Ski Season Going Well

Written by Tony

Sunday, 25 January 2009

I realized that I haven't posted much in my Skiing section of my site, so it's time for an update.

Like the title says, the season is going well. It's cold. The coldest year I can remember. The snow is great though.

Busy day at Cascade Mountain

We taught lots of lessons at Cascade Mountain. I've done group lessons and some really fun intermediate private lessons. I love seeing the light go on when people get something new that changes their skiing. It's cool. There are a lot of just simple things that you can show people to help them get to the next level. I've been through it myself and continue to pick up new things. There's always room to improve.

Last year I had probably four "ah-ha" moments. This year, I've just had one but that's fine. The one so far this year was having more upper and lower body separation. Aiming my torso and upper body downhill while I let my legs be more dynamic doing the turning really focuses the ride down the run. It just flows better and is more efficient skiing.

The next thing I'm playing with is counterbalance. Boy, this is hard but I've just started doing it since the clinic last Wednesday. I'm so used to leaning into turns. Statically, it's easy to show it. I show it in every beginner lesson. If I can get my upper body to tip downhill when I tip my skis uphill, I'll get better counterbalance. It's like learning all over again.

Speaking of which, when I get on my snowboard (I haven't been able to very much yet, which I'm disappointed about) I've found that I pretty much suck at riding regular and switch, so I've been doing both. It'll probably take longer to get better, but I'll get better at both at the same time - versus having to re-learn riding switch later. So that's kind of cool actually.

I'm watching the Winter X-Games right now, the snowboarding half pipe competition. Pretty cool. They make it look easy. Earlier today I was watching a ski-cross competition which is a new event in the next Olympics. It's four racers running at a time, it's pretty cool.

I was first thinking I'd take my PSIA Level 2 exam this year but then decided to do the prep, though through that again and then finally decided to just do the prep this year. I'm not ready for the exam and I'm not in a huge rush. I've got time. I do know how to study now and have an idea of what to expect. After the Level 2 Prep, I'll know it even better. That's in less than a month over at Sunburst. It'll be cool to see some PSIA friends again.

I started running the NASTAR course now. I've done like 4 runs. Yesterday I wiped out on my first run. I wish they had it on tape so I could see what I did. I think I cut around a gate and ended up in the back seat. The next run was better and I missed bronze by .40 seconds so I had to run it again. On my third and final run yesterday, I got bronze. So that's the first step and one goal met. It's fun doing NASTAR. It's a different way to get down the hill and fun.

I'm heading to Utah in like less than 2 weeks. I think we're doing Alta and the Canyons. That should be fun.

I have to give a shout out to Pete Cannon - check out his site: Skier News.

Ski ya!
-Tony

P.S. Shaun White just got back-to-back golds at the Winter X-Games. Nice.