Have a look at this Ski TV episode where SnowSports Unlimited is featured for the instructor training work that we’re doing in China. We’ve been working there since 2018 offering CSIA ski instructor courses as well as CASI snowboard instructor courses. In this feature, you’ll meet two of our CSIA Level 2 graduates, Eric and Darren. Great skiers and greats guys too!

Watch Full Video

That heavy feeling that you sometimes  get under your skis through a turn is the pressure building from traveling on an arc.  The best way to stay balanced is to align your body to face where these forces are coming from. 

A lot of people try and balance from their head down and force a position while they’re skiing.  Try to be more aware of what you feel under your feet and balance from the snow up. 

Keeping things simple in your skiing, constantly turning to manage direction and grip to deal with challenging snow and visibility. 

Skiing the bumps with speed can be really fun and really exciting.  Line choice is critical and so is being aware of the conditions. 

Pushing your feet away or trying to get them away from you can make you fall to the inside of your turn right from the start causing you to lose edge grip and balance.  Keep your feet underneath you to help build a solid platform first and then move inside that platform. 

When the going gets tough that’s when you need to have a fallback plan.  Work on creating good feelings when the conditions are good and then use those as your goal for when the conditions get challenging. 

Skiing the bumps tactically by being aware of speed, line and turn shape.  Technique is important when skiing the bumps but you can set yourself up for success by choosing the right approach for the situation. 

This tip was pretty controversial when it was first released.  There are lots of ways to achieve certain outcomes on a pair of skis, try not to get hung up on one idea, be open to different concepts and you’ll continue to learn and improve.

Skiing the steeps can be an exhilarating experience and makes for a good challenge.  Here are a few tactics to help you better deal with steeper terrain situations.

Being able to adapt your stance makes it much easier to adapt to changing conditions, speed and turn shapes.  Stance width changes to allow for quickness or to help create stability. 

This tip talks about turn shape, how you create it, and why it’s important.  Being able to adjust turn shape is a skill that all good skiers have. 

Where you feel your balance come from is what has an affect on your alignment.  A lot of skiers balance from the head down, much like they’re walking on a tight rope.  Balancing from the snow up will leave you better aligned throughout the turn.  

Sometimes by the end of the morning on a powder you’ll find yourself skiing in broken or chopped snow.  Here are a couple of pointers to make this a little more manageable and fun. 

The heavy spot that you sometimes feel throughout the ski turn is the pressure that you’ve built up under your skis. Feeling that and being aware of it can help you be better balanced. 

There are a few common misconceptions with regards to lead change.  So say that it’s bad, I think that depends on how it’s created. This tip is about how lead change is created and how it is a function of good balance.  

Skiing is all about balance but balance on your skis is not a position, it’s an action.  This tip talks about how to find better balance throughout the turn. 

With ski design the way that it is these days a few of us have become a little bit lazy and letting the skis do all of the work.  By adding a little bit more of a steering effort you’ll find that the ski technology is even better than you’d imagined.  

Skiing is an outdoor sport so sometimes the visibility can be challenging.  So what do you do?  Here are a few thoughts to help you deal with this challenging condition. 

To be able to move into the top of the turn smoothly the edges and the COM need to release at the same time from the previous turn.  This tip will help you do that. 

A short turn is a useful tool in a variety of terrain situations.  Having a short turn in your repertoire will open up more terrain on the mountain for you as well as possibly get you out of a jam.