First challenge of the day was navigating the equipment hire. Despite being told that Derin is an advanced skier he tried to put her into boots with a DIN flex of 60. I never even knew boots that soft existed. Fortunately he didn’t resist too much and we ended up with a DIN of 105 and an excellent pair of boots with accurate alignment without any adjustment of the cuffs.
The video is of Derin skiing at her own rhythm – very strong and competent. My only criticism might be that it looks like the knee is being pushed into the turn to edge the outside ski. We need to look carefully at that because edging should be done through a combination of full body inclination and hip angulation – not by using the knees – which are very vulnerable (Look at the photo of Alex below – inclination and angulation!).
Better still – instead of worrying about edging Derin needs to know how to keep the skis flat. Look at the skis in the two photos below. Alex on edged skis for a racing turn – me on flat skis for a powder turn.
Lunch was spectacular – we broke the record for the cheapest lunch for 2 in Tignes Les Brèviers in history – total cost €13 – one very small plate of chips and one black coffee total. I claimed Derin’s chips were unhealthy and Derin claimed that my coffee was unhealthy.
After revising pivoted turns – from the uphill edge of the uphill ski – we started to work on timing – even in carved turns stomping on that uphill edge of the uphill ski to extend the leg to complete the turn and push the body across/downhill into the new turn. Wide stance was used to have the uphill leg flexed more than the downhill so as to give a strong push and connection with the ground. Derin could feel the extra grip that this brings – and how there is no need to try to get onto the inside edge of the ski to initiate the turn. We will work on this more because like in the photo of Alex above this extended outside leg prevents the knee from being pushed inwards.