I'm robbing barns with the professional ski instructors of America Alpine team
maybe your beginner skier or maybe you've decided it's time to learn in any
case I'm teamed up here with REI to share some tips with you on how to make
it the best experience possible here's how to ski first you're gonna need to
know how to put your gear on we've made a video for that check out the link
below for the way to do that in the most easy way possible beyond that we're
gonna start to cover things like your basic stance you want to have while
you're sliding on your skis and linking some wedge turns right now I'd like to
talk about the stance you want to have while your skis are sliding down the
hill essentially if you stand with your feet just a comfortable width apart
weight is equal on both feet and just give yourself a little jump in the air
just a small little jump up position that you land in is a pretty great skier
since my shins are tilted forward this meeting my ankles are flexed my arms are
forward and out to the side so I can use them to help me balance similar to if I
was gonna walk across a log over a stream I'd want to carry my arms wide
like this to help me with balance that position boom
shoulders a little bit in front of my hips that's how I want to ski down the
hill so if I click into my skis again repeat that little jump shins forward
hands out shoulders in front of my hips I'm good to go
one of the first things you're gonna want to master while you're learning how
to ski is making a wedge basically that means making a triangle shape with your
skis as we do that we just want to let our legs open up as we turn our toes in
again to form a triangle shape the bigger my triangle the slower I'm gonna
go so it's gonna be important to practice kind of a smallish triangle as
well as the biggest triangle one way I like to do it again is just to jump up
legs open up toes turn in do that from the side again my same basic stance but
in a triangle if I put my skis on I'm gonna let my legs open up my knees
relaxed out to the side and the toes turn in making a triangle shape with my
skis and again if I just make a little bit of a triangle
I'll just control my skis and glide down the slope if I open a little bit bigger
into a bigger triangle I'll actually stop myself a braking wedge it's called
so if I slide up here to the top of the hill get myself in a great basic stance
as I slide straight little-by-little nice and patiently I slide my skis open
into a triangle or what we call a wedge don't be afraid to do this a bunch of
times mastering this wedge is really gonna build you up for success later on
once you feel comfortable moving around on the flats and your basic stance and
making a wedge now it's time to up the ante a little bit and figure out how to
climb up the hill and come down a little bit more of a slope so let's figure out
how to do that together one way to climb up the hill is to do
what's called sidestepping in order to sidestep I've got to keep my skis
parallel and take small steps making sure they always stay sideways to the
hill keeping that bottom ski tipped up on its
side instead of on the bottom is gonna help me dig the edge of the ski in so I
can push off of it and take nice small steps to get up the hill
so as I'm slide stepping up the hill you can see the skinny little lines that my
skis leave in the snow that tells me that my skis on its side and not flat on
the bottom part that'll get me up the hill every single time another way to
walk up the hill which is my favorite is what's called herring boning and with a
herring bone I basically put my skis in a reverse triangle or reverse wedge
position fronts of my skis are splayed way open and my legs are nice and wide
open I'll let my knees just kind of relax let my knees relax towards the
inside so I can kind of use the edges of my skis a little bit to help me push up
the hill in order to do that I've got to face up the hill again as I herring bone
or a duck walk some people call it you can see the skinny little lines from the
edges of my skis as they sort of dig into the snow so I feel like this slope
is pretty good it's just a little bit steeper than where I was gliding down
practicing my first wedges this is just a little bit steeper but first of all I
got to get myself turned around so that I'm in balance before I even start in
order to do that teeny little steps take your time take a thousand steps versus
taking only a few steps and risk tripping yourself up little teeny steps
once you get yourself about across the hill go ahead and put yourself in a
triangle as you continue to step your skis around that way before you even
start to slide you're in balance you're in a triangle give yourself a little
push again that basic stance opening up your skis into a triangle as you slide
when it's time to stop go ahead and increase the size of your triangle just
a little bit so again the tendency is to walk up the hill too high as you're
climbing up here make sure you take little small steps so that each time you
come down you feel like you're in balance as you keep practicing this over
and over and over again make sure you feel really comfortable before you move
on to the next step we know how to move around on the flats climb up the hill
make a wedge going straight our next task is to figure out how to change
direction so we're gonna get ourselves pointed down the hill a little bit of a
triangle not so big necessarily and it's gonna steer my skis over to one side
keeping in a triangle the entire time I basically use the movement of turning my
thighs turning my legs twisting my legs to steer my wedge over to one side
similarly to how you might steer your car throughout a turn or steer a bicycle
throughout a turn it's the same concept but I've got to use this twisting
movement of my thigh and legs and feet do you get the triangle to turn over to
one side it's okay as you're making a direction change to allow a little bit
more weight to go to one ski but mostly we want to concentrate on turn the legs
turn the legs steer the skis a little bit more weight maybe so from turning to
the right it's okay to have a teeny bit more weight on my left ski from turning
to the left it's okay to have a teeny bit more weight on the right ski but I
don't want to worry about having big movement side to side with my body stay
balanced steer your skis by turning your legs here's what it looks like again a
little bit of a triangle nice basic balance stance use my legs to twist my
skis over to the side steer that triangle a little teeny bit more weight
on that left ski there's a direction change for you gang really important to
try that don't worry about making a really huge turn just a little deviation
from a straight line is a great place to start practice it to the right of munch
practice it to the left a bunch keep climbing up again get really good at
this all right so here's what it looks like to make a turn to the left a bit of
a triangle twist those legs to steer those skis
little teeny bit more weight on this right ski boom now is when it really
starts to become fun we're gonna try to link together some wedge turns so while
I'm doing that I'm gonna let my skis I'm gonna steer them over to one side and
then kind of take a second and being almost a neutral stance gliding straight
for a little bit before I start to twist and steer my skis back to the other side
again what's important is not being in a hurry not trying to make really sharp
turns and staying in the triangle looks something like this again making sure
I'm in a triangle great basic stance steer my skis by twisting my legs
neutral spot again making sure I'm in a triangle twist my legs steer my triangle
over to the side teeny bit more weight on this left ski back into a neutral
position again start to twist my legs in the opposite direction a little bit more
weight on this right ski keep my basic stance with my shins tilted forwards and
each time I want to make a turn I'm patient twist both legs to steer my way
to steer that triangle feel those skis just gliding over the snow if you need
to slow down a little bit just scoop that turn a little bit more up the hill
linking wedge turns that's skiing and that's fun with those skills you have
right now of being able to control your speed by making wedge turns you're gonna
be able to ski on any green run any place in the world any mountain take
note as I was making those turns I was letting my skis come across the hill to
control my speed and not making a big triangle keep that in mind as you
practice and practice and practice you can't do enough of those the more you
practice the better right you'll get and the more fun you're gonna have the
professional ski instructors of America and REI hope you come out and take a
lesson look forward to seeing you out there