Saturday, March 10, 2012

A Skier's Natural "Differential"

It's not feasible or even possible to carve equally with both skis at the same time. In "RailRoad Track" Turns, when the skis stay exactly parallel, it's not because they carve totally the same, it's because the skier has a built-in "differential" in his body--your bones are all connected, so the inside ski just natually goes along for the ride as it is lighter than the outside working ski, much like the wheels on the drive-axle of your car. For the inside ski to really carve, it would actually need more edge-n-pressure than the outside ski, because the inside ski has a slower-tighter arc to make--and you don't want to ski "bowlegged" and risk putting your inside knee in the snow. Anyone who tells you to "work" that inside ski just as much or more than the outside ski is either ignorant or just playing PSIA Politics--they harass a lot of students and Certification Candidates with this one. When the "Shaped" Skis became twice as easy, they found a way to make some techniques triple-difficult and even impossible. Oh, they might have you carve on one-ski left-n-right, which is fine for some real hard-core experts, but this is not nice to force upon most people. GARY HEINS shows how easy skiing should be, not how hard.