Skiing

There are two types of skiing – cross-country and downhill. Cross-country skis are long and narrow, designed to allow people to travel cross country with a minimum of effort, a minimum of drag on the legs. Downhill skis, on the other hand, are designed to go down slopes of various gradations, as the name implies, and they are typically wider and thicker, so that the skier can maintain her balance while gliding down the course.

In other sports, technology has made great strides. Speed skating now has the “clap-skate” that is helping skaters break world records at every meet. New swimsuit material has allowed swimmers to break world records as well. Technology has made great strides in both cross-country and downhill skiing as well.

Indeed, newcomers to the sport – those coming in within the last few years, may not realize just how great the new technology is. But anyone who tried cross-country or downhill skiing as late as ten years ago, and gave it up because they found it just too difficult, should give it another try.

Cross-Country Skiing

Up until the 1980s, cross-country skis (and indeed, downhilll skis as well) were made from wood. Today, the skis are made from polyethylene. When the new plastics first came into use in the 1980s, a flaw in the plastic caused the skis to slow down, to become “hairy.” Technology again solved the problem, mixing graphite into the plastic. Today, the serious cross-country skier needs to choose the correct wax for his skis, or “waxless” skis that never need waxing.

The main difference today with cross-country skis, thanks to better plastic for the ski “bases”, is that they are shorter, which in turn makes it a lot easier to ski faster, and makes the whole process more enjoyable. Skiers used to have to choose their skis based on how tall they were…now it very much depends on how much they way. These new skis are called “Engineered compact skis.”

In addition to these new types of skis for cross-country skiers, there are also new types of bindings called the New Nordic Norm (or NNN), as opposed to the Salomon Nordic System (SNS). The NNN system allows for better control between the boot and the ski.

Downhill Skiing

Downhill skiers also benefit from a new design in skis, that was spurred on by the popularity of snowboarding in the 1990s. The newer downhill skis feature more pronounced “side cuts” that allow downhill skiers to turn more easily. The side cut is the difference between the width of the tip, middle (or waist) and tail of the ski — in other words, a ski will have a distinct “hourglass” shape. This new shape is combined with how long the ski is, its camber, and how flexible it is, to make today’s skis much easier to learn to control, thus shortening the time needed for the beginning skier between the bunny hill and a real hill.

Because of this new technology, people who have tried skis in the past and given it up should go to a skiing school during the next winter, to learn about these new skiing technologies. Skiing equipment continues to improve on a regular basis, although admittedly there is a limit to how much it can be improved. For many skiing enthusiasts, the way to improve one’s time on the slopes is to stay in shape during the non-skiing season.

For the skier, the legs are all important. Legs provide most of the motive power for the skiing enthusiast. During the off-season, therefore, a skier should perform weight training to keep the legs strong. Coordination between legs and arms can be improved by using roller skis – very short skis with wheels inset in the center, so that a skier can actually “ski” on pavement during the summer months.

Where To Go During the Winter Season

There are certain ski resorts that are justly famous, such as Vail, Colorado or Jackson Hole, Wyoming in the United States, or Courcheval, France or Kandersteg, Switzerland (a mecca for the cross-country skier), but really, any high hill is sufficient for the beginning skier, and taking skiing lessons from a qualified instructor is a must. With the new technology, skiing students will get the knack quite quickly, but nothing beats the solid grounding that a class in skiing by a good instructor bestows.