How To Carve While Skiing

Elliott Shows a Step by Step of Two Skis, Pressuring Down Hill Ski and Breaking at the waist to help you learn how to carve while skiing.
0:00 2 Main Skills
0:50 Changing Your Skis Shape
2:20 Breaking at the Waste
3:00 How To Turn
5:00 Bending The Ski / Where To Practice
8:30 Wait for Ski To Turn Itself
14:00 Upper Body Separation
16:20 Don't Give Up

[irideaduck]

Finding appropriate terrain is so important to improving your skills ... great advice Elliott! Years ago when my daughters were younger we pulled out the Alta trail map with the intention of skiing all of the blue runs, crossing them off the trail map as we completed them. It was really fun for them and they made significant improvements that year! Sure they could "survive" many of the black runs, but that didn't improve their skills. Now to the question of why to learn to carve. I don't think folk understand the control and stability carving provides both on and off trail. Want to ski faster with more control ... learn to carve!

[scottb]

Not sure if you are aware, but you roll your skis on edge along with pressuring the front of the boot. The roll on edge is what makes the turn happen. If the skis stay flat, they don't turn. Pressuring the front of the boot sort of naturally causes you to roll a little on edge. When you become aware of it, rolling to a high edge angle causes the ski to bend probably more than pressure on your boots. The combine for sure to make the turn.

[agenthex]

Just fyi, the ski isn't bent by "pressure" but by tipping angle. There's literally an equation relating increasing edge angle to decreasing radius (meaning the ski is more bent). The ski sidecut shape is literally engineered to project a semi-circle of reducing radius onto a plane as it angles down, and you can test this yourself by pushing a ski down onto the ground while it's at different angles (it only takes a few pounds of force).

People often confuse this with "pressure" because pressure coincides with that decreasing radius (for reasons of conservation of angular momentum), but the pressure isn't what causes the bending.

[jw]

Grateful for the initiation of technique videos, this was my primary equipment channel. Now, it appears the journey has come full circle. In a sense, I find myself transitioning from a viewer to your student, ready to delve into the realm of techniques.

[MatthewWioughby]

Been looking forward to this video since I subscribed in the summer! You explained it a lot better than the other channels! It might be helpful to mention that you also need to put the ski on its edge when you pressure your downhill boot. That was something that I dont think was very intuitive about carving to me as a beginner(just started learning this season). Also, maybe explain which ski is your down hill ski. I dont think that is very intuitive for beginners either. Overall this is the best carving tutorial on youtube! I love how simple you keep it! I will be trying out these tips on the hill tomorrow!

[josephstratemeier]

I've been working on putting pressure on the downhill ski this year and it's really helped me. Not only can I carve turns better it gives me more confidence on more technical terrain. Not skipping leg day helps too!

[darinsmith]

Wow.. Another snow day.. I am jealous.. More of surf than a carve day..

I agree with flexing the boot and flexing the tip of the ski.. I will add that it starts with flexing my toes.. When I went from my straight race skis to shaped race skis all I had to do to get them to turn was to flex my toes.. I had to do a lot less effort and it really was more like running down the coarse rather than jumping down the coarse (if that makes sense)..

My race boots had absolutely no flex.. I think that is why I learned to flex my toes.. I just carried that over to my boots that I have now that have some flex.. I would say try flexing your toes and see if it flexes your boots..

[Grego]

Great video Elliott! I love that you are doing instructional videos now too. Especially since carving is your thing. I thought your easy to understand language was much easier to follow than some of the other YouTubers. Keep up the great work.

[evanxie]

Very nice and informative video, well done! Your style is very relaxed and natural, kinda like Jans from Stomp it, I personally like it more than the way you comment on others' video and believe it will win more subscribers. Keep up the good work!

[lod]

Love your videos! I learned to ski in the early 90's in New Hampshire and I'm just getting back into it. I can't carve and never really understood what people meant talking about it. Thank you so much for the detailed explanation. Going to try this tomorrow.

[driverjohns]

really enjoyed this video! I've been working on carving for the past 3 years. As silly as it may sound, my goal year round is to get to the gym to be in shape for ski season. What I have found is that technique has helped me much more that brute muscle exertion. Hope to see you up at Bogus!

[lebooselover]

This was such a well made video and the techniques were explained in a manner that was easily understood. Thanks!

[StartCodonUST]

I finally bought a pair of narrow detuned slalom skis this season (Blizzard Thunderbirds). While I have the technique to carve well on all-mountain skis, it wasn't until my second day in a row where I was mostly skiing moderate slopes that I was able to feel like I had properly figured out the timing and pressuring to properly bend the ski and link up fully rounded turns.

[angelobarone]

I enjoy watching your videos. I believe your reviews are genuine and thats important when so many on the internet are trying to sell something.

In this video I thought is was interesting when you said to be patient and wait until the ski hooks into the turn. I’m going to try that.

While I watch tube videos on skiing I find myself wondering about things like what mountain they are skiing and what type of run they’re on green, blue, etc; and possibly how fast they’re going. I feel if I knew this it would help me compare my own skiing with what I’m seeing.
Keep up the good work!

[scottb]

What happened to rolling the ski onto its edge? roll the ankles, knees, big toe / little toe however you want to describe putting the ski on edge. Edge angles? Even if you pressure the front of the ski it won't carve unless its rolled onto its edge. They carve without putting pressure on your boots just by rolling them on edge. Key point you need to mentioin.

[anthonyfavalessa]

I do many carving drills including alternating the Hand on Hip, but either missed or never heard anyone say put the Butt/hip into the turn. I like that I look forward to adding that on Opening Day sometime this November

[samfaught]

I've been waiting, hoping for this one

[osceolaseminole]

Very helpful. Just getting into skiing. Thank you.

[asfdaigjusadjfepijfadf]

I think something that helped me understand how to pressure the front of the boot was conciously closing my ankles/keeping tension in the ankle muscles. Using the muscles in the ankles to bring my body more forward over the boot also helped alot with mainting balance over bumps.

Before reading about ankle flexing people would tell me to "get more forward" or try to "push the tongues of with my shins as hard as i could" but I would end up trying to lean and rest all my weight over the front of the boot which would lead to me getting off balance and too far forward. Now i try to focus on my feet, ankles and bent knees to stay nice and balanced and keep some light pressure on the tongues of the boot.

[gemhawkz]

Excellent video thank you. I think it’ll help me a lot.