13/01: Nailing it
Category: Skiing/Boarding
Posted by: ajmilne
It ain’t like you didn’t know this. But practice makes perfect.
This eve, at long last, I was finally nailing those turns to and from and in switch. All ways I could think of—even doing those formerly unpleasant clockwise spins comfortably.
On blacks. With maybe 4 cm of powder on the base at best. It was all good. Under lights, on measurable pitches. Wherever, whenever. Apparently, I can do this thing now.
The clockwise thing really is a different animal than counter. Have to do them more compactly, body less active, taking up less slope to do it. Counter, I do this bigger sweep on the toe, coming around. Clockwise, it’s these tight little twists.
Injury-wise, I figure I’m on the mend. Still gotta be real careful how I stretch on that side, but I’m learning to work around it. One annoying concession to this reality has been just in kneeling to lock in at the top instead of trying to do it standing. Gives some critical muscle groups a break. This is a minor nuisance, but worth it, I figure, if it gets me to functional faster. Put on my older Cloudveils, too—figuring that’s gonna be harder on their knees.
It’s a funny thing tho’—I think one of the things that got this eve started off right was a little bit of artificial powder. They were running the snow guns on one of the greens at Fortune when I got there—they’d left the run open, set the guns real high so they were raining powder on you from above while you rode. I did a few runs there for a change just to have some powder underfoot—it’s been a bad season that way—not a lot of snowfall, so there’s been a lotta hardpack and ice under my edges. And it was nice also to pretend it was actually snowing for a change. So I played under the guns for a while, goggles on, dancing in all that soft, forgiving powder…
It’s funny because: while it was a nice, gentle beginning to the evening, and I got to play with those more difficult clockwise spins in this rather less brutal environment, I didn’t really start making them so neat until I’d got that sharp, nasty Skunk Ape up onto the ice of the harder runs over on the other side. The powder was forgiving, sure, but it had also made it a lot harder to be as precise, as agile about this business…
I find myself mildly curious, thinking about it now, how I’m going to adjust to Rockies powder, when it comes to that. So much of my technique is adapted to hard, merciless Eastern ice—I almost wonder if it’s gonna be like trying to swordfight in a room full of pillows… Feathers all over the place, and no way in hell to land a blow neatly…
(Touches ribs, strained muscles gingerly…)
Right. And then again, I guess there are worse things.
This eve, at long last, I was finally nailing those turns to and from and in switch. All ways I could think of—even doing those formerly unpleasant clockwise spins comfortably.
On blacks. With maybe 4 cm of powder on the base at best. It was all good. Under lights, on measurable pitches. Wherever, whenever. Apparently, I can do this thing now.
The clockwise thing really is a different animal than counter. Have to do them more compactly, body less active, taking up less slope to do it. Counter, I do this bigger sweep on the toe, coming around. Clockwise, it’s these tight little twists.
Injury-wise, I figure I’m on the mend. Still gotta be real careful how I stretch on that side, but I’m learning to work around it. One annoying concession to this reality has been just in kneeling to lock in at the top instead of trying to do it standing. Gives some critical muscle groups a break. This is a minor nuisance, but worth it, I figure, if it gets me to functional faster. Put on my older Cloudveils, too—figuring that’s gonna be harder on their knees.
It’s a funny thing tho’—I think one of the things that got this eve started off right was a little bit of artificial powder. They were running the snow guns on one of the greens at Fortune when I got there—they’d left the run open, set the guns real high so they were raining powder on you from above while you rode. I did a few runs there for a change just to have some powder underfoot—it’s been a bad season that way—not a lot of snowfall, so there’s been a lotta hardpack and ice under my edges. And it was nice also to pretend it was actually snowing for a change. So I played under the guns for a while, goggles on, dancing in all that soft, forgiving powder…
It’s funny because: while it was a nice, gentle beginning to the evening, and I got to play with those more difficult clockwise spins in this rather less brutal environment, I didn’t really start making them so neat until I’d got that sharp, nasty Skunk Ape up onto the ice of the harder runs over on the other side. The powder was forgiving, sure, but it had also made it a lot harder to be as precise, as agile about this business…
I find myself mildly curious, thinking about it now, how I’m going to adjust to Rockies powder, when it comes to that. So much of my technique is adapted to hard, merciless Eastern ice—I almost wonder if it’s gonna be like trying to swordfight in a room full of pillows… Feathers all over the place, and no way in hell to land a blow neatly…
(Touches ribs, strained muscles gingerly…)
Right. And then again, I guess there are worse things.
Eamon Knight wrote: