Blister recommends wide rockered skis for beginners

[anders_nor]

some people just wanna see the world burn (skid)

 

[East Coast Scott]

Our top vertical metres man in Perisher Australia racks up hundreds of thousands of metres and gets top spot, year after year, season after season, with what looks like a powerslide. So it's not just for weekenders.

When I see people skiing like this I think what they are really doing is just speed checking themselves because they don't know how to cut speed with a proper turn. Nothing wrong with it if they are having fun and that's how they like to ski.

 

[Tony Storaro]

When I see people skiing like this I think what they are really doing is just speed checking themselves because they don't know how to cut speed with a proper turn. Nothing wrong with it if they are having fun and that's how they like to ski.

OK, serious question, the nice personality of this dude aside as I am sure he is a delight to be around, but how on God's green Earth is possible to ski so much and be that bad?
This is some out of this world persistence at staying bad. Or what is it? I don't understand...And no, don't just answer He just wants to have fun. Cant be that easy, must be something deeper.

 

[James]

I don't understand

Easy. Do the same thing over and over.
Very standard.

Humans are remarkably creative in conscious or unconscious work arounds. One could say, “put him on very short carving skis”, and skiing like that would be horrible. Not necessarily, if you could even convince a try.

 

[East Coast Scott]

OK, serious question, the nice personality of this dude aside as I am sure he is a delight to be around, but how on God's green Earth is possible to ski so much and be that bad?
This is some out of this world persistence at staying bad. Or what is it? I don't understand...And no, don't just answer He just wants to have fun. Cant be that easy, must be something deeper.

Yeah, but sometimes I have to make myself take a step back and try and see it from a different perspective. In all honesty I agree with you because I am the type that always tries to improve at everything I do. I grew up an athlete and have always been competitive so it's in my nature. Some people aren't like that. What I will say, is the better you ski the more fun it becomes, even if you think it's a blast just being mediocre. My opinion though.

 

[BMC]

OK, serious question, the nice personality of this dude aside as I am sure he is a delight to be around, but how on God's green Earth is possible to ski so much and be that bad?
This is some out of this world persistence at staying bad. Or what is it? I don't understand...And no, don't just answer He just wants to have fun. Cant be that easy, must be something deeper.

Repeating bad movements until they’re ingrained?

Plus I think he came to skiing pretty late in life.

So both, probably.

I‘d prefer to see it as he has room for improvement though than say he’s bad.

 

[cantunamunch]

we have.... danish.... holy.... yeah, first they traffic jam the roads, then lift lines, then getting off lift. they are very good at après though.

and they certainly have a fine appreciation of cake.

If said beginner has any experience inline skating they will be right at home.

Yes and no. The flaws in low intermediate to intermediate inline skaters include:
a) pushing the heel out to find edge
b) starting turns by rotating shoulders (and related issues like dropping the inside shoulder before anything even starts)
c) having completely uncontrolled tip lead. It can even be the reverse of what you'd think, the outside leading in, especially in cone/slalom skaters
d) having no concept of front/back pressure or deliberately shifting that pressure during the turn
e) having massive resistance to single foot balance at higher terrain angles, since PU skate wheels can't engage edge like steel can on snow. Descending steep terrain on conventional inlines is very much a two-footed-balance affair.

All of these things have to be deliberately beaten trained out of high-miles intermediate inliners who don't have snow experience (or exposure to advanced inline coaching).


Talking of beating.

 

[Tony Storaro]

I‘d prefer to see it as he has room for improvement though than say he’s bad.

Ermmm....this is not someone who just started skiing, remember that. Seasons upon season and millions of vertical meters, so dunno...


Anyway, he can ski the way he wants, bless his heart, I was just wondering...

 

[cantunamunch]

Ermmm....this is not someone who just started skiing, remember that. Seasons upon season and millions of vertical meters, so dunno...

But then, he's not expecting a different result from all that repetition

 

[Tony Storaro]

Yes and no. The flaws in low intermediate to intermediate inline skaters include:
a) pushing the heel out to find edge
b) starting turns by rotating shoulders (and related issues like dropping the inside shoulder before anything even starts)
c) having completely uncontrolled tip lead. It can even be the reverse of what you'd think, the outside leading in, especially in cone/slalom skaters
d) having no concept of front/back pressure or deliberately shifting that pressure during the turn
e) having massive resistance to single foot balance at higher terrain angles, since PU skate wheels can't engage edge like steel can on snow. Descending steep terrain on conventional inlines is very much a two-footed-balance affair.

All of these things have to be deliberately beaten trained out of high-miles intermediate inliners who don't have snow experience (or exposure to advanced inline coaching).


Talking of beating.

My experience with beginner skaters is negligible compared to that with beginner skiers as no one of the lil annoying b*stards-nephews nieces etc has any interest in skating. They are skate/longboarders so at least in the summer I am left alone. So I will take your word for this.
My point was more about the fore/aft balance. If you can master that on inline skates, no worries with mini skis.

 

[KingGrump]

this is not someone who just started skiing, remember that. Seasons upon season and millions of vertical meters, so dunno

You can lead a horse to water...

Different crowd, different definition of "fun". The "Hold my Beer" crowd at Taos often considered skiing way beyond control as fun. Unguided meat missile territory. If they aren't scare sh**less, they are not having fun. High speed crash and burn for those boys are SOP.

 

[cantunamunch]

My point was more about the fore/aft balance. If you can master that on inline skates, no worries with mini skis.

Sure.

Only one caution for the other readers - beginner skates have negligible stiffness in forward flex and some pretty chunky delta, often 6mm+ . Put an inliner used to that in stiff boots and flat bindings and they will hate you.

 

[Tony Storaro]

Put an inliner used to that in stiff boots and flat bindings and they will hate you.

Well look ANY beginner will hate you when you put them in the ski boots, ski boots are scary and unnatural, that's unavoidable.
That's their destiny tho..

 

[Tony Storaro]

If they aren't scare sh**less, they are not having fun.

 

[Tony Storaro]

Now what would be the proper biking analogy for carvers?

I was thinking about that today during a ride. And it came to me. The cycling analog of proper high speed carving is Tom Pidcock, stage 12 of the Tour 2022.

Just look at this:


Admin edit to add link for viewing in the US




I was like:

 

[David Chaus]

You can lead a horse to water...

Different crowd, different definition of "fun". The "Hold my Beer" crowd at Taos often considered skiing way beyond control as fun. Unguided meat missile territory. If they aren't scare sh**less, they are not having fun. High speed crash and burn for those boys are SOP.

Aren't they sometimes called "Texans"?

 

[KingGrump]

Aren't they sometimes called "Texans"?

Sometimes?

 

[Rich_Ease_3051]

OK, serious question, the nice personality of this dude aside as I am sure he is a delight to be around, but how on God's green Earth is possible to ski so much and be that bad?
This is some out of this world persistence at staying bad. Or what is it? I don't understand...And no, don't just answer He just wants to have fun. Cant be that easy, must be something deeper.

Repeating bad movements until they’re ingrained?

Plus I think he came to skiing pretty late in life.

So both, probably.

I‘d prefer to see it as he has room for improvement though than say he’s bad.

Maybe the ski athletic stance is the least energy efficient way to achieve 500,000 to 1 million vertical metres per season.

To get to 500k to 1M, the people in the leaderboard have to ski from opening to closing of the resort everyday for the whole season.

I estimate that's 120 days x 7 hours per day (edit: with accommodation for lunch and toilet breaks and sitting on a lift or riding a t-bar, probably 4-5 hours of pure ski time per day).

I don't think athletic stance is appropriate for doing that much skiing. They will tire out their arms and quads quickly.

Athletic stance is for being centred on the ski to achieve quick, subtle, twitchy fore and aft movements when you're trampolining each side to side arc of a carve.

The vertical metres people's goal per run is not the high G turns. It's just to get from top to the bottom as quick as possible while complying with the moderate speeds of the alpine code of responsibility.

Notice I said alpine code of responsibility. The professional speed demons can probably reach the top of the leaderboard in half the time. But they would be breaking the code. Or the athletic stance would fatigue them that they will get injured at some point in the season.

That's another factor - fatigue. The leaderboard people have to do this without getting fatigued or else their likelihood of being injured at some point in the season, and getting knocked off the leaderboard, is high.

I would just compare it 100 metre dash running form and marathon running form. Different forms for different running events.

 

[tromano]

We had the Rossignol stage series 110cm - 9m radius, 120cm - 10m radius, etc. Best time in history to teach beginners, or any level for that matter. And as I've said before, then fat rockers came along & all hope was lost
View attachment 179801

These look like what my kids are on. We delayed the fat rockers another year for them. They can ski all snowbasin with a 120cm carving ski. Being 60lbs gets them a lot of float from a 70mm wide ski.

 

[François Pugh]

OK, serious question, the nice personality of this dude aside as I am sure he is a delight to be around, but how on God's green Earth is possible to ski so much and be that bad?
This is some out of this world persistence at staying bad. Or what is it? I don't understand...And no, don't just answer He just wants to have fun. Cant be that easy, must be something deeper.

He took a lesson years ago and learned to pivot a flat ski to a steering angle and then obtain minimal directional change by partially engaging his edges, while controlling his speed as needed by blending in a bit of hockey stop (more edge engagement, but over-steered so still no real arcing a turn) to the minimal turn. That's what he expects skiing is, and expects that's all he will be able to do, since he is no FIS star athlete. He doesn't know it's broke, so he is not going to fix it. What he does works fine for him as it meets his expectations. He doesn't even know what he's missing.
Just my opinion though.