Can you ski?

It's a natural feeling I would have thought. I certainly get it. At some level not dissimilar to stage-fright or pre-race nerves. You know you can do it but the body pumps a chemical to the brain that suggests otherwise.

Add hire skis to the equation (as AllyG said) and there is a definite unknown quantity to deal with too. Hire skis tend to take a couple of days for me to get used to.

I go to a different resort each year too, I wonder whether going back to the same place each year would make a difference?

Before you go a quick trip to a ski centre near home helps. But I guess for most people it is just those first couple of seconds.

My wife fell over within 20 seconds of strapping the skis on at the beginning of our last holiday. We were on the nursery slopes heading for the 1st lift of the day.

I didn't think you could catch an edge when travelling at 2mph :mrgreen:

bedrock barney wrote:My wife fell over within 20 seconds of strapping the skis on at the beginning of our last holiday. We were on the nursery slopes heading for the 1st lift of the day.

I didn't think you could catch an edge when travelling at 2mph :mrgreen:

I too get that weird feeling at the start of the week but also have an amazing tendency like Barney's OH to fall over on flat bits:

I'd been skiing for several years when my wife first decided to give it a try. Off we went to VDI (got a deal, not necessarily first choice beginners resort I know but she wanted "picture-skew" and she enrolled in ski school.

I skiied on my own that morning (with the obligatory first run wobbles as others have said) and then headed down from Solaise via the red - all fine.

As I crossed the bottom of town / nursery slopes within sight of my wife and her beginner group finishing up, I managed to ski over my own feet through lack of concentration and was crowned with "fall of the week" by the beginners!

:oops:

Yup! I always ski like a giraffe to start with ...perhaps its because I am thinking too much about what I am doing, looking at my skis, wondering if my boots are on tight enough, sorting my goggles out, faffing about in general
After a day or so I am just thinking "Oh lets go down here to that nice cafe" or "Wheres snowb4ndit got to this time!"

I'm so old I can't remember if I've forgotten how to ski :mrgreen:

Yep same for me, but it fades after the first 6 days -)

I think that I get back into skiing straight away. Whether the technique is any good is a completely different thing altogether....

On a vaguely related matter, even though I am now capable of skiing most black runs (unless heavily mogulled) I'm unable to stop the heart fluttering when I pass the first black piste marker at the top of the run. I know I can do it and I know that some blacks are actually easier than reds. However, the colour of the run definitely 'does' something to my brain.

I think that I am the polar opposite to you Andy.....I arrive on the slopes certain that I can ski, then, realise over the first day that I have forgotten everything that I learned last year!