Latest posts for the topic "Can you ski?"

Can you ski?

Thu, 8 Nov 2012 19:17:33 GMT

An odd title on a ski forum at first glance, but serious intent.

I have a funny old thing happens whenever I am going skiing and I have decided to pluck up the courage to post on it.
:D
Maybe brave or even foolhardy - only time will tell.

I get to the slopes, up a lift or whatever - and I find myself having no idea whether I can remember how to ski!

This isn't being a bit rusty on the first day and, of course, cognitively - I know full well I can ski. 30+ years of doing it tells me quite clearly that I can ski!

But I don't seem to feel like I know.

I have shared this with a few people on holdays to mixed reception from laughter to agreement - "Yes, that happens to me".

I mentioned this last year to some laughter - one person admitted to something similar. A little later the ski instructor with us quietly spoke to me and said he gets this at the start of every season!

One year he was in a real pickle as he had to do a re-evaluation at the beginning of the season and, for one reason and another, the first time with his skis on and the first run since the previous year was part of this evaluation. He told me he was really quite scared!

Just wondering who else gets this?

Not looking for a solution - got used to it - just another little quirk of my nature!

Re:Can you ski?

Thu, 8 Nov 2012 19:42:15 GMT

lol! I'm not the only one then. I feel like the new kid at schoolfor the first run of every holiday. :)

Re:Can you ski?

Thu, 8 Nov 2012 19:50:14 GMT

Hi Old Andy I think I know what you mean, its those early ski legs.

From the first moment of clicking in the boots to the skis and pushing off to the ski lift the initial wobble comes then on to the lift looking forward to the first run.

next you push off the lift, get together, and then.... the first run..... Why do the skis seem to control you instead of you controlling the skis.

Being a confident skier I still wonder why that first run is so different to the hugely confident, attacking, downhill, exhilerating run 1 week later for the last run of the holiday.

Why? understanding the snow? confidence? early ski legs???

However, I do know what you mean.

Re:Can you ski?

Thu, 8 Nov 2012 20:50:44 GMT

It's that old 'riding a bike' thing I guess. It crosses my mind for a brief second, but I think we all do it!

Re:Can you ski?

Thu, 8 Nov 2012 20:56:55 GMT

I usually start in a snow-plough, before I believe I really can remember how to ski - it seems safer somehow :lol:

Plus - I hire my skis so they're always different from the last pair I had, and it sometimes takes me a few hours to get used to them.

Re:Can you ski?

Thu, 8 Nov 2012 21:02:53 GMT

This whole thread ring a bell with me...that first moment ..it takes an hour or so before I can convince myself that I've been on skis before!

Re:Can you ski?

Thu, 8 Nov 2012 22:10:55 GMT

Standing at the top of the first slope, I always pick something really easy but on first look it seems incredibly steep. Push off and then worry about whether I will remember how to make the turn. Mighty relief when I get to the bottom and realise, yes, I can!

My next problem is that some days I ski like a demon and the next I seem to have a proper senile moment and can't put a ski right! Why is that?

Re:Can you ski?

Fri, 9 Nov 2012 00:23:27 GMT

It is a good question, young Andy. The thoughts still go through my mind ~ of course they do. Nowadays for changing reasons ~will my knees be OK?
I always pick a steep drop off, and point straight downhill. After 2 turns, I check the births and deaths columns. If all Ok, I press on.
Result, iNNit?

Re:Can you ski?

Fri, 9 Nov 2012 09:02:05 GMT

It's a natural feeling I would have thought. I certainly get it. At some level not dissimilar to stage-fright or pre-race nerves. You know you can do it but the body pumps a chemical to the brain that suggests otherwise.

Add hire skis to the equation (as AllyG said) and there is a definite unknown quantity to deal with too. Hire skis tend to take a couple of days for me to get used to.

I go to a different resort each year too, I wonder whether going back to the same place each year would make a difference?

Before you go a quick trip to a ski centre near home helps. But I guess for most people it is just those first couple of seconds.

Re:Can you ski?

Fri, 9 Nov 2012 09:05:34 GMT

My wife fell over within 20 seconds of strapping the skis on at the beginning of our last holiday. We were on the nursery slopes heading for the 1st lift of the day.

I didn't think you could catch an edge when travelling at 2mph :mrgreen:

Re:Can you ski?

Fri, 9 Nov 2012 09:23:14 GMT

bedrock barney wrote:My wife fell over within 20 seconds of strapping the skis on at the beginning of our last holiday. We were on the nursery slopes heading for the 1st lift of the day.

I didn't think you could catch an edge when travelling at 2mph :mrgreen:

I too get that weird feeling at the start of the week but also have an amazing tendency like Barney's OH to fall over on flat bits:

I'd been skiing for several years when my wife first decided to give it a try. Off we went to VDI (got a deal, not necessarily first choice beginners resort I know but she wanted "picture-skew" and she enrolled in ski school.

I skiied on my own that morning (with the obligatory first run wobbles as others have said) and then headed down from Solaise via the red - all fine.

As I crossed the bottom of town / nursery slopes within sight of my wife and her beginner group finishing up, I managed to ski over my own feet through lack of concentration and was crowned with "fall of the week" by the beginners!

:oops:

Re:Can you ski?

Fri, 9 Nov 2012 10:00:50 GMT

Yup! I always ski like a giraffe to start with ...perhaps its because I am thinking too much about what I am doing, looking at my skis, wondering if my boots are on tight enough, sorting my goggles out, faffing about in general
After a day or so I am just thinking "Oh lets go down here to that nice cafe" or "Wheres snowb4ndit got to this time!"

Re:Can you ski?

Fri, 9 Nov 2012 10:56:16 GMT

I'm so old I can't remember if I've forgotten how to ski :mrgreen:

Re:Can you ski?

Fri, 9 Nov 2012 11:09:02 GMT

Yep same for me, but it fades after the first 6 days -)

Re:Can you ski?

Fri, 9 Nov 2012 11:36:39 GMT

I think that I get back into skiing straight away. Whether the technique is any good is a completely different thing altogether....

On a vaguely related matter, even though I am now capable of skiing most black runs (unless heavily mogulled) I'm unable to stop the heart fluttering when I pass the first black piste marker at the top of the run. I know I can do it and I know that some blacks are actually easier than reds. However, the colour of the run definitely 'does' something to my brain.

Re:Can you ski?

Fri, 9 Nov 2012 15:05:34 GMT

I think that I am the polar opposite to you Andy.....I arrive on the slopes certain that I can ski, then, realise over the first day that I have forgotten everything that I learned last year!

Re:Can you ski?

Fri, 9 Nov 2012 15:36:44 GMT

snowplough wrote:I think that I am the polar opposite to you Andy.....I arrive on the slopes certain that I can ski, then, realise over the first day that I have forgotten everything that I learned last year!

I have the same problem.

Every trip, after a couple of runs, I feel like I'm really getting it. Then the next day I'm hopeless and have to go right back to basics, do a few drills to force myself to ski properly.

Last season, I realized that if you put in some effort to do some basic drills on the first day then it makes a big difference. The problem is that it is usually the last thing you want to do after a summer waiting to ski again.

I guess it's a combination of factors, the main one being that, no matter how much dry land training you have done over the summer, your body just isn't used to the movements and muscles used and this becomes most obvious on the second day when you're a bit more worn and the first day enthusiasm has waned a bit.

Incidentally, I did ski fitness training yesterday for the first time this season. Ouch!

Re:Can you ski?

Fri, 9 Nov 2012 16:11:11 GMT

The first morning is always hilarious especially with group of kids who cant decide if they want to board or ski,and have invariablly left some item back at the acc./car/toilet. Usually the boots dont fit right just as about to get on first lift.
We consider ourselves lucky to be on skis by midday no matter how much forward planning goes into it.By then its lunch time and a coffee with a Brandy steadies the jittery legs! You dont have time to wonder can you do it you are just so glad to be skiing. All part of the crack!