Joined
·
8,323 Posts
Third day up at Whistler today. The weather was a bit odd--there was an inversion, so it was warmer up the mountain than at village level. About 4 degrees C at the roundhouse meant that the snow, while groomed to corduroy, wasn't crispy. Although even with the above-zero temps, some areas are definitely getting well-polished. We need some fresh to cover that up.
I rode the Ejack with the new Katanas last Friday and today. Last time I wasn't really happy with my riding, which had me concerned that I might not be happy with the Katanas. Today, however, was much better. Two things were different--one was the boots I was using, the other was the snow, which was colder and harder last time. I'll give the Maysis boots another try, probably tomorrow--I have to admit, I may not have had the Maysis adjusted properly last time.
I'm going to make a point of icing and massaging my foot tonight. I think I may really have that Morton's Neuroma thing in my right foot. Irritating but not agonizing so far, but these things always get worse over time.
So how'm I doing overall? Really well. I followed some better riders today, including one staff person (probably an instructor). I could keep up with him, although my carves aren't anywhere near as clean. But interestingly, when I'm following someone, I'm quite happy to go a lot faster than I am otherwise comfortable with. So it's obviously a confidence thing more than anything. My form is good, mostly, although I occasionally lose the toeside form and go back to my old style. It's easy to catch, though, because as soon as I do that, my toeside carve suffers.
On the other side, I don't think I did the heelside stutter even once today. A couple of times it felt like I was close to it, but again I was able to catch myself. And even if I'm not up to my full speed downhill form yet, I'm damned close.
The only place I'm not happy is with my toeside turns in mogully conditions. I flubbed the turn twice today in a mogul field, and the second time I almost did a swan dive. Ungood. Unfortunately there isn't a good, consistent mogul field for me to work with yet (the stuff I was trying today barely qualifies as a field), so I'm going to have to wait for more snow on that one. However, given how well I'm doing on the other stuff, I have high hopes.
I'm also making progress on penguin walk, but still not practicing ollies nearly enough.
Tomorrow, I'm going up with the Blur with the Cleavers. Should be a blast!
I rode the Ejack with the new Katanas last Friday and today. Last time I wasn't really happy with my riding, which had me concerned that I might not be happy with the Katanas. Today, however, was much better. Two things were different--one was the boots I was using, the other was the snow, which was colder and harder last time. I'll give the Maysis boots another try, probably tomorrow--I have to admit, I may not have had the Maysis adjusted properly last time.
I'm going to make a point of icing and massaging my foot tonight. I think I may really have that Morton's Neuroma thing in my right foot. Irritating but not agonizing so far, but these things always get worse over time.
So how'm I doing overall? Really well. I followed some better riders today, including one staff person (probably an instructor). I could keep up with him, although my carves aren't anywhere near as clean. But interestingly, when I'm following someone, I'm quite happy to go a lot faster than I am otherwise comfortable with. So it's obviously a confidence thing more than anything. My form is good, mostly, although I occasionally lose the toeside form and go back to my old style. It's easy to catch, though, because as soon as I do that, my toeside carve suffers.
On the other side, I don't think I did the heelside stutter even once today. A couple of times it felt like I was close to it, but again I was able to catch myself. And even if I'm not up to my full speed downhill form yet, I'm damned close.
The only place I'm not happy is with my toeside turns in mogully conditions. I flubbed the turn twice today in a mogul field, and the second time I almost did a swan dive. Ungood. Unfortunately there isn't a good, consistent mogul field for me to work with yet (the stuff I was trying today barely qualifies as a field), so I'm going to have to wait for more snow on that one. However, given how well I'm doing on the other stuff, I have high hopes.
I'm also making progress on penguin walk, but still not practicing ollies nearly enough.
Tomorrow, I'm going up with the Blur with the Cleavers. Should be a blast!