by h.harb » Thu Jan 01, 2004 2:17 pm
Hi Pigslayer,
One thing we must keep in mind, everyone?s motivation for skiing is different. You don?t have to want to ski double black diamonds to feel you are having fun or that you are an expert skier. I have just as much respect for someone who wants to be proficient on Blues and Blacks, as I do for someone who wants to race on the World Cup. What the Ski Magazines are portraying as skiing these days is ridicules and a long way from the market that either wants to ski or is skiing. In fact, the Skiing Magazines maybe discouraging the skiing market by filling their magazines with unlikely places to ski and portraying jumps that only well trained professionals should be attempting. Clearly the regular skier (ninety five percent of the population) isn?t going to jump off cliffs and ski narrow steeps. Ninety percent of all skiers do not seek that experience.
Those antics are only for the well trained and young. And the ski industry and the magazines are failing to develop even that skier market. When a young beginning skier goes for a ski lesson at a regular ski school they are so turned off by the experience they run right to the snowboarding meeting place that afternoon, that?s if they even stick around for the whole ski lesson. The ski industry?s own survey shows that only one of every ten beginners turns into an enthusiast.
Where and how does the first lesson experience relate to the pictures in the ski magazines? It doesn?t!!! People ask why skiing isn?t growing and snowboarding is, the answer is; traditional ski lessons are turning skiers off, especially young people.
Tell a young skier between the ages of eight and fifteen that they have to learn a wedge (look stupid for about a year and go through the wedge Christie ordeal after that) and than in maybe two years, they might ski off piste or jump off a small cornice, they will respond by saying ?sayonara?, see you at the Snowboard School, where it takes about one day to look like you fit with the rest of the snowboarders sitting on the slopes.
Skiing and ski teaching have a huge image problem and no one is dealing with it. Show me one area that has innovative ideas to keep young people wanting to learn skiing. It?s the same old ski lesson with the same old wedge beginning, boring!!!! We at Harb Ski Systems have plenty of solutions, (but no one is asking the questions) and the answers are not only in ?Direct Parallel? but they begin with Direct Parallel.
Now, about skiing like they portray in the magazines, don?t be dismayed if you don?t have a huge ambition or motivation to jump off forty foot cliffs or ski the super steep narrow couloirs. Just as football players train their whole lives for pro teams and boxers train all year round, for decades, to withstand the pounding, the skiers in the photos are professionals, they train for years and decades to do what they do. Most spend time on the racing or professional bump circuits first. With what they do today while in the air, these athletes also train gymnastics and practice jumping all summer into foam pits or lakes. This is a young man?s game and it takes real commitment to do it right. Any one who thinks they can just go out and jump into a couloir or huck off a cliff is crazy. I find the magazines totally irresponsible by portraying skiing the way they do. Those professional skiers make it look like anyone could go out and try their stunts. Many youngsters with little training, but with plenty of gusts and testosterone will get seriously injured trying.
My son and his friends started to teach themselves inverted aerials a few seasons ago. I put a stop it and told them unless they have the background and proper training they were not to build jumps and try inverted jumps on snow. I suggested they begin training during the summer, by jumping into ponds, from trampolines, that?s the way to get started. Other options include joining gymnastic classes.
At our all mountain camps we take it very slowly and introduce skiers to some of these experiences, but only when they are ready. We introduce our skiers to proper techniques in safe places; if we jump, it is on very small jumps and we ski on very open snow fields, at first. I am no different, I must build up gradually to jumping and skiing extreme, every season. I begin with small cornices and jumps and build slowly until I reintroduce myself to the take off and landing techniques. It also takes me a few days every year to ski the very steep narrow runs with absolute confidence.
If I ski Big Sky or Kicking Horse I take a few days to get my steep approach mentality back into focus. There is so much more to be enjoyed on a mountain, before you need to put your limps in peril to experience the thrill of skiing.
Live long and ski forever