I do believe that the Harb Carvers are an invaluable tool for showing up deficiencies in technique. I also think that SCSA?s asked Sue a good question: ?whether her reaction that the Carvers were harder than she thought they would be is due to a technique/movement deficiency.? Now that more people are trying them out you will hear more initial reactions and probably a wider range of opinions.
Over the summer, I have been out with lots of people on the Harb Carvers who are at various levels (from never skied before to top level racers).
I have seen lots of people just hop on the carvers and do just what they do on skis perfectly and love them. They immediately have the reaction ?Wow, these carve just like a ski!? This last weekend, I took Noboru Matsumoto out on them
[Aside 8/16/04: Sorry for the earlier post saying it was Kiminobu. Language problems. When I tried to ask about his experience, everyone said that he had been at the Nagano Olympics with Japan. That would seem to narrow it to Kiminobu. My mistake. Noboru was an Olympic official for the skiing at Nagano. Noboru has been an active racer and organizer in Japan. He has run a ski club, a race team, and ski camps both in Japan and at Mt. Hood for years. I was out with his camp again yesterday and he bought several carvers.]
Both he and his daughter (a coach and national competitor in Japan) had this reaction. However, a few people at every level have had a similar reaction to Sue ? including the highest level racers. Obviously, for most of these top level skiers their initial reaction is not an issue of bad technique ? though for some it might be. So what?s up? Here are my observations on a few things that can affect first reactions to using Harb Carvers and maybe some advice about how to have a productive first few sessions.
1) The importance of terrain choice for learning.
It?s really important to establish a clear sense of speed control and confidence during the first few runs because I have seen some good people be too cocky and take good spills on their first run. An obvious solution is to use very flat terrain. However, too flat of terrain can also offer problems. Now, I prefer using terrain that is moderately sloped, but very, very wide. These are the reasons.
If an intermediate skier doing their first few runs on Carvers uses too flat of terrain, it puts everything in ?slow motion? and emphasizes the balance aspects more than they may be used to. So, they find it more difficult and not as immediately ?like skiing? as they expected. It can feel more like a moving wobble board exercise than the freedom of skiing that we all crave. Instead, I pick out a moderately sloped site and use classic fan and garland progressions to build speed control. If the site is wide enough, this works great. The crossover to skiing is obvious and it?s more fun too.
On the other end, putting some very good skiers on too gentle of terrain encourages them to do movements that are not at all like what they actually do on skis. A few weeks ago, I did a demo with a team of 12-15 year olds. So, we picked out very, very gentle terrain in a parking lot ? almost flat. One of the top NCAA slalom skiers happened to be there and tried out a set of Carvers. He kept complaining that they weren?t like skis at all because he felt he had to stand on his heels and rotate them a lot. Well, he was a really aggressive skier who wanted to see how they ?ranked? turns, but we were on almost flat terrain. So, with as many skates as he could to build up speed, he would try to crank out a bunch of turns. At best, the speed was enough for some long gentle turns and so instead he would put his weight on his heels and swing to get some quick ones in. You can make this work with some effort, but at any real speed on the carvers it would put you on the pavement. My main point is that this is obviously not at all how he really skied. Again, some moderately steep, but wide terrain would have been better. This more advanced skier could have done a few shallow turns up the hill and gradually moved to making the turns he had wanted without abandoning the movements that he obviously knows how to do on skis.
To some extent this issue is what Sue referred to when she said.
suebrown wrote:What I was doing on the Carvers was not very comparable to the way I ski, because of the slow speed and shallow hill, but I do think that there's a good chance they could point out flaws (and help me improve) once I start really making turns on them.
Sue jumped in on the chance to Carve during a session with other people and we made the best with the terrain that was there, but it was not my favorite choice for a first time. I have a much better place that I?ll take her to next time out.
2. The issue of equipment.
I have been out Carving with several people who have boots that make it really hard to do the movements necessary to efficiently use the Carvers. Obviously, this impacts their skiing too, but at that time . . . when they can?t make those carvers turn like they want, what enters their heads is that they can ski, but learning to use Carvers is hard.
There are two issues with boots a) having a rotory boot makes it harder to produce the necessary movements; b) having a fit that is too restrictive makes it harder to do the inversion that?s necessary, especially if you are just learning ? and it gets harder when you are also going very slow. Harald?s comments (below) about the necessity of starting the movements in the feet are relevant here. If you don?t have the articulation available in the ankle, then the tipping is done by pushing the knee, but with no ankle movement, that?s only possible with a large, simultaneous upper body shift leading the way ? the consequences on balance (especially when going very slow) are big. It makes it really hard. This may also show how much you can get away with on skis because they can skid.
[Comment for Sue: This may also be an issue for you. She has a brand new pair of Lange?s that were so tight they were hurting her feet a bit.]
3. Technique issues and models of skiing.
Feedback about experiences using the Carvers will also mirror larger debates and beliefs about models of skiing and teaching. Harald has pointed out the following:
Harald wrote:Some examples of movements that experts have which cause trouble on Harb Carvers are:
1. Big toe edge dominant at engagement
2. Big toe edge Step-off
3. Up an down movements
4. Turning by steering the skis to an edge
Harald wrote:As in skiing, during transition, your center of gravity (body) has to move across to the downhill side of the skis for a ?high C? turn. This has to be initiated by feet tipping actions. If this isn?t done on the carvers they will feel like they don?t want to turn.
My experience seeing other people learn to use Carvers has been the same. I would add that the reasons for those movements showing up vary from person to person. For some people these aspects are something to be eliminated. For others, these movements are a part of their ?model? of skiing. Which is true will affect how people experience their introduction to Carvers. So, as you hear feedback from various people who are trying Harb Carvers, also take into consideration the larger context of where they are coming from.
If a person sees Harald?s list as ineffective/inefficient ski movements, that person will feel that the Carvers are a constant, accurate coach that can?t be fooled. When you do things wrong it doesn?t work, when you do things right they feel so good.
Sometimes the ?model? of skiing that a person is using includes the nonproductive movements that Harald pointed out. Last weekend I watched a camp of racers working on tossing their arms above their heads and extending their legs at every transition. I have watched students doing exercises to radically commit their upper body into the turn first, rather than starting the action with the feet. The coaches in these camps have a ?model? of skiing that is very different from what is most effective on Carvers ? and probably most effective on skis. If a person is dead-set on the necessity of any of the movements in Harald?s list, then they will feel that the Carvers are either ?not like skis? or at best a limited tool for one or two exercises.
Often, with more time Carving, people expand their views and begin to see the connection to skiing. At this point, questions come out that examine the implicit model of skiing that a skier was working on and whether or not their model works well. Wide parking lots offer the perfect experimental environment to examine technique issues with the carvers. In fact, I think this is a really useful aspect of using them and I have seen several people who started with the idea of a wide stance as a must, slowly narrow their stance both on the cravers and in their skiing. Similarly I have been out with people who claimed it?s impossible to ski without leg steering, begin to change their beliefs after some fun time on the Carvers.
Ok, this post has gone far too long. Too summarize, if you find Carvers are more difficult than you thought, or they don?t feel like skiing, it may be because 1) your first few times out were not on the best terrain; 2) your equipment is holding you back; 3) your model of skiing needs to be examined; or 4) your technique needs work. Now that I think about it, the same list is true of skiing in general.
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you talkin to ME 
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