No offense to Wayne but I remember the 70's a little different!
You forgot skier 3, who is balanced smack dead neutral and smokes both of them. This issue really is most get too far forward (or too far back), so getting on the tails (or slightly on the tails) gets you hovering near that neutral point. The second part of speed is flat or at least on the same edge on both skis (either left or right).
You know you have it right when your skis get squirrelly (start to wander) you are both neutral and flat which equals fastest.
Up to a certain point, you can alternate edges, beyond that wobbling is faster, albeit less comfy and more risky. However, unless you're racing your bud to the chair, there's no real point in gaining an extra few miles per hour.My Dynastar Speedzone 12's exhibit this behaviour if I'm headed straight down the hill. I have to make at least a gentle turn to stop the wandering/oscillation of the ski, sometimes the left ski, sometimes the right. I had read previously this ski had a tendency to do this at speed
On the road when this happens it usually means you screwed up the exit of the turn and then only God can save you from a highside. And I'd take 5 lowside crashes over one highside any day of the week.
Up to a certain point, you can alternate edges, beyond that wobbling is faster, albeit less comfy and more risky. However, unless your racing your bud to the chair, there's no real point in gaining an extra few miles per hour.
You’re going to have to explain that one to me.Skiing takes place in the 4th dimension... you're willfully ignoring centripetal/centrifugal force for the sake of argument. It's also why instruction threads are so unnecessarily contentious.
I remember that ad & wondered if she was a real skier at the time? IOW, as opposed to a posed model/cut'n paste (70's version of photoshop)
The easiest way to haul the skis around for a back-seat skier, since the skis are barely bending if at all, is to rotate the upper body first and lean to the side. Once those are embedded habits, skill building stops. The body's useful ROM is fully occupied and there's no option for variation. There are other ways of making turns from the back seat, but this movement pattern is the most prevalent where I ski in New England.
Skiing aft while turning and tilting the upper body works in a limited way, but it severely limits the skier's ability to make short radius turns with grip. That rotating and leaning movement pattern typically keeps a skier on green and blue groomers. If green and blue groomers are all a skier wants to ski, staying in the back seat is fine.
Otherwise, those skiers need to get out of the back seat so they can put to use the more expensive front half of their ski. New terrain and more conditions will become their playground once they generate their turns from the hip joint down, while using the upper body for directing and controlling balance.
Unless of course you over rotate and ski switch on your left ski. Then you lever into the crud and ring your bell Had that happen recently (with a helmet). A painful learning experience for me.Hee hee. But true. I thought this post sums up the issues with being in the backseat, which I definitely have. I would add only that skiing from the back seat is probably just a natural reflex -- when we sense danger the impulse is to retreat a bit, i.e., if you see an icy patch or mogul etc your body says, whoa, back off, especially if you're tired.
As a peripheral note ... falling from the tails is less painful than going over the handlebars when skiing aggressively down the fall line -- you just skid on your butt and lift up the skis so you don't tweak a knee or hip, whereas once you're leading with your head all bets are off...
Isn't backseat the first position for the phantom foot ACL tear technique?It’s entirely the right move, especially if you have an urge to test out the latest ACL surgical procedures.