Intro To Bumps By: Tom Gulden
Intro To Bumps
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snow is slow and their 1: The skier is faster making turns across several the n the Aesop’s and the ’s fable ‘The Harefable and‘The theHare Tortoise”, the much hare taunts slow turtle tospeed a from the top of the hill to the bottom of the hill is quite fast. bumps and is using turn shape to slow themTortoise”, the much faster hare taunts the end of the turtle Thedown. moral this story, asis I have interpreted Which line is easier? selves Theirof speed over the snow slowrace turtle tothe a race. At the is endvictorious. of the race The skier down line 1 is travelling quite fast and their speed from the top of the hill to the turtle is victorious. The moral of this s to skiing the bumps, is that in order the tobottom go fast it helps to go slow. fast, and speed for a beginner mogul skier is of the hill is quite slow. story, as I have interpreted it as it relates to
o
skiing the bumps, is that in order to go fast it to go slow. lineshelps through a mogul field: I propose two lines through a mogul field:
2: The skier is travelling more directly down the fall line and is using skidding to slow themselves down. Their speed over the
often something that they are trying to avoid. They are travelling faster because they have been taught to control their speed through turn shape. For example, as instructors we often ask our students to make a C-shaped turn in order to slow down. On a groomed run edge angles do not need to be adjusted very much because the angle of the hill doesn’t vary too frequently. On a bump run the terrain directly underneath the ski fluctuates rapidly. When beginners are not used to making adjustments to maintain a constant edge angle, the bumps can cause wild variations in edge angle leading to large differences in speed from the beginning of the turn to the end of the turn. If this skier is travelling quite fast then going over large moguls at speed will not be very fun. The flexing and extension movements required to remain in balance will have to be quite large in terms of their intensity and rate. The skier down line 2 is travelling from the bridge of one bump to the bridge of the next bump, as opposed to the top of one bump to the top of the next, and therefore doesn’t have to make large flexing and extension moves to stay in balance. By keeping low edge angles they are able to rotate their skis quite quickly and skid to slow down. By travelling slower through the bumps it enables the skier to look ahead and have more time to plan their next move. So why do we subject our ‘intro to bump’ skiers to line 1? Perhaps it gives them more time to recenter and prepare for the next turn? They may not have the skills to rotate their legs underneath them and maintain a low edge angle. So instead of taking the existing skills they have into bumps (and giving them an experience that will make them think twice), lets give our guests the skills to ski the comfortable line! The skills that our guests are going to need to ski the comfortable, slow line
s making turns across several bumps and is using turn shape to slow themselves speed over the snow is fast and their speed from the top of the hill to the bottom of te slow. 16
PSIA-RM/AASI SPRING 2011