freetheanimals

I have been practicing LOTS at the Whistler learning area and focusing on some fundamentals, including skating with one foot in the bindings and forcing myself to face my demons with the chair lift often. Today, I did have another bad fall while offloading, though I didn't tweak my knee badly. Again, several skiers stood in the offload area. Since I am still not proficient at steering with just one foot in I did focus on straight ahead. And that worked fine, until I realized one of the skiers just stood right in front of me and stared at me not moving. To avoid hitting her I ever so slightly put pressure on my front foot to try to maneuver the board to the right. The result: I did go right but my board caught an edge and I went flying forward. This really scared me because I met a guy the other day who said he wrecked his knee by falling while he had one foot in the bindings. I will keep practicing but of all the skills I'm learning, one foot in the bindings while skating worries me the most because of potential injury.

On a more positive note, my turns are improving! I had picked up a bad habit of kicking my back foot to finish the turn but have worked hard to avoid doing that and relying more on the front foot. I'm also doing better with straight runs even though the speed freaks me out a bit.

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“The time will come when men such as I will look upon the murder of animals as they now look on the murder of men.” ― Leonardo da Vinci

edlo

You caught an edge while turning right and fell forward, is your left foot strapped in? If so it sounds like you are leaning over the edge of the board and just falling over. You shouldn't be able to catch your toe side edge with your weight on your front foot only. Also if you are going too slow and trying to force a turn , you'll just fall over. Strap your board on carpet and and pickup your rear foot , rock heel and toe side. This is how it should feel getting off the lift.
After reading your other post I wonder if you leaning on your rear foot when you get nervous off the lift. If you lean on your rear foot , it will bring the rear foot around and you WILL catch the edge, Bad. Knee pad will help with impact, a brace can also be used as a preventive measure.

Lamps

Beginner chairs are often fixed chairs, i.e. the chair doesn't slow down when you exit. They make the slope steep so that if you fall down the chair goes over you rather than hitting you. This is cold comfort for you as you have to skate down a steep slope but there is method to the madness.

I haven't read the whole thread but you seem to be getting lots of good advice, it gets better over time, and remember you are one lucky dog to be able to go to whistler so frequently.

stillz

Confidently riding one-footed takes a lot of practice, and I don't claim to be an expert at it. I do know that any rotation in the upper body will eventually transfer to the board (pivot). This often results in a heelside washout, so keep the shoulders steady relative to the board.

Also, I can't edge aggressively with my free foot. I have to be gentle with the free foot. Instead of trying to apply pressure to my edges per se, I pressure more toward the center of the board, but on the heel or toe side of center to shape turns, like I'm using the back of the ball of my foot and the front of my heel instead of the ends of my boot. That may be a clumsy explanation, but hopefully it makes some sense. It's just a different mental approach to steering the board, but it has helped me.