You have seen the real experts charging down the slopes at two or three
times your speed. They look relaxed and confident, and the worst of it
is, they don't even look like they are exerting much effort as they clock
up their skiing miles! How do they do it?
The secret is that they are carving their turns. Letting their skis
work for them, they are putting in much less effort to turn than you are.
But since the carving ski revolution, you should be able to ski like that
too!
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[Photo: Campbell M Cassidy]
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Learning how to carve your turns represents perhaps the greatest technical challenge on the slopes. The key lies in letting your skis do the work for you, using their design to carve your turns.
Modern carving skis make this much, much easier. Whereas before, it took a lot of power to bend the skis into the reverse camber required to achieve a carved turn, and hours of practice to develop the steering feel, a good pair of shaped skis makes the process manageable for any reasonably athletic skier who sets his or her mind to it.
You have to learn to take your time with every turn. Rush things, and you'll oversteer you skis into a skid. Learn to move your body down the fall-line across your skis and wait: your skis, set on an edge, will start to come round. Slowly. Powerfully. Smoothly. What a buzz.
Each stage of the turn is involved: at the initiation, you must avoid over-steering your skis into a skid; in the middle of the turn, you must match the turning radius to the forces on your skis; and at the end of the turn you must control the tendency of the backs of your skis to break into a skid.
Just buying or renting a pair of carving skis will not suddenly make you carve your turns. You have to work at it, experimenting with the techniques described in this section. But you'll feel it when it suddenly starts to come together.
[Photo: Richard Price, Ski Utah]
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Be Guided By The Following:
Power. You are using your skis, muscles and gravity in harmony: you are aware of strong forces during your turns, but they are all centred on your edges and your body is dynamically balanced to resist them easily.
Precision. Your skis follow exactly the path you steer, producing smooth, rounded turns which are not thrown off by irregularities in the snow. Your body too is precise in its movements, with no loss of balance or unnecessary overcompensation.
Relaxation. You are focused on two things: the terrain ahead and the feeling of your skiing. The essential muscles are tensed momentarily (but never cramped) during each turn, while muscles not involved in the turn are relaxed, ready to respond if required for balance.
What Ski Length Is Best?
As you begin to experiment with turns at higher speeds, you may want to use a
longer pair of skis. A longer ski provides greater stability and holds
its edge more easily. The ideal ski for high speed cruising is a giant
slalom ski. These used to be taken around 30-40 cm longer than your height,
but with the advent of shaped ski technology, skis just 10-15 cm taller
than you are used.
For slightly slower speed cruising, and a easy introduction to carving, try a shaped ski around the same height as yourself.
But take care when choosing a cruising ski: you must be able to bend it in order to carve your turns, so it mustn't be too stiff for your weight or athletic ability. Remember that most ski shops let you test skis, so take advantage of this to try a few pairs of skis and find one that suits your cruising style best.
Also see: Our Carving Ski section.
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