BPSRT!

[jbotti]

I thought I would throw this up. I spent a week skiing with Harald at my home mountain earlier in March. I told him that my goal for the week was that I wanted my SRT's to be as perfect, seamless and effortless as his are (knowing in advance that I will never achieve that but maybe I could get close). And that's what we did. We worked non stop for a week on brushed SRT's and worked a lot of super short radius turns. I did get to the point to where maybe 85% of my arcs had two thin lines from the apex to release, which is what a perfect brushed carved arc looks like. The other thing that gives guidance as to how well one is doing with these is that when done properly the skis will pull one through the arc as they aren't brushed in the bottom half of the arc and the tipping and extreme CA make the skis track. All great stuff but my main point is what happened after Harald left.

We finally got some fresh snow on top of the ice that had been created by the very warm spring conditions. Its a very low snow year at my mountain (running 40% of normal snow fall, ugh), so we have a pretty bumped up mountain even after a good bit of melting. We got 3" or so of fresh snow on top of the ice and I went out and skied our ridge under some challenging conditions (a little better than dust on crust, but hitting sold ice on every arc). I was blown away at how great and tight my turns were. I was cutting my tightest off piste slalom turns ever, and skiing the challenging conditions was actually easy.

Most skiers on this forum work hard on their skiing because they want to ski well and have fun off piste (I realize that may not be everyone but it's most). I know its also been said before that skiing well off piste is all about the BPSRT (bullet proof short radius turn). But it is so true. And the better your BPSRT'S are on piste, the more it directly translates to them being good or great off piste.

Yes, a broken record on this forum, but I was blown away by how quickly that work translated. And remember, if you can't do them on piste, for sure you won't be able to do them off piste. As Harald reminds me all the time, go for perfection on piste because some things (essentials) always deteriorate off piste and in 3D snow.

[A.L.E]

Great stuff John!! Get a bit of video posted!! Love to see your progress.

I was at the resort next door to yours in Feb & March, punctuated in the middle with a road trip up the Canadian powder highway with my Big Sky friend, just as the big dump came to rescue Canadian resort snow conditions. We skied at Fernie, Panorama, Kicking Horse & Revelstoke. A couple of days heliskiing Revelstoke as well. A blissful 40" had fallen by the time we got to Revelstoke. As an aside, my Big Sky's friend Diane Systrom won the YC under 70s race title. I hope you are winning one of the mens' categories!!! I raced Diane on the YC race Course a few years ago. Fun stuff. She beat me!

I mention my road trip to Fernie because it was nearly 20yrs ago that I'd last been there. Nostalgic because it was also my very first on snow experience with PMTS. Two fellow Aussies, Peter Stone & Scotty Burns, together with local ex Canadian ski racer L4 instructor, local golf course pro & fly fisher pro Max Sherwood, were running PMTS ski camps for most of Fernie's winter. Peter Stone had a stand at a ski promo show in Sydney where he sold me the "expert" dream. All three at that time were PMTS Blue level I think.
My wife & I had our three kids and my in-laws in tow to help. A great month long Canada road trip that certainly was. Fernie, Big White & Silverstar with a stopover in Fiji on the way home. Epic.

I mention my recent road trip & Peter Stone because by coincidence I was watching Youtube videos when in Canada a few weeks ago and came across Peter Stone's video with a 1hr.45m interview with Harald. An interview recording Harald's skiing journey. Really well worth watching.
Here's the Harald interview.
https://youtu.be/ku2Odg3Fao4?si=UVFXTa3-yI2rDGu3

Which also brings me to my Youtube viewing this weekend & the PMTS influence has had on ski instruction.
I was telling a business client of my recent Nth American trip, she's a keen skier and has, over the past 5yrs I've known her, been on a number of ski camps with Aussie/NZ/Canadian instructors. Reilly McGlashan has been part of the instruction company group at some point, so it has talented skiers. Although she hadn't had instruction from him. She said the Canadian instructor JF Beaulieu was perhaps the best instruction she's had. An Aussie named Tom Gellie also.
She tells me she now loves short turns & bumps with what JF Beauliue has taught her. I'd seen JF Beaulieu videos before but I was now intrigued to watch some again. I watched one from 9 yrs ago and it was the same old rubbish instruction, focus was on that good ole non specific instruction word, "steering" with the outside ski. Beaulieu stance was widish by PMTS standards. His students nearly all looked like golf carts.
Fast forward to a recent video and it's seems all changed for JF Beaulieu, he now demonstrates and describes the advantages of a narrower stance, so that "lightening the inside ski and tilting/tipping to little toe edge" can be accomplished. "The more tipping the tighter the turn"!
Completely different information to the other 9yr old video.
His own skiing is noticeably different too.
He makes the comment towards the end of the video that there has "been a lot of study" behind the concept of inside ski lightening and tipping. No mention of HH 1997 ACBAES
Thankfully no mention in the recent video of "steering".
Anyway, great to see the ski instruction world finally catching up.

Here's the video: https://youtu.be/fB4t_VezCkM?si=e0OOkjqKgWY33mpi