Hi all. I had the pleasure of meeting some of you at the race camp in Mt. Hood this year, and have been following the forum, albeit without anything significant to offer. As noted by Harald in the Technique and Super Shapes post, I spent last Friday and Saturday skiing with him at Loveland and A-basin. Some observations that may be of interest:
1) The Supershapes do rock! I never skied true powder till last year at Tahoe, and there relied upon a 184 Volkl Mantra. I bought into the "fat skis are a must for powder" argument, and thought any attempt to ski anything approaching a foot of powder without these skis was impossible for all but the Haralds of the ski world. Wrong! This week I was able to ski a foot of new snow using 165 Supershapes better than I had with the Volkls. The skis floated extraordinarily well, and were extremely forgiving, as evidenced by the fact that my marginal power technique was working well. The Supershapes are great "go anywhere" skis.
2) Supershapes are stable. Upon flexing the the new skis I was suspect of a soft tip, but looks can be deceiving. Under Haralds guidance I transitioned from turning the skis across the fall line at the bottom of the turn to brake my speed, to achieving speed control with High C engagement. Using the High C, especially with counter rotation, I was able to engage my skis earlier, and no longer needed to scrub speed at the bottom of the turn. With a flexed, earlier release at the apex of the turn, I began to ski faster, more comfortably. The lines I was taking at the end of the day were dramatically different than when I started - more direct, in the fall line rather than across it, at higher speed but in control. Certainly a lot more enjoyable and a great leap forward.
3) iM 88's require attention. Day 2 brought us to A-Basin, and my first day on the iM88's, 175cm. On my first run I felt as though all the advances on the first day were gone. Of course, going from seal level to 13,000 feet, and spending a day with Harald at Loveland did leave my wind and legs somewhat lacking, but clearly the new skis were going to be challenge. Harald described them as wide GS race skis. What I found was that they forced me to be more precise in my technique. Whereas the Supershapes were forgiving, the im88's were not. Once I understood the demands of the skis, I began to ski them more efficiently. They require standing on the downhill ski, with uphill ski retraction, pronounced tipping for turn initiation, counter rotation, and great patience. Let's also not forget speed! I realized that I was used to swiveling fat skis across the hill for speed control, basically throwing PMTS out the window. I finally understood what was meant by patience to allow the weighted downhill ski to come around. When I did, the ski was rock solid. Together with Harald, the skis taught me another lesson towards PMTS and skiing proficiency. I started to ski more difficult and steep terrain with greater speed and confidence. There is still a great deal to be understood and mastered, but I felt another leap was taken.
4) No matter how much we may study the texts and DVD's, there is no substitue to skiing with a PMTS Jedi Master. What we (at least I) may feel we understand intellectually, cannot truly be appreciated and incorporated into our skiing without actually doing it under the eye of someone trained to recognize movement patterns and deliver appropriate correction. It is the perfect antidote to another season of improper movement repetition and failed progression. Plus, it was a whole lot of fun. Please forgive the length of this first post, but after the weekend emotions are high. Hope to see you at Mt. Hood!
Alan