What was the single most important tip or piece of advice you received as you progressed from intermediate to advanced?

[Ogg]

never heard of Hoji? He literally has skis made after him and honestly one of the most dynamic powder skiers on the planet. Hell I have two of his pro models because honestly they are some of the best 3d snow skis I have ever skied.

I probably have but I was pretty much completely out of touch with skiing culture for ~15 years up until the last few seasons.

 

[Vcize]

If you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge an out of control newbie in over his head.

 

[James]

yeah he balanced on his outside ski doesnt matter what he says but he actually does throw some stem turns/rotary push off in there as well.

its also irrelevant. The gear of his day dictated his skiing. I'm a hack compared to Killy and my powder skiing has more energy than Killy simply due to modern boots and modern skis.


if you think skiing like Killy or stein is good in this day in age especially in powder , you have to rework whats good because the equipment has changed things.

this should be your new idol.

Not a great vid of Hoji to show normal pow skiing. Eliminate pov, cliffs, stuff no one skis, we don’t get to see skiing like what most people do.
However, the few turns st 6:40, are very similar to the Killy rhythm/flow.
Gives us another.

 

[Josh Matta]

most people dont ski powder.....

 

[James]

most people dont ski powder.....

Well if most don’t ski it... none ski it like that!

 

[CalG]

Notice how deeply Hoji flexes.

Deeper than Scott Schmidt!

 

[CoPow]

most people dont ski powder.....

Only time Loveland gets lift lines is the morning of a powder day. No friend on a pow day is the motto.

 

[nemesis256]

Inside upper body half (from the hip up) goes forward, outside half goes back. Focus on the one that works for you; the differences are quirky. *And pull/hold the inside foot back while things above it are going forward.

Something up there in your post sounds confusing. I may be reading it upside down or inside out, though.

Thanks for chiming in. I was having problems explaining it when I wrote that and was expecting it to be a little confusing. At this point it's muscle memory, which is why it's hard for a non instructor (me) to explain!

 

[David Chaus]

There’s a difference between what suggestions I would have for another skier now that I know what I know, and what helped me at the time.

To address the OP, what helped me move from intermediate to advanced-ish was helping friends who were struggling at the intermediate level and asked me for some advice. I had to examine what I was doing myself, then try to explain and demonstrate it, and it made me think about what I was trying to do. This was before I became an instructor, actually it helped me to decide to become an instructor, where I actually learned that I had a lot of inefficient habits that needed to change if I was to advance any more.

 

[DanoT]

most people dont ski powder.....

I guess you have never been in a powder morning traffic jam in Sandy Utah when it is bumper to bumper before you even get to the turn off to Little Cottonwood Canyon. Or at Whistler after a big dump and you get two runs and then you might as well go home because it is skied out.

 

[NoScoped]

Stand on the outside ski.

This seems to be a recurring piece of advice in this thread. Would you (or someone) mind elaborating on this point and why it's so important?

Complete the turn. It does the speed control for you.

At what point is the turn "complete"?

And slightly unrelated...but can anyone recommend a good YouTube series that covers a lot of these fundamentals?

 

[BushidoPrincess]

Building the highest edge angles you can as early in the turn as you can. This means letting your body move over the old outside ski just after the apex while allowing the skis to continue to carve out to the new side more than you think possible. Flex the new inside leg aggressively and earlier than you think; while, as Erik said above, balancing on the edge of the new outside ski. One can only learn this on flat terrain. It’s hard work and will have most people gulping for air pretty quickly. That’s what I mean by skiing easy runs hard.

Is this what upside carving is?

 

[David Chaus]

At what point is the turn "complete"?

And slightly unrelated...but can anyone recommend a good YouTube series that covers a lot of these fundamentals?

As far as YouTube, anything by Josh Foster is a good place to start. I like these, for instance.

 

[Tony S]

At what point is the turn "complete"?

Stupid-simple answer: When you're not going any faster than you were at the start.

 

[geepers]

Re: "Standing on the outside ski"...
This seems to be a recurring piece of advice in this thread. Would you (or someone) mind elaborating on this point and why it's so important?

This article by Paul Lorenze may help... INSIDE SKI or OUTSIDE SKI??...Does it really matter?

 

[Bolder]

Advanced?

Keep your head leading down hill. The rest of you will do what it must to keep up! ;-)

This did it for me, plus doing "picture frame" drills with my poles. (The corollary in mountain biking is if you can get your front wheel over an obstacle the rest of the bike will follow)

My bad habit was to let my skis get ahead of me, either because I was dropping my arms or not keeping upper body down the fall line. Once I really focused on leading with my head, looking well down the trail, and keeping arms up I was much more in balance, started to articulate more, and because I wasn't watching the tips of my skis things started to flow. I'm no expert, but I think I'm maybe 40 percent of the way there from "intermediate"*

*on the Pugski scale. By every ski resort lesson test I'm an "expert."

edit: OK, maybe 30 percent of the way from intermediate...

 

[KevinF]

At what point is the turn "complete"?

I would say a turn is “complete” when you’ve slowed down enough that you want to accelerate down the fall line.

That is — when your skis enter the fall line, you will accelerate. No way around that, at least until gravity stops working. Most skiers try to avoid that, so they rush through the fall line. Advanced skiers on the other hand need the fall line; they’ve completed their turn to the point where they’re going too slowly and now they need the fall line to speed up.

Not rushing through the fall line solves innumerable problems.

Somebody earlier in this thread mentioned the “ski the slow line fast” phrase and I had previously mentioned that “turns are ‘go this way’ thoughts”. Completed turns, slow-line-fast, ‘go’ thoughts are all related.

 

[Josh Matta]

i think "ski the slow line fast" is much more all encompassing than "complete your turns". IMO "complete your turns" is to vague, where as "Slow line as fast possible" is more abstract but not as vague.

 

[crgildart]

One of the instructors I had as a true intermediate taught me I didn't have to go around every mogul. He showed me how to ski OVER them, turning on the top and finishing the turn down the back side. That ability changed my entire outlook and strategy about skiing moguls.

 

[teejaywhy]

i think "ski the slow line fast" is much more all encompassing than "complete your turns". IMO "complete your turns" is to vague, where as "Slow line as fast possible" is more abstract but not as vague.

From my (student's) view, "Complete your turn" is plain English and a concept easily grasped. "Slow line as fast as possible" is just gobbledy gook.