realskiers

part 2....

I am going to start a whole thread on wedge turns and why we teach them, and why sometimes we do not... so hold those thoughts for that.

"up move" PSIA in most of their task during exams are not going to matter which you use unless they specify retraction or extension. With that said they want to see movement into the turn and a top part of your turn. If your moving "Up" and not going to turn they are going to fail you its not good skiing in any book. Your just acting like a pogo stick and going nowhere.

My own experiences with Retraction. I failed my first attempt at L3 because of it. In Intermountain its a day in a half exam with one examiner. I got many comments from many of the other candidates on how I should have passed. I do not want to get into that much but let just say to this day I changed nothing about how I skied that day because of that guy failing me.

second attempt at L3. I fail the first examiner and he tells me to not just use retraction if I want to pass.... I thought it was kinda of BS personally and didnt want to change. Instead what I did was ask the next 2 examiners for each task what they wanted to see. When they wouldnt say I would tell them like a gymnast  prior to their routine what I was doing. I started doing half and half runs and basically showing I owned both movement patterns. ended up passing the last 2 and passing because of it.

last year was DCL. I did the above again askiing exactly what they wanted and when they did not tell me I would tell them what I was doing.

First examiner told me as long as I was moving into the turn I was fine. Which was the most clear and concise answer I have ever gotten in an exam. I used mostly retraction and got 4 perfects from her.

Second examiner said he couldnt say. So I told him what I was using. I got perfect on the 'high end" task and good scores for my low end task from him.

Third examiner thought I was being a passive aggressive jerk for asking this.....he still gave me good scores though.


part 3 coming soon I HAVE to go ride some Mountain bikes today.