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} JANUA Th SKIING TIPS FROM A TOP CANADIAN PRO- SO YOU'RE GOING SKIING... Some tips from Frank Scofield, director of Le Chantecler Ski School, Ste Adele, P.Q. Who can ski? Anyone from six to sixty with enough balance and muscle to walk can ski. Some start as youngsters but many oldsters of seventy and more still enjoy their ski outings each weekend. How to start. The best way, of course, is to join a recognized professional ski school. These schools, all affiliated with the Canadian Ski Instructors' Alliance, offer a unified system that is constanjly kept up to date with the latest European deyelop- ments. And new wrinkles are added by our own teachers with our own conditions in mind. Each winter the CSIA holds a pre-season course for teachers. Here are some of the tips they will give you: Carry your skis to the bottom of a small hill. Start your first skiing on the flat. Never start at the top of a hill on your first attempt. Walk around on your skis for a while to get the feel of them and only after doing this, climb a little way up and try your first descent. In this descent keep the skis parallel, two or three inches apart and evenly weighted. The skis should be kept flat and one ski--either one--should be three or four inches in advance of the other. Your hill should have a flat run-out so the prob- lem of stopping is eliminated. As you gain confi- dence, select a slightly steeper hill and even run over a bump or through a hollow. At all times, keep the knees pushed forward and flexible. Tense- ness and stiffness are the greatest enemies of the beginner. The climbing you do in this exercise will help to condition you. The easiest way to climb at first 1s to side step using your ski edges to help you. After a couple of sessions like this, the beginner is ready, to advance, but here he or she will need the help of a qualified amateur instructor. Many ski clubs have an amateur instructor program, and next to the professional school, this is your best bet. One thing to avoid is the advice of well- meaning but uninformed friends who will try to push you into advanced skiing too quickly. These people have the bad habit of taking beginners up to the top of a ski tow and saying, 'Here, follow me. It's easy." Of course it's easy for them: they already know how. This is one of the causes of unnecessary accidents. Be wise! Wait until you is just right for you. No room--too short; room for two fingers--too long. The theory is that once the boot is laced, the foot will be retracted and the single-finger space at the back will be trans- ferred to the front, leaving the toes room to move around and stay warm. At the same time, the boot will be short enough to keep the heel from rising and slipping when the ski binding is tighten- ed. Many pros like to test their new boots with a binding just to guard against heel slip. Many shops keep an old ski and an easily adjustable binding for this test. More people buy boots too big than too small. As for width, judge by the way they feel and have some control before venturing up the ski tow. watch for wrinkles that may betray a bad fit in | this dimension. 4 How about equipment? In many resort areas you ; can rent ski equipment and discover first whether Buying your skis: The skis we use today are a bit or not you enjoy the sport before you go to the shorter than they were because we ski less in 8 expense of buying. deep snow. The short ones are easier to handle but, 2 But when you are ready to buy, go to a reput- on the other hand, skis that are too short, while § able ski shop, pro shop or department store they will turn easily, are unstable and hard to any one that has a good ski man on the staff. control in straight, fast runs. Wrist-to-palm height And figure your Most important outlay to be on when your hand is stretched above your head is a boots. It is next to impossible to ski.in poor boots. good guide for ski length. Steel edged skis are best. Good boots and medium or low-priced skis are Look down the grooves to make sure the skis are better than cheap boots and good skis. Of course, straight. The arch or camber is to distribute the if you can afford both, get them. skier's weight evenly over the snow. Obviously, Good boots today are nearly alwavs double-- too much camber for a light person will mean a boot within a boot. About $30.00 is the minimum that the skis will catch at the tip and tail. And using for a good pair. Take your own socks. one thin a ski that is 100 flat will make a heavy person feel pair and one heavy pair, when you go to buy. that he is skiing on barrel staves. Here again is Put on the boot but don't lace it. Stand on the another reason for patronizing a reputable shop. floor and push the toe of the boot against the wall. The cheaper skis are made of ash. These are Now force your foot forward inside the boot light and good for children and women but they 1 until your toes hit the front of the boot. will not stand up under continual hard skiing. Next, slip your forefinger down inside the back Ash and hickory laminated with plastic soles are of the boot, right down to the heel. If there is the best bet in wooden skis. The new metal and room for just this one finger, then the boot length plastic, sandwich-type skis are excellent but ex- EVERY GOOD SKIER SHOULD KNOW THE KICK TURN... SCHU 1 % This maneuver looks difficult and is until you've mastered it. But it isn't hard to learn. To make a kick turn to the left plant your poles firmly with the right pole at the right ski tip and the 2 left pole at the heel of the left ski. (Figure 1) Kick your left foot forward and upward. Kick so that the heel of the ski is high enough to clear the surface of the snow when the ski is straight up. It must also be out far enough so that the heel of the left ski lines up with the toe of the right. (Figure 2) When the ski is swinging up in the air, don't stop. Turn the ski in the new direction you want to go so that when it comes down the skis are parallel but with the left one facing in the new direction and the right one still Q facing in the old direction. (Figure 3) my Now, swing the right ski around until they are parallel : again and both facing in the new direction. (Figure 4) Now you're ready to go. (Figure 5) Practice swinging your foot, with the ski attached Oshawa Times--"Ontario Today" --January 23, 1960 until you get the timing right and are able to make the turn in one flowing motion rather than in a series of jerky tortured ones.