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I think you need to look again my man. There are actually 33 true tele turns in the vid, which equates to a lot of freakin' telemark turning jammed into 4 minutes. Further, except for a few short scenes of group, buddy skiing, which yes had alpiners but also included the authoring tele skier (the dude in the red jacket, brown Flylo pants, on the Moment skis, using Crispi tele boots and 22 designs tele bindings), all skiing, including the drops, flips and group jump park stuff was done on tele gear by said authoring skier. You don't land big air with a tele, I don't care how much granola is glued into the beard, except if you are a nordic ski jumper shooting off a 70/90 meter and straight-line landing on a perfectly prepped LZ and so choose. But beyond the tele turn point, my point is, in fact the big point I think is "hey, look at this amazing skiing being done by this dude on tele gear," which to me and probably most expert tele skiers is in fact very much also "telemark skiing." The fact is if you are out pushing it all mountain or big mountain, you are not always going to use a telemark turn on tele gear; there are times it works and times it doesn't. Being able to rip on the gear pretty much anywhere is the goal for a lot of us who have moved past being confined to easy runs, and is the very thing that will draw young skiers away from alpine and into it, which is what will actually keep the sport alive. And on that, for a lot of us, not all, but for a lot, the "telemark turn" itself is just one in an arsenal of techniques used to tear up snow on free heel gear. I feel that is the coolest thing about tele skiing: its not "the turn," itself, but the gear's versatility. So I don't grasp where you are coming from.bgregoire wrote:Sorry to say that telemarking might in fact really be dead and rotting. I only noted 2 drop-knees in the 4min video. A good number of skiers had locked heels 2. Steeps and backflip look fun and scary but was that Telemark?
Peace bud
I hear you on the snow angst. I'm waxed up and ready, but Mother Nature is making us wait. We got a good teaser storm and the areas opened partial mountain, but then warmer weather stepped in and the rain washed a lot away. Unlike out East or even in Colorado, they do little pre-season prep of their slopes (all overgrown with bush and saplings) and they wait until it is deep enough to cover that crap before they groom in a base that can withstand warmer temps. I keep looking at the mountain cams, wondering "why aren't you folks packing that crap down?" The little area I buy a pass for has the laziest slope-prep crews I've ever seen. The thing that makes the waiting all the worse is that in the PNW it is too shitty out to really want to do anything outside, waiting for the season to kick in. Cold, dreary and rain, rain, rain...bgregoire wrote:Sorry Harris, I'm getting cranky here waiting for snow here in eastern Québec (It's just not coming) and somehow that poured into this thread last night. Of course there is some great skiing in that vid. I'm just one of those punkass bored cross-country skiers teleing the hot-dog ballet out of a wobbly pair of xcds. Who am I too judge extreme telemark skiing anyway? Yeah, thats not sacarstic by the way. Enjoy the snow, long live tele!
So true! Free the heel!Johnny wrote:You can do it all on telly. In fact, you can really do it all on XCD:
XC, XCD, Nordic ski, Telemark, Alpine, Freestyle, Figure, Skating, Ballet, Jumping, Hot-Dog etc...
Why the hell would someone still buy retarded alpine or AT gear?!?
I ski 2 days a week. One day on tele and occasionally one day on my AT alpine setup. Last year was the first time in 35 years I've skied alpine gear. I picked AT gear because the boots are softer, and at 49 sometimes my legs are too tired to follow a tele day with another tele day, especially if the conditions are marginal PNW style, aka snowball snow. I did however start out skiing on alpine, and was pretty good at it. I raced and bumped. It is fun. My new AT thing though is a new, revisiting thing. Will I switch to total AT? No, I love to telemark. But trying something new is fun too. I don't have a problem with AT, but I do have a problem with fad jumpers who have thoroughly ditched tele for AT. It is like all the ex-telemarkers turned AT have turned on telemark. I mean they drip contempt for telemark. I ask, "Did you hate it that much when you were skiing it, and if not why hate it now? And if you did hate it why did you do it? Are you soured because it didn't get you laid? If it didn't AT certainly won't either. Chicks don't care for weirdos. Unless you are super hot looking, which I've never been. Either do it because you love it or accept that no matter the gear you suck and might as well go get rental, alpine skis. Trying to be trendy is a dumb-ass way to live."STG wrote:So true! Free the heel!Johnny wrote:You can do it all on telly. In fact, you can really do it all on XCD:
XC, XCD, Nordic ski, Telemark, Alpine, Freestyle, Figure, Skating, Ballet, Jumping, Hot-Dog etc...
Why the hell would someone still buy retarded alpine or AT gear?!?
Loved the Sax video. That takes some skill.Woodserson wrote:There be some good skiing there. T-turns on the steep sluff-worthy terrain and hauling to boot... I like, and I agree with Harris, not a lot of that often comes up. Way beyond me, for sure, and his sticking the landings with solid form too. Harris, check out the last video I posted in the movie thread if you haven't already, Tele Sax...