Ski Season is Almost Over… Crap!
There are only 3 more weekends left to ski at Cascade Mountain. Where has the time gone? It looks like I’ll ski 5 times in the next 7 days, so I’m trying to get in as much as I can.
I’ve had a few “ah-ha!” moments this year. This may not mean much to anyone else, but here they are:
- I saw Jamie skiing down a steeper run (black diamond) and he had his hands out wider. I tried it and I became more stable. This makes sense since when you see figure skaters put their arms in, they go faster and out, they go slower.
- At the beginning of the season, I was still having trouble staying forward and keeping shin and boot contact – probably because I was still getting rid of old habits and getting used to new boots. So as I would go down runs, I’d lift my toes up in my boots and that would get me more forward and stay there. Now, I don’t need to do that anymore. I just stay forward and am more in control.
- A few weeks ago, another instructor, Stacey, was doing a clinic on our clinic night in preparation for his level 3 exam and he gave me a tip, which I’ve heard before but when he said it that time, the light went on. He said that I need to complete my turns. To me, that meant doing the counting thing more and getting more to neutral when linking turns. Since then, my turning has improved.
- Last week, in a clinic on Friday night, Erika gave me some tips to help me get my feet farther out from under me when doing turns. Arnie also said that I need to tip my skis more and they will hold. All of this really helped my turns as well. I’m glad I took that quick clinic.
So going to these clinics has really helped me this year. I’m not super athletic but I know that if I work on something hard enough, I can get it. So it’s been a great year skiing (so far). I’ll go for my level 2 certification next year or at least do the prep course. At all the clinics we’ve been having, we’ve been doing level 3 stuff – some of it I can do, some I can’t but it’s good to start learning it.
If you haven’t been out skiing yet this year and were planning to, go now!! 🙂
-T
