THOSE WERE GOOD YEARS

WESTERN CARNIVAL FINALE and ATHLETIC SKIING

                         

Columbia Ski Club!  It had been awhile and I had been interested in bringing my son, Adam out to ski in the Rocky Mountains so the Blue Ridge Ski Council Western Carnival/Snowmass 2020 was the perfect opportunity.  I had previously visited Aspen/Snowmass with CSC during the BRSC Western Carnival of 2012 and was happy to return.  I knew this would probably be the last time I would attend a BRSC Western Carnival event so it was special.

Thanks to our new friends Gene and Terry for putting up with us and hanging out with us.  It was such a pleasure.  It appears that Marybeth had significantly improved her skiing compared to when I observed her last.  Thanks to her and Gail for more great times on the mountain.  It brought back many great memories of the past.  Thanks to Bruce and Ted D. for being strong leaders in the Columbia Ski Club for so many years.  CSC maintains as a strong organization largely because of you.  Last but not least, thanks to Alexa (and Gene) for organizing and leading a great trip to Snowmass.  We want to express our gratitude as this was a great father-son experience we won't ever forget.  

I produced another short film titled: THE WESTERN CARNIVAL  A Final Memoir.  See my YouTube channel.  

I spent a great half-day skiing with, coaching, and giving feedback to several CSCers at Snowmass during the trip.  The following is a fulfillment of the requests to send out information on the fundamental skills and drills that we did that day:  Everyone put forth great effort and worked on improving their athletic skiing!  It was a lot of fun.  

                               
                 ATHLETIC STANCE AND BALANCE

1.  Feet are hip width apart.
2.  Ankles are evenly flexed (inside ski slightly ahead of outside ski).
3.  Hands are out in front of the body.
4.  Vision is forward (always looking ahead).
5.  Majority of pressure is on the outside ski.
6.  Upper body always faces downhill!

RAILROAD TRACKS

On flat or easy terrain, practice making thin/carved turns by rolling and flexing your ankles to edge your skis and pressure them in turns.  Practice various turn shapes (short/medium/wide).  

SHUFFLE DRILL (fore-aft balance)

Get in the front of your boots and live there!

1.  Shuffle your feet back and forth in the turns.  
2.  Don't take your skis off the snow.
3.  Try to stay in the front of your boot as much as possible.

BASIC CARVED TURNS (edging, pressure)

1.  Start in a straight run (down) and then traverse and turn up the hill.
2.  Use roll and flex technique (as above) to turn (up the hill).
3.  Make separate turns and then later start to link them.
4.  Cease turning up the hill and just progress to wide turns (then try medium radius)

PARALLEL POLES (balance)



1.  Hold your ski poles parallel with the slope (palms up) out away from your body.
2.  Perform carved turns keeping the poles horizontal (parallel with slope) - NO TIPPING!
3.  Start with wide radius and then progress to medium radius turns.

FRAMING DRILL (rotary)



1.  Hold ski poles up with tips point toward to sky.  
2.  Look down the slope at a particular target (framing object down the fall-line).
3.  Keep upper body facing downhill through the frame.
4   Perform medium radius turns then progress to short radius turns.

ANGULATION DRILL (edging)



1.   While in the athletic stance, place inside hand forward as if signaling "stop".
2.   Put outside hand on outside hip and slightly drive it in as you feel the hip "pinch".
3.   Hips should be level.
4.   Practice fluid movement into this position for each turn (wide then medium radius).

HANDS BEHIND BACK (balance, pressure)



1.  Place both hands behind your back and clasp them together.  
2.  In each turn, compensate for this by over-emphasis on bringing hips/upper body forward.
3.  Push your hips forward with your hands (from behind).

OUTSIDE SKI (FLAMINGO) DRILL (pressure)

1.   Emphasize putting your weight on your outside (downhill) ski.
2.   Slightly lift the tail of the inside ski for each turn.

Note!  These drills are generally organized from simple to more technically challenging.  Some visuals are provided.  Don't forget to add some free runs in to integrate the skills emphasized here into your free skiing.  Don't get frustrated.  This takes awhile to get.  Give it time and repetition.

WAVESKI WORLD II

                            WAVESKI until the end of the WORLD

There are fewer places I'd rather be and fewer things I'd rather be doing than surfing on my WAVESKI, even if it was the end of the WORLD!  This is the second episode in this mini-series.  I'm working on bottom turns and improving stability for better rides.  This was filmed at Penny's Hill, North Carolina (36.4 N) from 2016 to 2018.  

WAVESKI WORLD

I created this short film featuring my early experiences of surfing a waveski which I have enjoyed doing for the past few years.  The waveski in this film is an Island Waveski.  They are made in Cocoa Beach, Florida.  

A waveski is a surf craft that seats a person and is used to ride waves.  It handles on a wave in much the same way as a surfboard.  The main difference is that you are seated and turn with body movements and a paddle.  Some of the body movements are similar to that of alpine skiing. 

                 

                                           WAVESKI WORLD 

Rite of Spring

It was a great year of skiing locally (Liberty Mountain Resort) and elsewhere in the U.S. (Vail, Beaver Creek, etc.).  The end of ski season always officially comes to a close with the pond skimming event.  I made one run and went the distance this time!  Thanks to my old boss on LMRT, former head coach Danny Wishard for letting me borrow his Rossignol S7s!  They were awesome.  Thanks for the great memories, everybody.  Here are some highlights:

The Pond

Ted starting the skim

Ted's finish

Aaron Jacobson 

Adam Jacobson

Mike Jacobson

Kevin Cincotta

BRSC Western Carnival- Vail, 2014 with CSC

In February, the annual gathering of the Blue Ridge Ski Council for western U.S. alpine skiing once again took place in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado.  This year's location was Vail.  This blogger was happy to attend the western carnival once again with the Columbia Ski Club as an assistant trip leader and this year to quite an exclusive location!

We were lodged at the Vail Cascade which, although costly, has great ski-in/out accommodations and has great amenities helping to make the stay thoroughly enjoyable.  The cost of everything at this location made smart shopping and cutting corners a must for me.  The wheat bulgar I transported in my carry-on backpack for daily breakfasts and eating multiple meals at "Moe's Original Bar-B-Q", a great locals hangout at Lionshead Village,  really saved me hundreds of dollars.

As for the skiing.....there was really only one day out of eight ski days that it didn't snow for us.  Fresh powder was available just about everyday.  I got to demo a pair of Rossignol S7s for five days and they were a great choice for the conditions we had.  The two days of ski groups we put together for those who wanted to work on athletic skiing fundamentals were lots of fun to coach.  Special thanks to Lee Wilk and Bruce Brown for providing technical support so we could do some video analysis.  Every skier put forth a good effort in attempting to execute drills designed to emphasize one or more of the basic fundamentals.  For some, it made a noticeable difference in their technique.  Do those on your free time on skis as much as you can.  See my post on SkillsQuest for reference.  

Overall, I can say that the Columbia Ski Club is clearly a cut above the other ski clubs in the BRSC.  Many members of this club are quite passionate about the sport, love to work on improving their skills, are quite personable, and are fine individuals that have really become friends.  Congratulations to the Columbia Ski Club for once again winning the Club/Team Competition in the BRSC Inter-Club Race.  It was pleasure to be a part of this again.

I put together another short film, similar to last year's "THE WESTERN CARNIVAL" which you can link to on a previous post.  Thanks to Brian Regan, Lee Wilk, and Diana Brown for putting in some time behind the camcorder to make this possible.  This "Special Edition" consists of some skiing highlights from the 2014 western carnival in Vail, CO, as well as some highlights of the local ski scene in the context of a certain youngster I'm rather proud of taking some of his first "real" ski runs.  I hope you like it and thanks for watching.

                    THE WESTERN CARNIVAL: Special Edition


      

     

THE WESTERN CARNIVAL

In early February, 2013, I attended my sixth BRSC Western Carnival along with my friends in the Columbia Ski Club.  This year, the council clubs gathered at Steamboat, Colorado.  Otherwise known as "Ski Town USA", Steamboat Springs has created more olympic skiers than just about any other town in the United States.  The level of terrain is from beginner to expert and varied from groomers to glades and chutes.

While I was there, I ventured over to the SSWSC (Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club) at Howelson Hill in the downtown area one evening.  They truly have an amazing set-up for a ski club with their own hill to train on as they see fit.  It's hard to make a comparison to what we have here with Liberty Mountain, but I was in awe.  They train alpine and nordic skiers from extremely young ages to go on to do big things in those sports later on.  

Overall, the skiing was great.  Whether going down through chutes and trees, working on basic fundamentals on the groomed slopes with other CSC members, or challenging other ski clubs in some fun racing competition, this Western Carnival experience was a success once again.  Thanks to the organizing trip leaders, Ted Dietz and Jan O'Connor, as well as Bruce Brown for their preparation and hard work to make sure this trip was fun for everyone.  It was quite enjoyable and fun to get to know many of you that I did ski with.  There were certainly some improvements made.  Also, it was great to catch up with Kitty Imdahl, a long-time member of CSC now residing in Park City, UT.   

I have fond memories from my BRSC Western Carnival trips with the Columbia Ski Club.  I created this video presentation from those moments, mainly from this trip with some others mixed in.  Click on the link below and enjoy.

                                THE WESTERN CARNIVAL