Ongoing Kid Stoke [2011 and on...]

[Canada1]

Awesome stoke as always.
Question: We have our 3.75 year old girl out snowplowing on greens. She's generally on a harness only for emergencies if she gets going too fast; otherwise it's all slack behind her. On easy greens, she can snowplow well enough to keep speed control, but on anything that gets steeper, she doesn't hold a strong wedge and loses that control. Any advice on what we can do to help teach her to snowplow stronger/better and get her to control her speed?

edgie wedgie until they have the strength to force it on their own. In the alternative, shorter skis.

[milestogo]

Awesome stoke as always.
Question: We have our 3.75 year old girl out snowplowing on greens. She's generally on a harness only for emergencies if she gets going too fast; otherwise it's all slack behind her. On easy greens, she can snowplow well enough to keep speed control, but on anything that gets steeper, she doesn't hold a strong wedge and loses that control. Any advice on what we can do to help teach her to snowplow stronger/better and get her to control her speed?

As soon as she can snowplow to arrest her speed, teach the parallel turn. Snow plowing on the steeper trails means that one ski is almost always heading downhill! That's a lot of gravity to counter with the other leg. Just have her turn both skis at once. I took this advice from a friend with massive amounts of skiing experience (guiding in Europe, etc)who was texting his kids to ski as I was teaching mine. It is a total game changer and different paradigm for teaching kids to ski, but the positive results were immediate for my son and daughter. I mean like parallel turns by the end of the first day immediate.

[uglymoney]

As soon as she can snowplow to arrest her speed, teach the parallel turn. Snow plowing on the steeper trails means that one ski is almost always heading downhill! That's a lot of gravity to counter with the other leg. Just have her turn both skis at once. I took this advice from a friend with massive amounts of skiing experience (guiding in Europe, etc)who was texting his kids to ski as I was teaching mine. It is a total game changer and different paradigm for teaching kids to ski, but the positive results were immediate for my son and daughter. I mean like parallel turns by the end of the first day immediate.

Yes. On steeper areas teach them to stop between every turn at first so that they finish the turn.

[uglymoney]

^ We never taught Sage to snowplow. When we moved to the aforementioned steeper runs I would ski backwards in front of her and teach her to turn uphill till she stopped. They quickly learn how turning up hill causes them to slow down. As soon as they can finish their turns then get them to link turns.

Sage is five and this video is from last weekend.

[milestogo]

Nice turns Sage!

[Gepeto]

Okay, not much of an old gear whore, so I don't know any better. Found these and will 86 them unless they can be put to good use?

I realize they are not indemnified. Marker M4.1 Logic... DIN range is 2.5 - 7

Do they belong in the round file at the end of the bench or can someone put them to good use for an appropriately sized grom?




BTW: Never poked around in this thread. Stoke is all-time.

[The SnowShow]

One of the hardest things I find is when my girl (3.75) has a lot of confidence one day and is snowplowing/turning and then the next time out she wants to have us hold her by harness or handle. When we refuse she throw a fit.

[uglymoney]

One of the hardest things I find is when my girl (3.75) has a lot of confidence one day and is snowplowing/turning and then the next time out she wants to have us hold her by harness or handle. When we refuse she throw a fit.

Every kid. Just go with the flow and keep it fun!

[The SnowShow]

Thanks, we will. Today was a tough day but she did turn it around a bit. I just can't figure out how to convey edging to her. She can do a wedge shape but doesn't really edge...

[~mikey b]

Yes. Walking on skis is important to skiers of all ages. Most old folks never learned.

[optics]

Took my daughter up for her second day on skis. Day 1 I tried to teach her, ended in tears and screams of "I hate skiing!"

This time had her do a full day lesson. Met her and she couldn't stop smiling, wanted to do"one more" over and over - closed the day out with her.

I've had a lot of good powder days over the years. Seeing her catch the bug crushes every one of them.

[~mikey b]

1st place U10 slalom

[~mikey b]

[::: :::]

1st place U10 slalom

Duuuuude, that's awesome!!!!

[dgilligan02]

Sons first time out today. He could barely stand up for more than a couple minutes, couldn't get back up by himself, bagged it 80% of the way through his lesson, and told me it was not fun and he doesn't want to go again.

BUT WE LOOKED DAMN GOOD DOING IT

Attachment 174771

[~mikey b]

Dad braids that hair. But he does not like the braid or ponytail so he goes feral.

Another first today.

[mtnbiker/boarder]

that's super stuff right there mike^^^^ he really is coming a long way since hitching rides in your backpack as a youngin....congrats to you and ur wife as well as the young ripper ......

[flyman683]

Who's got tips on making the kiddos "use poles right"?

I can get em up to parallel and turning and all that, but my instruction on poles thus far is lacking apparently.

"don't do weird stuff" doesn't appear to get the message across (talking 5 to 7 yo's here).

[::: :::]

Who's got tips on making the kiddos "use poles right"?

I can get em up to parallel and turning and all that, but my instruction on poles thus far is lacking apparently.

"don't do weird stuff" doesn't appear to get the message across (talking 5 to 7 yo's here).

if the kid's too young to understand what to do with them or has other issues to deal with first, just leave them in the car for now (the POLES!) and bring them back later

[Canada1]

Have them pretend their holding a steering wheel. If they can't conceptualize this have them hold a Frisbee for a couple runs. I agree poles cause problems that require latter correction, but they certainly make your day as a parent a hell of a lot easier, so that's what you have to balance. I ended up cutting down a pair to fit my kids and started them with them at the point they have carved turns. My daughter is 7, and she has them, and she is still resorting to the wedge occasionally in the moguls, but on round three I am much more lazy about the whole process..

[uglymoney]

Have them pretend their holding a steering wheel.

Drive that bus!

[flyman683]

Thanks for the thoughts, more or less what I was doing anyway (only given our 7 y/o poles once and did OK excluding some weird opposite pole plants) but philosophy in his group thing is no poles... Except he's begging for them, and point is to be excited, so I'm inclined to give in.

Just seen a lot of other kids dragging, etc and don't want to get stuck with that habit either.

[MMP]

My son is enjoying school in Colorado. I'm sure he's smiling in this shot.

[Chugachjed]

My girls are killing it! Barely 3 days on snow for the older and 2 for the younger and I'm a proud papa.
Not quite ready for alpy yet though.
https://vimeo.com/152247801
The one in purple has only 2 days.

[spotted dogs]

Goes fast... He was 3.... 7 years later and he's my best ski buddy.

And a total goofball. " dad , check out my gorbygap!"