Ground breaking Swiss research

Ian Wickham wrote:
In my argument ise I have not once mentioned about hearing, it has been about distraction, look at it this way if your in the back country with ipod playing , you possibly are not coming contact with anybody, but if you are skiing the piste then you are coming in direct contact with a lot more people, my fear is that the piste will become a more dangerous place as more people ski with ipods, sorry Ross or mp3 players.

in that case I move we ban all of you that need to think about their skiing while doing it ) I've seen them all with the faces screwed up in concentration, that can't be safe surely? :lol: :lol: The way your government's going you'll be banned from listening to car radios soon, even my cat's not that easily distracted :lol:

I should point out there's a limit to the off-piste you can ski with an iPod on, anything serious and you need to be able to hear as the first signal of a slope failing is often the noise, but on safer slopes it's not a problem.

RossF wrote:UNKLE-Reign is an awesome tune.

great band, we saw them live last year and they were excellent

ise wrote:
in that case I move we ban all of you that need to think about their skiing while doing it ) I've seen them all with the faces screwed up in concentration, that can't be safe surely? :lol: :lol: The way your government's going you'll be banned from listening to car radios soon, even my cat's not that easily distracted :lol:

.

a rather selfish view......thats going to take about 95% of people off the slopes and most of the rest should be thinking about it .....that leaves you as a lonely skier :-o

daved wrote:
a rather selfish view......thats going to take about 95% of people off the slopes and most of the rest should be thinking about it .....that leaves you as a lonely skier :-o

erm. actually I'm not the one judging everyone else and calling people dangerous am I? My remark was tongue in cheek, I don't need that job on the Daily Mail editorial team just yet 8) I am alarmed by other peoples risk perception but as I can compensate for it I'm not going to lose much sleep over it.

You raise an interesting point about thinking about skiing, I doubt 95% of people do think about it, that would basically mean only 5% can actually ski to any standard and I'm sure the majority of people I see can ski reasonably well. I can't think consciously about it, my mind can't process the information quick enough that's coming at me nor consciously control my reactions at the speed required. If you're thinking about it then relax and let go, it really will be easier.

In fact that's one of the reasons I enjoy some music when skiing on my own sometimes, it's not as if I'm thinking about much else and it's a nice backdrop. On the rare days I'm skiing well most of what's happening is below conscious level and it's almost like being an observer. That's one of the reasons people enjoy skiing powder, you get an almost trancelike state, your endorphin levels are probably up, add a bit of music and it probably should be illegal )

I think an analogy would be changing gear in a car...when you first start out driving you have to consciously think about it but as you get more used to it you don't. With skiing I feel that if you strive to improve you think about what you are trying to do.... :?:

daved wrote:I think an analogy would be changing gear in a car...when you first start out driving you have to consciously think about it but as you get more used to it you don't. With skiing I feel that if you strive to improve you think about what you are trying to do.... :?:

That's a perfect analogy and so I suppose improvement is measured when you can do it without thinking or that's the goal at least. I can't always get there but often enough to know what I'm aiming for.

ise wrote:
On the rare days I'm skiing well most of what's happening is below conscious level ......and it probably should be illegal )

:lol:

I could post a photo or two to illustrate your post, but I'm way too nice.
I do hope you don't feel misquoted or anything :D

I've been hit from behind maybe five times. Four of those were ski racers free skiing between runs. None of them were listening to music :lol:

I've had many near misses and often the only clue that someone is behind you is the hiss of their skis as they try to avoid you :shock:

NB I am very careful to look uphill often, but those racers have a habit of sneaking up.

The advanced driving analogy is interesting. A basic tenet of advanced driving is awareness of relative speed. That is if the cars in the left lane are doing 10mph, it's unsafe to drive in the right lane (next to them) at say 50mph even if you can. Even though you have the right of way, the likelyhood of somoeone pulling out is high and and the consequences serious. Many skiers/boarders have no clue that you need to slow down to pass a slow skier safely.

Trencher