Carving Video 2011

[HeluvaSkier]

Not sure how many cross post, so I figured I'd share with this forum as well.



If you're interested in the technical side of this you can check the PMTS forum thread that I started. This is just for some carving stoke to get the season going.

Enjoy.

[HeluvaSkier]

I use skis that correspond to my ability level. Intermediate.

[patprof]

Greg,
   Well I haven't been banned on this forum! ; That is fantastic skiing. Even my untrained eye can see the progression from 2008 till last year. Unbelievable tipping(better than the master himself).

[LivingProof]

Greg,
   Well I haven't been banned on this forum! ; That is fantastic skiing. Even my untrained eye can see the progression from 2008 till last year. Unbelievable tipping(better than the master himself).

Pat,

Welcome to the Real Skiers Forum....and feel free to continue in on our discussions. How is Greek Peak in this uber-mild December. I remember being there with you and Heluva a couple of season ago. Did Greek do a high speed lift yet?

Just want to tell all, that watching Helluva ski live and watching his video, trust me, you can't appreciate on video how fast he is going and the angles he gets. If you ever get the opportunity to ski with him, do it. He is just so insightful on how to ski, but, be prepared for PMTS thinking. No BS'ing to or from him!

[patprof]

Yes, I have seen Greg ski on many occasions. Had a chance to take a series of lessons from him two seasons ago. The Peak has money set aside for the high-speed quad. But the company putting it in couldn't guarantee it would be up and running by the beginning of the season--so they are going to wait untill next year. great improvements to the base lodge though.
Pat

[patprof]

Getting back on topic. I would be very interested in Greg's MA of his own skiing. I understand that he has done that on the PMTS forum-but I hope he would do it here, as well. For example, I see the following in his skiing: absolutely no "up move", fantastic range of tipping, "no swing" pole tap, great pulling back of the feet.  Greg- is the purpose of the foot/feet pull back to "load" the shovels of the skis? It also looks to me like you continue to pull them back throughout most of the turn.
Pat

[HeluvaSkier]

Here is my post from the PMTS forum.

After receiving requests for this video from members here, other forums... even a few members of other countries national demo teams... I decided to put this together for everyone, and yes, it is in HD and some slow motion. I also figured it was time we had some of our own content up here - hopefully take the load off Harald. All of the clips were filmed at my home mountain, Holimont, by my girlfriend Kathleen [yes, she's awesome; no, she's not available].

You may not immediately notice a ton of improvement from 2010 because most of my early improvements came in the way of boot setup and where I was standing on the ski. I didn't start to evolve my technique a lot until the end of the season. I kept feeling like I was almost onto something, but still falling short until the end of the season - after the video was taken of course. All runs were skied on my [new] Fischer SOMA 150 boots and either my 188cm 27m Fischer GS skis or my 165cm 12m Fischer SL skis.

My personal MA to-work-on list is [this is a stream of consciousness, so if it doesn't make sense... sorry, now at least you know some of what is going on in my head when I watch this]:
- Hold the free foot back more, especially in GS; trust the stance ski, even though it is hard to do on that snow at those angles
- Be patient with extending; don't rush it and create a push at the top of the turn; CB here as needed to stay balanced
- CA more, especially post fall line so you don't have to push to release the turn
- Flex more at times in order to be quicker and if you delay tipping, delay extension as well; timing is a ****, but it will make the turns snappier
- Don't push at the bottom of the turn; release aggressively but smoothly; keep those damn things on the snow
- Don't think about it, do it; move more than you ever thought about moving before. [interestingly, once I got over this last bit, everything fell into place].

A lot of the above I made great progress on after all of this video was shot. I'm hoping for some big improvements in 2012 now that my boots are dialed and I have some direction with my skiing. Bumps and powder also fell into place for me while I was in Colorado last spring. I didn't ski with Harald unfortunately, but talking to him in person was enough to make a lot of the above list click for me. Thanks Harald! 2012 will be a good season I hope.

In the mean time, you didn't come to read my babble, here is what you clicked for. Hope you like it. If you don't, well, you do the next one.

[HeluvaSkier]

The only thing to add is that in a lot of case, my arm position is still making my core tight - therefore limiting my CA and CB in some cases.

[Gary]

Hey Greg...Nice turns....You and I are going to have some great fun at Holimont when I see you....it's gonna be squirrel chasing squirrel...

A couple of thoughts on me:

2 things I too have been really working hard on is #1: keeping the pole plant fluid,...flowing from the shoulder and wrist....nothing tense. The only time I find I have to engage more of the muscles in the shoulders and wrists is on quick short turns...all the others, I focus on trying to keep it all relaxed, rythmic and connected.

#2: I find with the free foot is that as the pole plant touches, I simultaneously pull back the free foot...using that mental thought has made that mechanical movement easier to apply. The other I find that if and when I want to recenter on my up hill edge, (bottom 3rd of the turn) that re-centering on the uphill edge keeps that foot under my hips...keeping all square.

Looking forward to carving it up at Holimont with ya.....g

[HeluvaSkier]

Hey Greg...Nice turns....You and I are going to have some great fun at Holimont when I see you...

...Looking forward to carving it up at Holimont with ya.....g

We will definitely have a blast. We won't just carve though. If there are bumps we might ski those too. There is this overwhelming opinion that all I do [or can do] is carve. I think people are just wishing it were true.

 

[HeluvaSkier]

Pay the professional camera crew, pay to get me on location, and pay my incidentals while I'm there... and, well, I'm there.

[bushwacka]

Time to assemble a clip that looks like this:

greg is skiing better than the guy in white.

[Gary]

That is some amazing skiing....

Watching the things I admired (besides his athletisim):

1)Arm movement and Pole plants so fluid

2) how square his hips stayed under him

3) Use of all 4 edges

Brillant....got me stoked waching him rip!

Great post~!
G

[Liam]

I'm agreeing with Bush, here. I thought Greg's on piste skiing looks better than Sato's.  If you didn't who the skier was and you looked at just the on piste portion of that video and compared it to Greg's, what would you say Sato is doing better (or even as well)?

Sato's off-piste skiing is more impressive than his on piste---at least in the video Max posted (I only know the videos I've seen posted in the forums)-that boy has got some quick feet!

[jbotti]

Carving on groomed terrain versus ungroomed terrain are two different beasts. Greg's skiing is great. What Sato is doing puts him in a category of a select few that make the skis bite back into the hill and carve tight arcs in the steeps at speed off piste. Not many skiers can do what he does.