J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by bandit

Tony_H....Ignore the light...it leads to poverty and the eternal pursuit of FAT ski fashion, don't look at the light 8)

Painful feet can ruin your skiing hols and make you miserable. As you have tried lots of different boots, I'm guessing that now is the time to go and see a proper skiboot fitter, ie: someone who does little else in winter. There is a boot to fit you, and if all else fails, there are a couple of custom bootmakers, Daleboot and Strolz. I know that Strolz can take measurements of your feet and build a boot, just for you.

He's not the only one aiming to get the pow...I leave for Switzerland on Friday, and I'm going to shred the isemans' hill 8)

RossF wrote:Is j2ski actually a forum for 'smaller skiing men'? :lol:

Soon everyone will see the light and move to Fat skis :D

When I got up this morning I was definitely not a bloke, should I start my own forum for vertically challenged women :lol:

Ross, with skis there's fats...and there's FATs

I think you are into FAT skis :lol:

Eureka, we have a J2skiers conversion...He's seen the light, there's a whole mountain to ski :thumbup:

Yes, I was looking at the Legend 8000 as a possible for you. How about considering..

A pair of Monsters, without rail bindings (they are too heavy), for example

http://www.shopwiki.co.uk/detail/d=08%2F09_HEAD_MONSTER_IM_82_WITH_MOJO_12_BINDINGS/

A pair of Neo's would suit you well though.

My OH uses Legend 8000's, he's 165 tall and uses...165 ) He loves them. It's a wood core ski, and they are well respected.

Lisa Guy wrote:I always used to take boots as hand luggage in europe, but checked boots as second bag for Canada last year. Flying Ski peak to Grenoble on their charter flight this weekend, they said OK to fly boots as hand luggage - but may check this again :?:

Welcome to J2ski :D Suggest you make enquiries urgently as Grenoble was one of the airports which had signs up saying boots were banned in hand luggage.

baillie353 wrote:

I'm really keen to try some off-piste (I thought off-piste and powder were the same?) But if they're different, I wish to try them both!
I've got some good intention to become a decent/good all-mountain skier - give myself a lot of variation.

Being off-piste, means that you ski what you find on the day. It might be powder, ice, frozen lumps of avalanche debris, or breakable crust. It's not a managed environment, so you have to make the decision to leave the resort's groomed slopes, where they have ironed out all the nasties on your behalf.

Adapting to cope with what you find is part of developing your skiing skills :D

baillie353 wrote:Hey people! I've been curious to try this off-piste business, the idea of skiing thick powder interests me, but one thing I don't really understand...

How do you prepare for it, your first time? It isn't exactly something you can practice/get lessons in at the Braehead Xscape. What's the technique behind powder skiing? Is it really difficult? Maybe someone can explain to me their first time trying it?

Thanks for any input!

Off-piste and powder quite often don't go together :mrgreen: Powder is the ultimate high :D

You are right though, the 1st time is a bit of a pig really, probably easier on a board. On skis, there are different ways of approaching the challenge of not getting a faceful.

Some folks will suggest skiing as you normally do.

Some will say start off by having your weight evenly between your skis.

Some will suggest having your feet closer together.

Some will suggest pointing down the hill to start, and going faster than normal.

Some will suggest making lazy turns, big C's or S shapes.

My 1st time was pretty frustrating, I dug a big trench with one ski and the other sat on the surface of the snow, until I fell over. So I had a private lesson or 2 in powder...Nothing changed :(

It didn't "happen" for me until I got some of the earliest Freeride skis. At the time they seemed fat and short, these days my folks just giggle. For no apparent reason I just started to float, and I was hooked.

One of the major problems for European skiers, is that we just don't get enough practice in the fluffy stuff, so we are not relaxed enough. We can't see our feet anymore, and we don't know what's under the snow...oooh er!

Each winter, I feel I'm learning all over again, but these days I can hang a couple of turns together (though probably only a decent couple)...apparently :lol:

If you get powder days, do up all your pockets, collars and cuffs :mrgreen: and go and have a dabble somewhere close to a piste...having 1st checked that you are insured for going off the edge!