Ongoing Kid Stoke [2011 and on...]

[bern43]

I'll try and post some video later, but my 3 year old has been making really good progress. He's now at the point where he can turn and use his wedge to stop. We've gone from me skiing backwards and catching him to him following me down. But I see the power wedge creeping in. Any suggestions for how to avoid that? I've been having him make bigger turns that cut more across the hill to try and control speed, but as soon as we get on something a little steeper he just takes off.

[Danno]

^^^ that's amazing. Is he skiing on his own or using you for support? Congrats!

My girl is just 2 and we've had her out at Copper's bunny slope 7 times...she "skis" with us holding her hands, but she relies on us too much. Next step is to get her to balance more on her own.

We took our 3 year old to an indoor ski class in Boulder (Shredder Gym) which is awesome. The owner suggested taking two long pieces of webbing and tying them around her boots instead of a harness, that way we can control her speed without messing up her form. I tied each strap to a small carabiner so I can quickly hook her up with the biner and each strap. Worked really well. I think this might be the ghetto version of the Hook ease that montanaskier mentioned.

[skier666]

Some California Daylight Savings Night Skiing Jumpathon at Boreal...



And some vids...pretty fun to film the kiddies

https://vine.co/v/MqDEwHzMaxW

https://vine.co/v/MqIdXtz3uMW

[telek]

Great stoke folks! Now that I've got my son some real boots and 80 cm skis, I'll contribute.

Had a great time testing out a friend's chariot + ski attachment system and heading out to Castle Pass a few weekends ago.
http://snowymonk.blogspot.com/2014/0...g-mission.html

And here's short vid of my elder son's first few days on real skis (not counting the day he walked around on those lucky bums)... the first few min is all you need to see...


This past weekend I got him a strap that attach to his boot and got him down Mountain Run before naptime. Do folks have any opinion on those vs the harness type on their waist?

[BigDaddy]

^Nice work!

[~mikey b]

three ypung mags from the pnw placed 1st in each of their divisions saturday at the Alpental freeride comp.
lil flowing alpy 1st boys u12
oftpiste coop 1st boys u15
oftpiste berk 1st boys u18
they all skied money$$$ lines down an icy steep venue!
b

FKNA!

great job kids

young Maggots FTMFW!

[pointemstraight]

My little dude locally here in MN - this is his fourth time out this season - he just turned four a few weeks ago. So far so good. He quickly figured out that rolling the edges works great for turning, which is fine on the shallower hills, but on the steeper stuff he picks up speed too quickly when doing so - we'll have to work more on the wedge turns to dump speed next year.

[gatorboy]

Very proud of all my children.


She's 4 and this is her 4th day. She LOVES it.


He's 8. This is his 1st full-year boarding. I've seen so much improvement...and he's coach-able. This is his 5th year on the slopes. Unfortunately, he broke his wrist (radius and ulna) on this landing an hour later. His season is done and he's worried about baseball...but he should be fine.


He's 10. He excels at most sports (baseball, football, basketball, lacrosse, snowboarding, golf), but doesn't listen very well to his dad/coach.
This is his 8th year on the slopes and 3rd as a full-time boarder.

*if any child likes to watch video of them in action and benefits from slow-motion/stop replay, I highly suggest the app Coach's Eye ($5). It's worth it for immediate feedback.

[skier666]

More 2 year old stoke from Kirkwood the last two days. Dad tip - its a bit hard skiing with a 5 year old and a 2 year old on your own.





Vine vid of the 2 year old...making great progress as she's able to slow down on her own pretty well

https://vine.co/v/MhZAnm9XIKu/

The 5 year old had his last session of mini-jets at Kirkwood and they skied from the top of Chair 6 down Sentinel to end the year on a black run. He and I are stoked.

[uglymoney]

My little dude locally here in MN - this is his fourth time out this season - he just turned four a few weeks ago. So far so good. He quickly figured out that rolling the edges works great for turning, which is fine on the shallower hills, but on the steeper stuff he picks up speed too quickly when doing so - we'll have to work more on the wedge turns to dump speed next year.

Lookin' good pointem and thanks for the kind comments on my kids vids! Instead of working on wedge turns just keep him on the flats and teach him parallel turns (french fries) until he can do them well enough to handle steeper runs. We just use the wedge for emergency stopage and around lifts etc but always discourage or stop her if she tries to use them when actually skiing. She only learned snowplow turns from watching other kids but by then she'd formed good habits so she doesn't use the wedge much at all.

Anyway...

My little girl is only 3 for a couple of more weeks and I am enjoying every minute of it while I can. We took a trip to Jackson recently and she had a chance to ski and learn on the same slopes I learned to ski on when I was 4. Jackson was a lock this year even before it started to snow because of this. I fell in love with skiing at the Hole and so I can't think of a better place in the world to have her shred.

The Kids Ranch in Jackson is first class. The instructors are always great. The vibe is great. The facility is great. We put my stepson in classes when he was young and he always had a blast and was never held up. My girl had never been in a formal lesson but mom and dad needed to ski pow and of course she had a blast at school and the second day at the ranch she was ripping it up all over the mountain with 5 year olds.

Thursday we skied at Targhee and she did a Dreamcatcher lap on the ridge in a near whiteout with no problem. We had to take shelter behind some trees for a bit when the sleet hit but otherwise she had a proper first day at Foghee.

Back at JH



Carving it up making it hard for dad to keep up with the camera out!





Catching some air on what she called the Monkey House. She had to take me on all the fun trails she learned about at the Kids Ranch.



First (winter) tram ride. She wanted to ski down and she could have if I'd have let her but it would have been hell on dad and full of meltdowns so I made her ride down. Next time!



More to do in Jackson than ski!







My 4 year old dog is our third kid. Here he is shredding some hardpack.



Back to skiing kids...my stepson gets the last picture for having the sack to send some rock (next picture in series from post^).

[pointemstraight]

Sofa King awesome! I can't wait to get my boys out west - maybe even as soon as next season....

[oftpiste]

My younger two sons and Flowing Alpy's boy (at the bottom) all were on top of their respective age groups' podiums at the Alpental Jr. comp this weekend. Getting' after it!

[Buster Highmen]

give 'em full due:

[pointemstraight]

Trying to get out as much as we can before the season disappears.... video quality sucks, but you get the idea...

[StormDay]

I may have a little racer on my hands. My 8 yr old decided to go to race team next year after the development team fun races.

red course


blue course




Post race fun:

[SKIORFORGETIT]

only a year & a half until my boy starts

can't wait!!

[::: :::]

give 'em full due:

at first i didn't see the awards and thought blue jacket son was giving us the finger

[oftpiste]

at first i didn't see the awards and thought blue jacket son was giving us the finger

He's been known to do that too, at least to me!

[flyman683]

He's too young to be a park rat already but here's my 5 yo hiking the grom rail Park at the end of the day today... My knee was toast but he didn't want to stop.



Only straight sliding the boxes but gets a big kick out of the drop at the end of each one.

[::: :::]

tell me if this is another thread and i'll re-create it

but

when do parents decide to take kids into beacon/probe/shovel territory? specifically steep sidecountry, not just mellow skinning in the BC

we have gated access at our home hill that my son is begging to try. he is 9yo and has the skiing skills to make it down these slopes with the right guiding/mentoring (purely from the skiing side it). so far i've told him, "i'll take you when you can dig me out", and i've warned him about sneaking behind my back to do it with friends that the penalty is the loss/death of a friend or him (due to accident, not filicide)

what are your thoughts on this?

[edit] i figured this might sidetrack this kid stoke thread after posting, so I made separate post here:
http://www.tetongravity.com/forums/s...80#post4215680
[/edit]

[PlayItLeo]

Third day in a row of shredding with nino numero uno. Had planned to take him to NYC to check out dinosaurs and other cool stuff at the Nat history museum today, but he woke up this morning and said, "daddy, can't we just go skiing instead". Why yes, yes we can little dude

[powking12]

Had my 4 and 6 year old out yesterday for their first powder day. Knee deep for them and they just loved it! They would aim for the big patches of cut up pow!

I was absolutely tickled although I have to temper my expectations. I keep wanting them to go bell to bell instead of three runs then a break!

[scarlet begonias]

An awesome weekend skiing with our 5 year old. He hiked out the ridge with mom and dad and skied west bowl (out the gates, decent pitch). He's a carving machine! Steeps, pow, trees, moguls, gates, park... You name it he'll ski it. So proud!





He started skiing with poles a few weeks ago and is doing great.

Also did a slopestyle contest this weekend in the mini grom division.



The kids were so stoked! My guy is on lookers left.

Little sister, future shredder enjoyed hanging out and watching.


What a great lifestyle to raise kids in.

[pointemstraight]

Third day in a row of shredding with nino numero uno. Had planned to take him to NYC to check out dinosaurs and other cool stuff at the Nat history museum today, but he woke up this morning and said, "daddy, can't we just go skiing instead". Why yes, yes we can little dude

I got the same question this year, and it's so awesome. Like on a random Tuesday night:

Mini-Mag: "Daddy, we should go skiing tomorrow."
Me, after thinking about what meetings I'll be blowing off before deciding I don't care: "Let's do it!"

[skier666]

Two more days with the little guy this past weekend at Kirkwood.

He has no complaints on skiing...and even told me to tighten his boots so he could ski better, haha.



First day of true light and dry pow...after this pic he found out what happens when you b-line into the powder berm off trail.