📹 http://e.pc.cd/yMRy6alK

🇨🇭 #savognin ⛷️ #snowsports #training #instructor #moguls

Also includes videos where I practice short turn variations for the instructor course:

• Norwegian
• Fliegend
• Ollie
• Schweden

The reference turns:

• Moguls – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gAMV_VG4jU
• Short turn variations – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7InHCbXHXk
• Overview of all turns for the instructor course – https://www.snowsports.ch/de/extranet/pruefungsvideos-ski.html

🇨🇭 #savognin ⛷️ #snowsports #training #instructor #moguls

In theory, it should be fairly simple. In practice, however, you need to consider the changes in elevation and orientation of the hill which can change slightly during the course. You will rarely find a perfect terrain that has the same elevation and alignment for 20-30m.

You start by setting the poles in the snow. The vertical distance in the fall lines between the poles is 7m. The horizontal distance between the fall lines is approximately 1.7m. Here, again, this can change depending on the terrain that is not always perfectly even.

On my first attempt to space the moguls, I pretty much followed the theoretical distance guidance (7m, 1.7m) by measuring the distance between the moguls with my skis (my ski is 1.68m long).

Once you spaced out the poles, you start doing short stop turns against the poles to pile up some snow. This is illustrated by the red and grey curved arrows in the picture above.

The green lines are the skidding lines. Once enough snow is piled up for the moguls, the course should be skidded/prepared regularly.

I only noticed that it was pretty hard to ski after I started to do the first short turns against to moguls to pile up more snow. In the deep snow, I did not realize that to make the course actually work, I would need to keep the fall lines closer together.

So this is what I changed today. I moved the outer lines and one of the inner lines by a almost 0.5m to improve the flow on the course.

I'm very curious to see how the course develops over time once different skiers went over the course. You can't do everything right, but at least we can try.

I still have a pretty decent example from the course from last year in Nendaz.

I'm pretty happy for the current state after one weekend. Let's see if this will actually be fun to ski 😃. Stay tuned for footage 📹.

Practicing parallel turns on the slopes:

Teaching some basic edging and turns in the beginner area:

#savognin #snowsports #swissskischool

#savognin #snowsports #equipment

Waxing Process

• Make the edges smooth and sharp first before waxing
• Use a (steel/nylon) brush to clean the ski first. Brushing direction: from the front to the back
• Temperature for the waxing iron: Ideally between 120-130 °C (for “blue” wax 135 °C)
• Wax for cold temperatures sticks longer (“purple” up to -10 °C)
• Choose the “red” wax in case of doubts
• Release the middle vise for waxing (no tension on the ski)
• Apply waxing iron 3 to 4 times slowly, make sure not to use too much (drips on the side) or too little wax (harmful for the coating)
• Immediately remove excess wax from the edges
• Wait 10-20 minutes for the wax to sink into the coating
• For removing the excess wax from the coating clamp the ski to the middle vise again
• Use the plexi blade to remove the excess wax from the entire coating from front to back (pushing might be easier than pulling)

Edge Sharpening Process

• Use the planer to remove the plastic sidewalls (especially on new skis)
• Spray some water 💦 on the diamond 💎
• Remove the brows with the diamond (200 coarseness)
• This step is a quick win, remove the brows frequently to smooth the edges
• Optionally, use a 400 diamond (less coarse than the 200) for polishing
• Diamond treatment does not take away material from the edges and can be repeated quite frequently
• Optionally, use a side angle (88° or 87° for aggressive 3° race angle)
• Don't use the aggressive 3° angle for casual skiing, the edge is also destroyed faster again and you need to resharpen every week or so
• Only actually file the edges (remove material from the edges) every third or fourth time you perform the edge tuning. Most of the time you should be fine by just removing the brows with the diamond.
• Bring the ski to a shop from time to time to make the edges with the machine
• Always remove the brows before applying the base file which removes material
• The file always has a direction in which it should be applied, watch out for the small arrow on the file (it will feel wrong and not work the other way around 😅)
• You will definitely need an angle (88°/87°) to apply the base file which removes material from the edges
• Re-apply the diamond after the base file
• Use an edge grinding rubber to smoothen scratches in the edges or to reverse the edge sharping a bit (break the edge again, which you might need to do on nose/tail a few cm if the edge is too aggressive)

Waxing Equipment

To rebuild a similar setup use equipment and a shopping list similar to this one here:

• Ski vise
• Red wax
• Blue wax
• Wax iron
• Plexi blade
• Brush
• Sidewall planer
• 200 diamond file (to remove brows and polish)
• Water sprinkler
• Base file (to remove material)
• Side angle 88°/87°
• Edge grinding rubber

💡Pro tip: Instead of buying the sidewall planer, the base/diamond file, the side angle and edge grinding rubber separately, consider an all-in-one Tooltonic Set. I bought one myself – a very handy starter package, portable, good quality, swiss made 🫕

This was before the crash (and the tears 😿😇):

#savognin #snowsports #swissskischool

• https://www.sport-trend-shop.ch/abteilungen/ski/archiv/echt-skifahren
• https://www.sport-trend-shop.ch/abteilungen/ski/archiv/echt-ski-fahren-mit-echt-ski

#savognin #snowsports #training #equipment #echt

(and no, I don't think they adhere to semantic versioning, but we will see 😅)

What an experience! This high-performance ski has racing genes that lead you through long (carving) and short turns. My rented HEAD Supershape e-Magnum for giving lessons is an all-mountain ski, so I felt the difference immediately.

The ECHT v1 has decent flex to practice all my slope tricks. So much fun! I noticed today how I over-rotate many of my nose/tail turns. But that should not be an issue if I work on making them full butter 360s?

📹 https://www.facebook.com/stompittutorials/videos/how-to-nose-butter-on-skis-for-beginners/460868492076215

To get a good feel for the length of the ski and the nose, I also like to practice these “Tripod butters”. It's a lot of fun and not that hard to learn:

📹 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEBj9x5kgwQ

It looks really good if you jump down a little gap 🏚

The ECHT v1 was recommended to me by the friendly staff at STS. I'm very satisfied with their service, even though they sold me skiing poles that where slightly too long (see here how I fixed that 🤣) I like how they did not go into the technical details of the ski when I bough it (well, they don't even tell you what radius it has unless you ask them, which I did not). It's not about the specs in the first place.

I learned from the STS sales guy that my ECHT is the second pair in Savognin. Please get in touch with me if you happen to know the first ECHT rider up here, I'd love to chitchat 😺

This is also how you should ski – Try “new” tricks and turns on every slope you hit, combine, experiment. Don't just blindly repeat the exact same turns over and over again! I see too many of these “boring” skiers all day long. Learn something new. That's where the fun is 🙂

This week I learned the nose/tail turns and how to combine them with a switch turn.

#savognin #snowsports #training

📹 https://youtu.be/7y_yV3mzh6I

My turn: 📹 http://e.pc.cd/cb6otalK

Short Turn Variations

📹 https://youtu.be/I7InHCbXHXk

In addition to the Norwegian (01:00) from last week I learned how to do the “Fliegend” (01:30) with 1/2 rhythm and the Ollie (00:33).

#savognin #snowsports #training

🔗 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant_slalom 🔗 https://olympics.com/en/news/the-differences-between-alpine-skiing-disciplines 📹 https://youtu.be/FY9xl0fMMU8

My turn: 📹 http://e.pc.cd/cY6otalK

We made some footage of my colleagues as well which was very helpful to compare our different styles (and mistakes 🤪).

This is what it should look like: 🎬 https://www.snowsports.ch/startseite/ausbildung/ausbildungskurse/aspirant

I made some notes below, so I can work on these issues. Really looking forward to the training camp 💪 next week to improve these points.

Can you find out which video features which technique?

#savognin #snowsports #training

Parallel Turn

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallel_turn

• Put more weight on the outer ski (exercise: lift inside leg)
• Bend the hips, push the outer stick into the snow
• Tilt and bend, arms form a horizontal line with the slope (view from below)
• Use the sticks during release
• Show release and 2 swing phases

Turning Steps

https://www.swiss-ski-school.ch/children/red-league-ski

• Release forward, slightly sideways
• Lean forward all the time
• Move arm upwards along with inside ski
• Bend the hips for increased stability

Skating Steps

• Try to slide longer

Short turns

• “Stop/brake-turns” in a row, more pep, aggressive
• Stable upper body, concentrate on point in the valley, fixed corridor
• Stick: keep arms steady, too nervous
• 💡 Tip: Put thumb on stick to open shoulder and chest

Snowplough Turns

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snowplough_turn

• 💡 Tip: Open the shoes
• Keep ski-tip distance always fist width
• Keep plough angle constant (O-Legs)
• Lean forward, bring hip forward
• Pedalo movement, show (very subtle) release and phases of the swing
• No diagonal traversal, make turn after turn
• Inner ski must slide

#savognin #snowsports #swissskischool