wjeong
02-03-2010, 09:09 PM
So a little over a month ago, my girl friend told me she was going to take her daughter who snowboards skiing. My girl friend had skied 3 times in the last 10 years and couldn’t get off the bunny slopes. Last season, she tried snowboarding and spent two days bruising herself all up. She told me she was going to try renting some skis. I suggested she try my Atomic 120’s instead. This is a super short carving ski. The binding can be adjusted in a snap. Ice grip is terrific. If you don’t sit on the tails, you can’t tell you’re riding a short ski. Needless to say, she had a great time on them. Her daughter acknowledged this and called them baby skis. She has never seen her mom ski so well. So a week later, I took her up to Sugar Bowl with the Atomics again. Conditions were hard pack. She had skied soft snow the first time. She didn’t even complain about the conditions having skied so little. Plus she was doing even better than the first time out according to her. I had her riding all but 2 chairs at Sugar Bowl that day. She could ski any blue run. She didn’t do it without falling though. Some times she would just make a turn, sit too far back and go down on her tail. The end of the day, she didn’t want to quit until she could ski an entire blue run without falling. This she did. I was really stoked to see someone advance so rapidly on a short ski.
Wanting to give her the opportunity to really make more head way and improve rapidly, I offered to take her up to ski 2 days in a row. We went up again mid week back to Sugar Bowl to ski Thursday and Friday. It had snow hard for 3 days prior to our arriving. The powder was epic with over 2 feet anywhere it was not groomed. Since we had so much powder, I set up the ALP’s for her to ride. I have a 4 cm set back drilled out riser. I was able to adjust the heel piece forward and fit her boot without remounting the bindings. This gave her about a 3 cm setback. She adjusted very well to riding the ALPs on the groomers. Having spent a couple of days on a snowboard, the lack of directional feedback from a real skiboard didn’t bother her at all. She had no problem when I told her she needed to feel the edge. The technique of reaching over and touching the opposite knee really helped her locate the sweet spot of a carve. She did well on the groomers but still would sit back and on her heels and fall. She tried a couple of short powder runs and would go 20 feet before losing her balance and falling usually on her side. A couple of face plants taught her to sit back pretty quickly. After struggling to get up in powder a half dozen times, that was it for her. Exhausted, she settled for staying on the groomers. Since a lot of her falls were from sitting back, the next day I moved the binding to my Spruce 120. Oh the beauty of the riser. The 120 worked much better for her to give her more fore and afte stablility. She was too sore from struggling in the powder to want to try the 120’s in powder so we didn’t do it. However, the added fore and afte stability helped with the falls sitting back. By the middle of the day, I had her skiing a couple of black runs. She was quite amazed looking up from the bottom of Donner Way after skiing it. We both agreed the 120 is the board for her to ski.
Wendell
Wanting to give her the opportunity to really make more head way and improve rapidly, I offered to take her up to ski 2 days in a row. We went up again mid week back to Sugar Bowl to ski Thursday and Friday. It had snow hard for 3 days prior to our arriving. The powder was epic with over 2 feet anywhere it was not groomed. Since we had so much powder, I set up the ALP’s for her to ride. I have a 4 cm set back drilled out riser. I was able to adjust the heel piece forward and fit her boot without remounting the bindings. This gave her about a 3 cm setback. She adjusted very well to riding the ALPs on the groomers. Having spent a couple of days on a snowboard, the lack of directional feedback from a real skiboard didn’t bother her at all. She had no problem when I told her she needed to feel the edge. The technique of reaching over and touching the opposite knee really helped her locate the sweet spot of a carve. She did well on the groomers but still would sit back and on her heels and fall. She tried a couple of short powder runs and would go 20 feet before losing her balance and falling usually on her side. A couple of face plants taught her to sit back pretty quickly. After struggling to get up in powder a half dozen times, that was it for her. Exhausted, she settled for staying on the groomers. Since a lot of her falls were from sitting back, the next day I moved the binding to my Spruce 120. Oh the beauty of the riser. The 120 worked much better for her to give her more fore and afte stablility. She was too sore from struggling in the powder to want to try the 120’s in powder so we didn’t do it. However, the added fore and afte stability helped with the falls sitting back. By the middle of the day, I had her skiing a couple of black runs. She was quite amazed looking up from the bottom of Donner Way after skiing it. We both agreed the 120 is the board for her to ski.
Wendell