian,
As I said, it's just like the people in the lift in Candid Camera. It is very hard to resist the 'flow' and be the one person facing the other way. However, I don't think it's got to the point yet when there's hardly anyone left on the slope helmetless. I saw several people ski-ing and boarding last week at Tignes without helmets (including our instructor!). Naturally, all the national and international slalom racers were wearing helmets. I expect it's a rule now - part of their training. Ally |
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Scarlet Fez,
I think trying to change something really fundamental, like one's basic stance when ski-ing, is really difficult. I mean, for example, we all walk in different ways, and if someone was to criticize the way you walk and tell you to change it, would you manage it? I'd probably manage it for a couple of yards, and then revert to my usual style of walking. I tend to ski with my skis too far apart. I know I do this, but I don't seem able to correct it, especially if I'm ski-ing a difficult bit and concentrating on pure survival and not falling over! I think maybe I feel safer with my skis further apart, although it gives me a problem when I try and do a parallel turn. It's fine for carving though. On a blue run, I can concentrate and remember to keep them closer together, but on a steep red run, or a black, they seem to move apart on their own and stay there. I don't know if you saw my daughter's video, or not, of me ski-ing last week on an easier bit of a black run in Tignes. In it I am ski-ing worse than you, so it might make you feel a bit better about your ski-ing. It is just after a lesson where I was told to lean downhill and ski smoothly and finish my turns (by swinging uphill if necessary)in order to stop my lower ski from sliding downhill. I am trying to do this, but doing so has put out my usual ski-ing rhythm and I'm not moving up and down properly, or pole planting correctly, so it's upset my turns as well. Change is very hard. Anyone else got any videos of them ski-ing? I like watching other people ski. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psN6WMzDaL0 The guy overtaking me is there just to remind everyone what we're supposed to look like when we're ski-ing :lol: Ally |
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Bandit,
I think Tony is objecting the 'them versus us' tone creeping into these discussions, and a sort of self-righteousness felt by some helmet users. It is a personal decision that we all have to make. I feel that I ought to wear a helmet, simply because I am ski-ing so much faster now, but I'm not at all sure that I'm going to be able to ski with one, because I have a real problem seeing where I'm going already - what with goggles and glasses limiting my field of vision. I may, in fact, be far more dangerous wearing a helmet, if I can't see properly. Tony - did you ever see that Candid camera program with the people in the lift? It was really amusing. They rigged it so that they had a whole load of actors in the lift, who deliberately turned the other way to the poor unsuspecting guinea pig who got into the lift. They did it with several people, and nearly everyone turned round so they were facing the same way as the actors. Peer pressure is a very powerful thing. But I don't see why you should change what you do, if you really don't want to, just because some people are changing their minds on this issue and starting to wear helmets. Ally |
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It's a funny thing, you know, but I never noticed anyone filming me when I was doing those jumps :wink:
Ally |
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He/she looks more like a womble than anything else.
Maybe they're going to ski about under the chair lifts picking up litter. :lol: Ally |
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mfc,
A few years ago I had a trip booked to Obergurgl with a T/O, and they phoned me up to say that they'd cancelled the flight from Gatwick because they didn't have enough customers, and that we were going to have to go to Manchester instead. I thought about it, read their conditions in the brochure, and decided that this amounted to what they described, I think, as a 'material change' to the holiday, which meant I should be able to cancel my holiday and get my money back. I phoned them, told them this, and they didn't argue about it, but gave me my money back, and I got another one with another T/O to the same place. So I suppose it depends on how fundamental the change is, as to whether you can cancel and get your money back. Ally |
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