J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by ellistine

Or put more technically;

http://www.youcanski.com/en/coaching/parallel_shins.htm

Yes my bases have seen better days but the skis were only £50 from ebay and will probably last me the summer - then I'll probably be on the look out for my next pair of bargain carvers. The ironic thing is, they tend to run better with a good bit of base burn and a squirt of silicone than when they were still receptive to wax!

I did start a thread a while ago about whether or not to use your own skis on a dry slope. The answer is deffinately no if you ever want to use them on snow. Luckily I decided not to use my propper skis on the dry slope.

At the weekend I spent a couple of hours at the Snowdome and was relieved that my dry skiing transfered to 'almost' snow skiing - just faster!

Jan, I couldn't agree more.

I spend the majority of my time skiing on a plastic dry slope. I also spend the majority of my time carving on said dry slope as performing nice neat skidded turns (especially in the summer when the surface expands to form ripples) is nigh on impossible.

The downside to carving on dryslope is there is nothing much to pressure against and they're a little bit shorter and narrower than your average alpine piste. What this means is that you can't just sit and wait till you've built up enough speed and then throw your hips across the skis hoping that there'll be enough momentum and centrifugal force to keep you up right. Instead you have to accurately roll both skis at the same time to the same angle and do that pretty much as soon as you push off from the start.

My breakthrough was to think only of my inside leg when initiating the turn. If I want to carve to the left, I pull my left knee to the left. Granted, there is probably more going on than that but that's the one thing I consciously think of when initiating a carve turn. The outside leg and ski always seems to take care of themselves.

The other thing I've found using this method is that you get the most amazingly smooth transitions from turn to turn. As you approach the end of one turn, simply ease the pressure on the outside ski (which is about to become the inside ski) and start to point it towards the new turn. This enables you to maintain a lower dynamic stance throughout the transition (starting to sound like Warren Smith!)

I read an article somewhere that recommended the following when carving for the first time;

Forget about pole plants, forget about weighting one ski or the other, just ski in a good balanced position on a nice easy slope. Roll the right knee to create a right turn; roll the left knee to turn left. Don't worry about the other knee; just let if follow along on its own. You won't split in half!

Bandit wrote:ellistine perhaps you might wish to consider a short break in a Swiss resort this coming winter, before embarking on a full booking in the future. Lots of Swiss resorts are geared up for short breaks, and the transport links are generally excellent

We were thinking about visiting Hintertux this summer but perhaps Zermatt may be a better option. One of our party is a non skier which makes the short summer skiing a nice option. How far away are the summer pistes from the hotels generally?

Also, when you have skis of your own, you can take them to one of our indoor 'real snow' slopes and spend the whole time being paranoid that your going to gouge them on a screw head or something.

Just got back from said indoor ski slope. 3 hour drive there, 4 hour drive back, 2 hours skiing. Bring it on!

I had only being skiing for four weeks before I bought my own skis. Renting is by far the most sensible option but do you know what - I have a pair of skis in the back bedroom that I adore just because they are there and they are mine and I'm the only person who has skied on them. If you get into to the who ski tuning thing to then they become even more special.

I'm not saying you should go out and buy some. I'm just saying I understand why you want to.

Bandit wrote:ise great post

Deffinately.

We're booked up for the coming season on group holidays booked by other people (Austria and Italy). I'll be refering back to this post for future seasons though! Good stuff. :thumbup:

I've just been reading an article (Ski Club GB website) on the current trend in where us Brits are booking for the coming season. Predictably people are booking mostly at altitude and mostly in France.

The article also pointed out that very few people are choosing Switzerland as their destination of choice despite having some very high resorts.

For some reason there is a perception that Switzerland is expensive. The article pointed out that infact France is the most expensive country to visit for skiing and that Switzerland was actually only the fifth most expensive destination.

From personal experience (visited Wengen this January) it wasn't expensive at all yet when ever you mention it to friends that you are holidaying in Switzerland they give you that look of "you must be doing alright".

On top of all that, the transfer from Wengen to the airport was probably one of the most picturesque journeys I've been on, although I think the bus driver did take the scenic route (The Rep had us leave the resort a bit early :twisted: )

So Ise, what are you're top tips for skiing in Switzerland? I read there's a 12km piste.