Post
by Harris » Thu May 25, 2017 8:36 pm
I think you may have failed to fully read my earlier posts that you were responding to because I distinctly described what I consider a carved turn over an edged turn: i.e. looking back and seeing a solid, no-skid arc left in the snow between transitions. As to Bjron's comment, my nephew races, and it my understanding that alpine race coaches are still teaching kids to ride the outside ski through the turn. A big difference today though is that with modern skis turn initiation and radius is achieved much easier, and because of this they aren't teaching kids to drive the heals to flex the tails on turn exit like old skis used to require. Anyone who was a young racer fan of Max Julian and Phil Mahre knows what I'm referring to. It was legend that Phil Mahre's so drove his heels that his custom K2 710 and 810 FO's were so tail stiff most mortals couldn't ski them. But back to today's coaching, nor are they emphasizing the wide-stance A-frame and extreme knee/hip angulation needed to get the weight on and over the edge all while achieving lean, but instead promote more committed lean angle and trusting the downhill ski edge to hold. One of the reasons FIS rules changed GS sidecuts to a straighter cut was because big sidecut GS skis carved so well they were putting too much force on knees and destroying them prematurely. But back to what I was originally getting at and stated, you CAN carve sick alpine turns on tele gear that you cannot achieve in tele mode, and it is very fun, especially making GS radius turns, and because of that I was promoting the idea guys should learn them. You can however turn as tight on tele, no argument there, in fact when I tele a run, any run, I only tele tight radius turns (slalom or tighter), but otherwise these days almost exclusively alpine larger radius GS turns (GS tele turns hurt my 48 year old knees now). But to tele slalom equivalent tight turns it by nature of the two ski turn that it happens with a bit more side slide at initiation to get the same radius. As for skis, a former K2 rep I know and a Steamboat Telemark Team coach I grew up with both agree that most tele racers today are using exclusively Alpine GS or transition race skis. Tele ski development, which is becoming non-existent today, has for many years been almost exclusively focused on powder/backcountry use. In my storage somewhere I own an old pair of K2 Poisons, which are possibly one of the last skis developed for tele racing, and compared to today's alpine race skis they worked like shit. Next to them are some serious sidecut old Atomic TMs from the early days of heavily side-cut skis. Personally, today I think alpine skis like the K2 Pinnacle 95 are far better all-mountain tele skis than anything the industry produces with a TM label on it. And for groom only, or hard pack days I advocate an alpine race ski; my preference a transitional race ski (I use a second-hand pair of Volkl World Cup SGs, which are a 17 meter mid between slalom and GS). I see guys out trying to "carve" groomers on their backcountry tele skis, and I can't help to think that they don't know just how badly they are handicapping themselves, trying to stay true to a pointless granola street-cred.