Ski Television:

Modern Methods

I rode the lift a few moments ago with this guy, and his first comment to me was, "Man, this snow is a lot of work for a guy my age!" "How old are you?" I said. He said "62". "Wow," I said, "it would be a little bit of work". It was all tracked up — we got 30 cm of snow last night — now it's kinda cut up and a little bit crummy. I looked at his skis and I could see why he was having to work harder. They were older, and only 200 cm long — they didn't turn that easily. So I said to him: "Here's what you need to make it easier — modern skis".

A pair of modern skis can definitely make skiing in this cut up snow a lot less work — they're wider, they have more cut and you can ski them in a shorter length, so it's easier. And if you can make one modern move with these modern skis you will find it way easier yet. And this modern move is to move your lower legs in parallel.

It used to be that we would let the knees touch together like this. (top photo) Nowadays what we want to do instead, is work the lower legs in a parallel fashion. So you see that I move this leg there like this (bottom photo) and I let this column of air appear between my legs, and keep weight on the inside ski. And that's what you need to do to get the most out of these little puppies which are shorter, wider and have way more side cut.

So keep the lower legs parallel, get the knees apart, don't let them touch together. That's the modern move. Try some modern skis because they're shorter they are wider, and they have more side cut, so it might make it easier for you to ski in cut up snow. Modern skis, modern moves — I hope that works for you!