Would you take skiing advice from this guy?

[h.harb]

OH LOOK! Don’t bother looking, Epic has sanitized it’s site to not reflect it’s deeply ingrained hypocrisy.

Update on this thread: it used to show skiing of Fastman, the skiing is very bad, no matter how you slice it.

http://forums.epicski.com/showthread.php?t=70697&page=5

Skiing in post 126

[ToddW]

.

Well, he does flex his inside leg quite a bit and he is passionate about skiing...

Take advice from Fastman? Heck No. Perish the thought.

I've read some of his drivel about pivoting, steering, and "waist steering" and laughed at his chest-beating self-aggrandizement ( he's responsible for Schlopy ) and his recent brown nosing of the PSIA members on Epic. The brown nosing is part of a marketing campaign leading up to a 6 DVD video library of essentials, er "building blocks." As they say, Harald, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Only thing is is the DVD on "transitions" is delayed until next year while steering, pivoting, and carving come out this year -- so students can steer/pivot/carve single turns this year and can learn how to link them together next year Sort of like teaching Engage, Release, Transfer rather than RTE.

As for me, my skiing will never be sufficiently "advanced" that I need to learn his WC stivot techniques. Any turn tighter that what I can learn from two footed release drills would leave me too dizzy to ski anyway...

After those pics hit Epic, I tried to find video of this guy skiing and couldn't. It's strange how there are plenty of short videos of PMTS instructors' skiing readily available, but Fastman/Schnellmann and colleagues have none. Hopefully the DVDs will have some freeskiing or gates and not just drills so that potential students can see where the "building blocks" lead and make an informed choice.

[h.harb]

I didn't know who the skier was in the photos? Well, if those photos don't prove what I've been saying about "all talk over on Epic and no credibility", nothing will. I'd hate to see what that looks like in real life action.

[jbotti]

When I looked at the photos a few days ago, I did not know that they were photos of Rick, AKA Fastman (which is confirmed later in the thread as one of the moderators is shutting it down).

I remember Rick coming over to the PMTS forum a few years ago, telling everyone that he was and had the goods and that he was an accomplished and even celebrated race coach. Up til now I had never seen vdieo or pictures of his skiing.

After seeing the pictures, I say the same thing that I said when I battled with him here: Challenge!!! There is no way he has the goods. Thor Kallerud who coahed the US Ski Team does not ski as well as the athletes that he was coaching, but you should see him ski. All the important elements in skiing are in place, and you should just watch his fore aft balance as he skis. Rick is painfully back on each of these turns and the divergence in angles between his stance ski and his inside ski is frigtening, not alot of tipping going on there!!! My point is that both of these are reasonably easy to fix and anyone can do it in half a season. The fact that after all these years he hasn't, just proves that he has no clue. No one with any real understanding of skiing would ever attempt to ski with his hips that far behind his feet (especially on groomed terrain in an edge locked carve which is a stretch because his inside edge angle has diverged so much from his lack of tipping!!).

SCSA/Heyoka skied with him once or twice and said that he skied well on groomed terrain (SCSA'a opinion and some of us might disagree with that assessment) but that it all fell apart once he went into ungroomed of any sort. With those glaring issues it is not surprising (go try and ski some bumps with that width stance!!).

I am still amazed that the debate still rages on over on Epic!! Some things never change.

[jclayton]

He he , as expected . El Hombre Rapido makes some pretty fast excuses as well .

[MonsterMan]

Hombre Rapido! what a great name, I'd change from Monster Man if I didn't think the sexual connotations would come back to haunt me. (pun intended)

[A.L.E]

Like many here my jaw hit the ground when I saw those pics! How did he let those pics hit cyberspace??

I'm sure though there is a racing position to be learned there somewhere. Isn't it his deal that every position/skill is useful and it all needs to be learned to become the complete expert?...like he constantly reassures the Epic lot. They literally hang on his every word, falling over each other lapping it up and offering compliments aplenty.

But for me the funiest thing was the fact the thread was bombed when someone realised the Emporer had no clothes on.

[h.harb]

In recent days I have viewed some Epic posts. I have to qualify my comments about the lack of comprehension of skiing by the members there, regardless of profession . There are some that see through the Epic, PSIA bias. These skiers make strong assertions that the community, self over rates their instruction competence, and their skiing. One comment by an Epic member named Volklskier,

“The main reason people don't take lessons is that most believe that they are at a much higher level than they are. You need look no further than the instructors and coaches on this board to see this mental self-deception in action.”

Post by Nolo: Gag!

VS1, the people whose clinics I attend are masters of pacing. The last clinic I attended was four days last spring with Mermer Blakeslee, Bob Barnes, Squatty Schuler and Weems Westfeldt at Big Sky. I assure you that they got their technical content across to the group without engendering any boredom whatsoever, and the clinic was entirely about the act of skiing a big beautiful mountain that called on all our technical resources. All these folks might be considered PSIA royalty.

Sharpedges Wrote:

I'd like to believe that with its examiner-led certification system that PSIA is a meritocracy and that higher-performing individuals routinely supplant the previous generation who then say "thanks for the honor of having served" and either rehone their teaching, skiing, and political skills to yet higher levels of excellence or else "retire" into teaching or ski school administration. Which does the average instructor on a big mountain see as the actual model of PSIA: meritocracy or aristocracy?

In addition there are many posts by Miles, Max501, and Bolter that try to keep some form of authenticity and sanity about skiing that was being railroaded for years by the likes of BB and company. There is also someone there that seems to hold some kind of supervisory position called Nolo. This poster is so bought and sold by old ski teaching and PSIA defending, that’s it’s sickening. Come on Nolo, even the BBes of the world have a more objective view of PSIA quality than you have.

You won't see the regular contributors on Epic posting their skiing anytime soon. If you don't have any clothes on, it's really cold out there in the real world, not to mention on the snow.

[ToddW]

Harald,

fyi "Nolo" is the de facto boss at Epic as of about a year ago. Her name is Joan Rostad. You probably know her since she was a long-time member of the board of directors of PSIA, a PSIA officer, and an examiner in PSIA-NRM. (none of this is private info and I'm not outing anybody; it's all available from the Epic administrative team bios, nolo's posts, and the PSIA site archives.)

[h.harb]

Wow, now I understand, but I was right in my first evaluation.

She tried to get a teach off between PMTS and PSIA some years ago. I was totally behind it because I knew we would demonstrate a totally differnt level of instruction then anyone had seen, but she wouldn't do anything but a stacked PSIA judging group. Her recommendations for judges were people like Stu Campbell, BB, Weems, John Armstrong, former PSIA president. That's like bringing a knife to a gun fight..

[h.harb]

Wow, now I understand, but I was right in my first evaluation.

She tried to get a teach off between PMTS and PSIA some years ago. I was totally behind it because I knew we would demonstrate a totally differnt level of instruction then anyone had seen, but she wouldn't do anything but a stacked PSIA judging group. Her recommendations for judges were people like Stu Campbell, BB, Weems, John Armstrong, former PSIA president. That's like bringing a knife to a gun fight, I ain't no fool..

[h.harb]

I submited that half the judging group should be highly regarded skiers and teachers.The event was to have invited a number of different national systems and alternative systems like Lito's Breakthrough on Skis, for example.. I offered names likes Nelson Charmicheal, Billy Kidd, Eric DesLauriers, but she would not have anyone but PSIA icons, so I with drew. They cancelled the event.

[4Slide]

.. I offered names likes Nelson Charmicheal, Billy Kidd, Eric DesLauriers, but she would not have anyone but PSIA icons, so I with drew. They cancelled the event.

One difference that a lot of people may overlook is that you know and have worked with and skied with a lot of those types of names. I think for a lot of casual readers these types of threads just look like internet pissing matches, between equally qualified posters. It's helpful to remember that skiing is a public sport, and in many ways a small world. Just like basketball coaches or symphony conductors tend to know each other even if they are geographically removed for most of the year, it's the same in skiing. If I mention to Harald that, say, a decent J4 is currently at XYZ camp, he'll not only know 90% of what she'll be doing on-snow for the week (which won't be tai-chi-based, for sure) but also know and be known by the coach, and likely know a number of athletes who've worked with that coach in the past. You can't build that type of connectedness by posting on the internet. It's easy to name-drop but hard to be truly plugged in.

You'd mentioned in a related thread that even coaches with great credentials can succumb to fads. While this is true, a lot of the truly harmful stuff out there -- for instance, one of the Epic gurus is currently pushing pressuring the rear of the boot as the normal way to get forward (as opposed to a rear boot cuff save) -- won't last in an environment that has real performance checks, be it racing or for that matter skiing demanding terrain on a regular basis. That's of course one reason why posting about what actually goes on at summer race camps can be threatening to some people on some forums, and why assembling a diverse group of leading skiers might pose problems to some people. I still remember the old "Is there a right way to ski?" magazine article that had Diane Roffe, Nelson Carmichael, Ove Nygren, one of the Egans, and Alta's head trainer ski diverse terrain together, maybe 12-15 years ago now. I thought it was a great idea, and getting those diverse backgrounds together can definitely be done if there's a will to do it.

[Flexon Phil]

.. I offered names likes Nelson Charmicheal, Billy Kidd, Eric DesLauriers, but she would not have anyone but PSIA icons, so I with drew. They cancelled the event.

One difference that a lot of people may overlook is that you know and have worked with and skied with a lot of those types of names. I think for a lot of casual readers these types of threads just look like internet pissing matches, between equally qualified posters. It's helpful to remember that skiing is a public sport, and in many ways a small world. Just like basketball coaches or symphony conductors tend to know each other even if they are geographically removed for most of the year, it's the same in skiing. If I mention to Harald that, say, a decent J4 is currently at XYZ camp, he'll not only know 90% of what she'll be doing on-snow for the week (which won't be tai-chi-based, for sure) but also know and be known by the coach, and likely know a number of athletes who've worked with that coach in the past. You can't build that type of connectedness by posting on the internet. It's easy to name-drop but hard to be truly plugged in.

You'd mentioned in a related thread that even coaches with great credentials can succumb to fads. While this is true, a lot of the truly harmful stuff out there -- for instance, one of the Epic gurus is currently pushing pressuring the rear of the boot as the normal way to get forward (as opposed to a rear boot cuff save) -- won't last in an environment that has real performance checks, be it racing or for that matter skiing demanding terrain on a regular basis. That's of course one reason why posting about what actually goes on at summer race camps can be threatening to some people on some forums, and why assembling a diverse group of leading skiers might pose problems to some people. I still remember the old "Is there a right way to ski?" magazine article that had Diane Roffe, Nelson Carmichael, Ove Nygren, one of the Egans, and Alta's head trainer ski diverse terrain together, maybe 12-15 years ago now. I thought it was a great idea, and getting those diverse backgrounds together can definitely be done if there's a will to do it.

Didn't you read the posting guidelines here? Rational thinking is not permitted.

[milesb]

4slide, I remember that article. The WC skiers humbled the rest, especially the downhiller.The PSIA guy was distinctive for coming in last in just about every situation.