Snow Skills

Edging a shaped ski isn’t really any different from edging a conventional ski. To create edging, it takes movements of the legs to tip the skis from side to side so that you alternate balancing on either edge. Those motions are identical whether you have a conventional ski or one which has exaggerated sidecut (where the ends of the ski are signficantly wider than its middle). Due to the wider dimensions of a shaped ski, however, you can apply a special mental focus that will assist you in edging more effectively, with some excellent unintended results.

First, a quick primer on the parts of the front of the ski. The very end of the ski, usually a pointed or rounded nose is known as the tip. From the tip, the ski flares outward to its widest dimension, usually about 5 inches below the tip. That widest dimension of the ski is known as the shovel, probably due to its resemblance to a shovel head. And we learned what sidecut is in the previous paragraph; note that sidecut allows the shovel to come into contact with the snow when you place the ski on edge.

The special mental focus is to think about tipping the ski so that you’re trying to engage the shovel as the first part of the ski to hit the snow. Yes, this probably isn’t physically possible as the purpose of sidecut is to have the ski’s edge engage continuously all along its length. What this mental focus accomplishes, however, is that your edging movements will be most effective when your weight is simutaneously going forward and downward into the edge of the ski. This strong focus of pressuring the edge while edging it will result in excellent balance, a firm grip, and a steady, round turn shape all the way through the turn.