[Photos: ifyouski.com]

The design of their skis allows racers to carve their turns to conserve speed or even accelerate through the gates (left). The same design enables recreational skiers to cruise with speed and confidence (right).

Most intermediate skiers are not comfortable when their skis point down the fall line because of the rapid acceleration that results. They turn their skis as quickly as possible across the fall line, usually so quickly that they break into a skidded turn. There is nothing wrong with this: it is an entirely appropriate, straightforward way to lose excessive speed, and the one which has a lot to recommend it for intermediate skiers.

Balancing against a skidding edge like this, however, requires concentration and effort, limiting the speed at which you can react to the terrain. In a carved turn, on the other hand, this skidding is eliminated. Your outside ski is bent into reverse camber. This, together with the ski's sidecut, defines the exact radius of the turn being performed. You do not have to produce any rotational force on your skis: balancing against the forces of the turn is sufficient to keep the ski running as though on rails. Particularly when skiing on the new generation of shaped skis, you should quickly learn the thrill of a carved turn.

No turn is ever 100% carved, despite the best efforts of skiers and ski manufacturers. The shorter the radius of the turn, the harder it is to achieve the extreme bend of the ski which would be required to match the radius, and hence the more skidding creeps into the turn.

In a carved turn, the skis slide cleanly, throwing up little or no snow. A carved turn results in a narrow track, showing how the edge has been set against the snow.	If you skid a turn, you throw up a plume of snow. A skidded turn results in a wide track as the ski moves sideways across the snow. [Photos: ifyouski.com]
Also see: Our Carving Ski section.