How to Ski - A complete guide to beginners

If you've always loved watching people whizz past on their skis in the soft snow doing all sorts of thrilling tricks and looking cool, then you are sure to want to try it yourself. Let's start with the basics for beginners at the sport. Read up on a few tips before getting to your first class to be in top form.

The most important skill

Turning is the most important skill novice skier must master. This is what helps you to control your speed and that's basically what skiing is all about! Beginners start by taking turns on a gliding wedge or a snow plow. This turn works best on flat surfaces and gentle slopes, but you will have to acquire the skill of parallel turning to proceed to moguls and steeper terrain. This is key to learning how to control speed as well. If you are keen on learning to ski on your trip, hotels in downtown Vancouver the likes of Pan Pacific Vancouver can advise you on which schools to sign up with.

How to edge

When it comes to making a proper turn, more commonly known as a parallel turn in skiing, edging is what makes or breaks it. At the end of your turn, your skis should be parallel to each other and in order to get this right you need to rub the edges of your skis against the snow. Keeping your skis perpendicular to the slope will help with this action. The more perpendicular it is the better the edging which helps you slow down your pace with the turn.

The ideal way to practice edging will be to practice more parallel turns to the left or right, whichever side you are more confident with. When the turn is finishing, bring your skis close together in a parallel line, but make sure it doesn't touch. Edge them as hard as you can into the snow until you come to a halt. These are called hockey stops and are similar to the action that will usually take place after a turn during a normal ski session. Except, you will not lose momentum but keep moving forward till the next turn pops up. This can be quite a challenging exercise especially if you've learnt to wedge and now shifting to edging.

Basic Turning Technique

To turn to your left dip your right shoulder towards the tip of your right ski and apply more weight onto your right ski boot. This will allow the skis to slowly change direction to the left. If you need to turn to the right dip your shoulder to the left towards the left tip of your ski and add more pressure to the left ski boot. Your skis will then slowly change direction to the right.

To pull off these turns you will have to keep most of your edging on the downhill ski. When you take a left turn, your downhill ski would be to the right while when you take a right turn, your downhill ski will be to the left.

Using Poles When Turning

Kids usually do not use poles to practice turns, they are not necessary to make a turn at all. They are tools that are used to maintain rhythm and not for balance. Adults, however, begin using poles faster. Therefore, if you are using a pole to turn left plant the left pole and then shift your weight for the turn. Once the left turn is coming to an end, plant the right pole and shift your weight to prepare for the right t