Learn how to control speed & stop in this free beginner skiing lesson on video.
Dave Smith has been skiing for more than 21 years. He lives in Wood Village, Ore., and has been working at Hillcrest Ski and Sports as a salesman and buyer for more than five years. He was an instructor with the Mt. Hood Meadows ski school. Despite working full time at Hillcrest, Smith manages to get 30 to 40 days on the snow each season.
Hi! This is Dave Smith with Hillcrest Ski and Sports in Gresham, Oregon on behalf of Expert Village. In this tutorial we will cover beginning skiing. In this clip we'll cover controlling your speed and stopping. Controlling your speed and stopping on skis are both products of the wedge, the position in which you have the tips of your skis together and the tails apart. By controlling the size of this wedge you can control your speed and ultimately stop. The skinnier the wedge, the faster you will go. The bigger the wedge, the slower you will go. As you're doing the wedge it's important to remember to keep your knees apart as if you had a basketball between your knees. Don't let them come together so that they're touching. That'll make it difficult to use your edges. For beginners, sometimes the easiest way to think of this position is pizza. Smaller slices of pizza means you'll go faster. Bigger slices of pizza means you'll go slower and come to a stop. Once you're comfortable with controlling your speed with the wedge, you can use another position to gain more speed which we refer to as French Fry position, in which your skis are pointed straight downhill and parallel to each other. In this position you'll pick up speed very quickly so be careful at first. From French Fry position, gradually work yourself into the wedge position to slow down and stop completely.
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