Telemark Talk / Telemark Tips Forum

Woods, this is a good video of the type of turns I was talking about above. Notice how he transitions before turning not during it.

I don't know Al... It might be a matter of interpretation. The guy is very active; the turn happens from the beginning to the end of the arc. Of course he is doing (mainly) short turns... I would oppose that skier to those ones we often see doing the lead change and then finish the turn in a very static way... Maybe we are saying the same thing—not sure...

The main thing that I'm seeing is that he is carving across the fall line as opposed to skidding across it on unweighted skis. When I do those type turns my skis roll from edge to edge without skiiding and without being unweighted. The skis are doing all the work and I'm just steering. Anyway there's lots of ways to skin the cat, this is just one of them.

What you said about his turns happening from beginning to end is true. What makes his turns different is they are carved from the beginning where less advanced turns the carving starts after the skis are turned and then weighted.

For myself who learned to turn with step and jump turns on skinny skis with leather boots these type of carved turns were not even something I knew existed until I switched to a single camber ski and they just happened. I was 20 years into tele before I learned that the skis could turn themselves without any weighting and unweighting.