Telemark Talk / Telemark Tips Forum

When I got my first metal edge skis my goal was to make it safely down hills controlling my speed and avoiding things using tele turns. When I got to the end of a run I was happy to be in one piece and still standing. Then one day I made some turns and the light bulb went off and I thought this is how the designer of this ski intended it to be skied, and the fun started.

That was the beginning of when my skiing became less like driving a boat and more like steering a bike or car. Not having an alpine backround I didn't know what a carved turn felt like until then.
My suggestion for learning to turn is to do it on a slope that you don't need to control your speed, let the skis run, and don't overturn. Once you get this down it will be easier to add things to the turn to control speed without sideslipping.

Turns are the icing on the cake for the bc experience, people with skills and modern gear enjoy the peace and quiet of the wilderness and getting out by themselves as much as the guy who makes that his only goal. We just have more fun.

I've done the carved turn thing. Skiing on XCD skis is so much different it's like walking on the moon or something...

Turns are cool when you are skiing with speed, grace and feeling the terrain. When it's just swishing back and forth going through the motions, it's not as cool. Carving kinda gets like that in my very, very narrow view of skiing (please don't throw things!). It's super awesome when racers are doing it on a knife edge at mach speed and pushing it to the absolute limit - but hey, I've always been a racer at heart... just never done it on skis - I just have a ton more respect for that type of carving.

I make a lot of turns where I don't have to - I said it before and I'll repeat it. I do it to fool around and feel how my skis react and to try to get better. And really I mean so I can use them in more difficult and dynamic situations to ride the terrain i.e. avoid obstacles or other crap and be in control i.e. keep my speed where it needs to be to get the skis to do what I want them to.

So don't get me wrong, I ain't against turning... I feel like sometimes people get a little bit crazy about it - and that's cool too as long as you don't jerk other people around for not wanting to make turns on every little thing they ski. That's all!

I love turns.
Making telemark turns is fun especially.
I don't know why such simple meandering movements can keep me locked into.

CIMA wrote:I love turns.
Making telemark turns is fun especially.
I don't know why such simple meandering movements can keep me locked into.

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It's a scientific fact that physical motion causes changes in the brain in the pleasure area, I saw it on tv.

Mike with light boots and bindings carving is the only way to control those skis. When you are sideslipping on narrow skis is when you catch an outside edge. Carving isn't about speed its about making your ski go exactly where you want it to at any speed.

OH umm... well I don't want to get into the whole purity of carving... but yeah Al, I get exactly what you mean. It's why I really like the S Bound series of skis. They really do lay down two distinct, non-smeared arcs without a lot of effort. It isn't a carve by modern standards though and that's what I meant... and that in itself is really fun for a while at high speed - you can really pull some Gs (my lower back and quads used to tell me so, made me feel like a geezer).

Try not to focus on the obstacles and trees in a downhill run but focus on where you WANT to go between the trees. You stand a much better chance of running into an obstacle if you are looking at it and not looking at the line you want to take. If you look in a direction, you tend to steer in that direction. Seems so simple but it took me quite some time to figure this nugget out.

Oh I agree. Learned that racing cars and karts, but if you get into a bad situation it's sometimes hard to force yourself not to look at what you might hit. It's definitely a bad habit that comes from panic. Nothing is better IMO than keeping yourself calm and focused.