Tom Gellies' Bump Lesson Speed Control and Line Control video is Outstanding!

[LiquidFeet]

So Tom's the man to do it. Such a video (I'm referencing the link I provided above) would require several runs, so the videographer could keep up with the skier. Two can't ski this at the same time, side by side.

Honestly, I can't imagine any run that could make Hairball seem like "out west." I guess it would need to be narrower, boulder-ier, steeper. So yes, I guess I can imagine that. We've got those too. I don't ski them. I don't even want to ski them.

 

[Tim Hodgson]

Bendu are you just a bully by nature? Or are you just offended that I have not learned what you have learned from PSIA?

The google search which you linked did speak of tactics: fast line, round line, zipper line, etc. But not detailed technique, which is: what to do and where to do it on the bump.

I have been a member of PSIA for 22 years. So, I have no interest in going out of my way to bash PSIA, but for you PSIA members like me, I will counterbalance Bendu's "You could've should've learned it from PSIA" argument with this single statement:

I have learned more about bump skiing technique from watching Tom Gellie's Bump Lesson I & II than I have in 22 years of PSIA clinics. Period.

Bendu, if you are an instructor, you should be happy that I am learning -- from whatever available source of knowledge. Because instructors put their students first.

Are you in anyway affiliated with a PSIA Division such as a Trainer, Clinician, Examiner or Division Board Member?

If so, I suspect you have collateral motives in bashing the acquisition of knowledge from other than PSIA sources.

LiquidFeet: Use the bigpictureskiing.com contact form and request a video such as that. Maybe Tom Gellie already has pieces he could stitch together in his off time for you Eastern skiers.

 

[Bendu]

My point is NOT that you should have learned from PSIA. I literally never said that. I did say they these words have literally been said by PSIA members on this very forum. I am not un happy that you are learning either. I am actually only asking and digging deeper because I am all for novel approaches. That is it. No idea how you could take it as bullying. It honestly seems as if its fake outrage and VERY defensive. Again to each his own, you can do what if you want. I only ask because I seek novel and new.



Where have bashed what Tom has said? All I am saying is so far he is IMO SPOT on, but its not novel, not even close. To his or anyone credit the novel approaches in this sport get squelched because most people that are novel do not put up with BS and tend to get drowned out.

You guys really think Aussie, New Zealand skiing is like Eastern skiing? wow again, as someone who has spent mutliple season teaching in aussie, the snow conditions can be variable, but they tend to be warmer(more corn/slush) and there is nothing approaching the technical aspect of eastern off piste skiing. Everyone who says such things has simply never skied in the east.

 

[KingGrump]

"Me: What tactic should we use on vertical wall backside bumps? Would you recommend turning on the fronts of such bumps and forgoing the vertical walls altogether?"

"Tom Gellie: First suggestion would be to look for the luge track line or mtn bike berm line that goes around the vertical backside. Can also be termed the round line.

For more athletic types. It’s actually a matter of getting snow contact early. Edging and tips down the backside of the bump ASAP. This requires deep absorption skills and fast extension skills. For sure if they are asking about this type of bump their ability to use absorption and extension would be lacking. So it would be a whole lesson on absorption and extension so that’s another topic I want to do when we are allowed to all go skiing again. I would ask them if they would be ok to jump down a flight of stairs quickly 3-4 steps at a time ? If that doesn’t sound daunting then let’s learn how to absorb and extend skiing bumps . If that sounds scary and like it would hurt your body then I’d probably teach them how to do that on dry land first without having skis and turning added to the task.

Tom Gellie
Functional Body

I really attempted in earnest not to participate in the instruction threads. This one is too good to pass up.

I like the dude. Good answer.
I sort of understood what he said on first read. Looked like English. Sounded like English. Somehow slightly garbled. Wasn't sure exactly so I flushed his reply through the Goggle translator to fully understand it. The language detected was PC Sales. I translated it into layman's plain English.

Loosely translated into three (03) points.
(01) Dude, don't go there.
(02) Why do want to do that? You gonna hurt yourself.
(03) Well, if you are insistent in hurting yourself, I can teach it to ya (for a fee, of course.)

I have also noticed the phrase "For the athletic types." As in when a ski instructor describes a student's skiing as "athletic". It is not a good thing.

 

[mdf]

talk about context one man's ice, is anothers packed powder.

Yeah, that video clearly has the wrong title. Those are nice round moguls with good snow!

"Me: What tactic should we use on vertical wall backside bumps? Would you recommend turning on the fronts of such bumps and forgoing the vertical walls altogether?"

"Tom Gellie: First suggestion would be to look for the luge track line or mtn bike berm line that goes around the vertical backside. Can also be termed the round line.

I don't think there IS any line that avoids vertical walls in the bumps I was talking about. There certainly is no round line.

 

[Brad J]

There's no downhill side to push the shovels down onto.

AKA MRG a few years ago.

 

[Erik Timmerman]

I'm really feeling like I missed good time at MRG.

 

[Brad J]

I'm really feeling like I missed good time at MRG.

I love MRG but for some reason the late season bumps were at least punishing that year , it was like the usual bump line that gets pushed downhill was getting cut off and the line was working uphill. very weird and not much fun. I changed my technique to find another trail and see if that works.

 

[James]

I'm really feeling like I missed good time at MRG.

Did we mention the glue snow?
The worst. The illusion of “powder”.
Sudden, random hell. You know it’s coming... Skis banked sort of helps, but you’ve got to go back the other way.
Triangle moguls any day.

 

[Mike King]

So Tom's the man to do it. Such a video (I'm referencing the link I provided above) would require several runs, so the videographer could keep up with the skier. Two can't ski this at the same time, side by side.

Honestly, I can't imagine any run that could make Hairball seem like "out west." I guess it would need to be narrower, boulder-ier, steeper. So yes, I guess I can imagine that. We've got those too. I don't ski them. I don't even want to ski them.

Well, it seems that the Australians got (get?) a lot of their inspiration from the Austrians. So, going back a ways, here's some icy bump skiing for you. Has elements of Tom's stuff in it, namely early edging and flexion/extension...


And here's a bit of info from Tom on extension, although the focus in his lesson behind the paywall incorporates the edging piece into it. The issue is what is going on between the hip and femur...

 

[KingGrump]

I don't think there IS any line that avoids vertical walls in the bumps I was talking about. There certainly is no round line.

There is.

 

[Brad J]

Did we mention the glue snow?
The worst. The illusion of “powder”.
Sudden, random hell. You know it’s coming... Skis banked sort of helps, but you’ve got to go back the other way.
Triangle moguls any day.

I think we really were talking about a couple of years ago and not the weird conditions of last year. my recollection is the bumps last year were soft and round by comparison to a couple of years back

 

[Tim Hodgson]

Interesting Mike! Now that I have watched Tom Gellie's Bump Lession I video, I can actually see what technique Hierzegger using with this tails in that video. Friggin' cool! (BTW, I have no interest in skiing icy bumps...)

 

[markojp]

Bendu are you just a bully by nature? Or are you just offended that I have not learned what you have learned from PSIA?

The google search which you linked did speak of tactics: fast line, round line, zipper line, etc. But not detailed technique, which is: what to do and where to do it on the bump.

I have been a member of PSIA for 22 years. So, I have no interest in going out of my way to bash PSIA, but for you PSIA members like me, I will counterbalance Bendu's "You could've should've learned it from PSIA" argument with this single statement:

I have learned more about bump skiing technique from watching Tom Gellie's Bump Lesson I & II than I have in 22 years of PSIA clinics. Period.

Bendu, if you are an instructor, you should be happy that I am learning -- from whatever available source of knowledge. Because instructors put their students first.

Are you in anyway affiliated with a PSIA Division such as a Trainer, Clinician, Examiner or Division Board Member?

If so, I suspect you have collateral motives in bashing the acquisition of knowledge from other than PSIA sources.

LiquidFeet: Use the bigpictureskiing.com contact form and request a video such as that. Maybe Tom Gellie already has pieces he could stitch together in his off time for you Eastern skiers.

Tim, you seemed to have found a medium that really ties things together for you. I had a similar experience and a debt of gratitude to CSIA and their YouTube vids that made all the difference for passing L3. As time has passed, I don't really see my previous experience as something lacking with the organization or my training, but more with HOW I needed the message delivered. I see using 'whatever it takes' to figure things out as simply taking ownership. In that light, you're on a much more positive path than 3-4 seasons ago that I recall from your posts on PSIA forums. Good on ya!

 

[Tim Hodgson]

Thank you markojp! You have no idea how much I appreciate that.

I am still a hard headed a$$, but I think the following statement applies to me:

"When the Student is ready, the Master appears."

 

[LiquidFeet]

....You guys really think Aussie, New Zealand skiing is like Eastern skiing? wow again, as someone who has spent mutliple season teaching in aussie, the snow conditions can be variable, but they tend to be warmer(more corn/slush) and there is nothing approaching the technical aspect of eastern off piste skiing. Everyone who says such things has simply never skied in the east.

 

[KevinF]

I'm really feeling like I missed good time at MRG.

Have you still never skied there?

I think we really were talking about a couple of years ago and not the weird conditions of last year. my recollection is the bumps last year were soft and round by comparison to a couple of years back

Yeah, I recall two distinct MRG years. There was the year that the bumps were pretty solid and were basically frozen cubes and pyramids. That was the year @James talked to the patroller who blamed the tele skiers. Last year was the glue, but the bumps were pretty soft.

There is.

Well, let me know when you invent your time machine so you can demonstrate to us this "round line" in frozen MRG bumps that nobody else could find.

-=-=--=-=-=-=-=-=-=

I feel like i ski bumps reasonably well for a weekend hack. I have never once seen bumps "out West" that even approximate the evil-ness seen in New England bumps. I remember Josh Matta and Erik Timmerman both demonstrating pivot slips down the spine of the bump in order to stay as high as possible and avoid the worst of the "vertical walls". It's a trick I utilize periodically; I have never once had to use that trick outside of New England.

All that said... Most skiers I see in the bumps are in for a rough ride regardless of the bump shape because of <insert common flaw reason here>. IMHO, there's a lot of basic technique that needs to be ingrained before you need to start worrying about "local flavors". I haven't watched Tom's videos -- sorry, not paying $50 / month when I have no chance of getting on snow until December -- but I imagine they do a pretty good job of explaining the essentials.

 

[KingGrump]

Well, let me know when you invent your time machine so you can demonstrate to us this "round line" in frozen MRG bumps that nobody else could find.

Better yet, ask Andrew about it at the next NEG.

 

[mdf]

Better yet, ask Andrew about it at the next NEG.

Oh boy, I hope we get truly atrocious bumps again.
Wait...what am I saying!

 

[SSSdave]

One sometimes reads ski forum posts relating Eastern snow is different than Rockies snow, that is different than Tahoe snow, that is different than Pacific Northwest snow, blah blah blah. Although it is true that common average types of snows in those different regions are different, it is also true each region at times has similar snow conditions to any other regions though at extremes far less often. The same can be said with mogul fields and fresh powder conditions regardless of how much certain skiers might insist otherwise. With mogul slopes a wide range of shapes and conditions have always existed.

This winter, Tahoe had a 40 day or so dry spell from late January through February with mostly balmy days mixed with a few bone cold days that froze previous soft surfaces to rock hard conditions as freeze thaw cycles evolved. With mogul slopes, bump shapes evolve over time and the longer it has been between storms, the more snow metamorphosizes, the more bump skiers are skiing whatever slopes, the more gnarly shapes become especially in steeper areas. And such was the case decades ago before grooming became dominant as any older hard core bump skiers that skied Headwall at Squaw can attest. At the end of the below thread, I posted some detailed images of bump shapes with terms that show what happens after weeks without snow on a slope where there are lots of skilled bump skiers all week, every day.

California/Nevada - Little Dipper bumps at Heavenly

I'll offer this unusual thread with images about a single run at a single resort given my SV hi tech and photography background with more information than you will likely want to know haha. Oh I know so many of you just love bumps slopes haha. This is what I've been skiing lately given the...

www.pugski.com

And I did ski these slopes all day on some rock hard days where the snow surface at midday when I went out was just slightly softened at most in lines I carefully picked. As a rec bump skier that is interested in controllable moderate viscerally fun speeds, my technique slows as slope gradient increases, sort of jumping down from turn spot to turn spot, often twice on each bump making it look easy from those watching riding chairlifts but intimidating for anyone actually standing at such spots because most gain too much speed without confidence they can do anything to not do so. Regardless I won't bother skiing bumps early shadowed mornings with sub freezing temps when the top surface is unskied and frozen solid with yesterdays uneveness because that is little fun.