Interesting Ski Forum Thread

Hello mogul skiers!

Hope you’ve all had a good mogul skiing season. And hope to hear from those of you who’re headed west this summer for glacier bumps!

You may be interested in the discussion that’s been unfolding on the www.epicski.com forum. The forum is home to many instructors, and they’ve been discussing mogul skiing and my book under two threads: “Dan DiPiro’s Mogul Book” (under the “skiing technique” section) and another thread called “PMTS and Moguls.” It’s been interesting to watch these instructors digest the ideas in the book, and pleasing to see that so many instructors like it, despite its title!

One instructor on that site asked me if my title was “based from research and truth… Or was it designed to [just] capture the buying audience?” Thought my response to him might interest you. Here’s how I responded:

“Had the book not been based on my actual, extensive experiences with, and heartfelt beliefs about, mainstream mogul-skiing instruction, I would not have been motivated enough to do the project and see it through to publication. It was a ton of work and I could not have found motivation enough had the project been based on boloney. The writing wouldn’t have held together, either. A good book can’t be held together by bogus ideas or marketing fluff. Its ideas have to be real, have to ring true.

As for my “research”…. Some years after my retirement from competition, I returned to my home mountain – Cannon Mountain in Franconia, NH – and joined the ski school. I taught full-time for two years, and part-time for three. Throughout all of these years, I attended our ski school clinics avidly. I spied and eavesdropped on my colleague’s mogul lessons, and on PSIA exams and clinics given in the moguls. I read PSIA mogul-related articles. I also watched my colleagues (~120 of them) ski the moguls, and listened to them talk about mogul skiing. (By the way, for the mogul-skiing instruction I did during these years, SKI Magazine recognized me as a Top-100 instructor for bumps.)

I get my mogul skiing knowledge from years of competition. I competed in two freestyle national championships, qualified for a third (injured, didn’t ski), and qualified for NorAm competition, too. At one point, I was ranked 21st for moguls in the U.S. These days, I keep my hand in the competitive realm by coaching young mogul skiers at Waterville Valley Ski Area in northern NH.

Since becoming a coach at Waterville, I’ve been able to watch the Waterville instructors ski the moguls, and eavesdrop on their in-house mogul clinics and mogul lessons. I even get to watch the children I coach ski through the moguls right next to Waterville instructors. An interesting comparison.

Over the years, I’ve also skied all over the northeast and made many trips to Colorado and California ski areas, so I’ve observed mogul lessons, now and again, at other areas, too. Based on all of these experiences, I believe that…

• Most instructors don’t ski the moguls with a very high degree of comfort, primarily because they aren’t equipped with the right training to do so.
• Most instructors don’t ski the fall line in moguls and don’t teach their students to do so, even though fall-line mogul skiing is attainable for the fit, advanced skier. In bumps, most instructors ski and teach a round, meandering line more reminiscent of groomed-trail carving than of the skiing done by experienced mogul skiers.
• Most instructors have a far greater understanding of alpine racing techniques than of mogul skiing techniques.
• Most instructors cannot explain the technical advantages of skiing with one’s feet together in the moguls.
• Most instructors cannot explain why a heavily steered turn can actually be efficient in the moguls.
• Most instructors tend to think of heavy steering as a necessary compromise or necessary sloppiness, when it can, sometimes, in fact, be good mogul skiing.
• Most instructors have never heard of controlling speed with absorption and extension.
• Most instructors who teach mogul skiing spend far too much time talking about the turn and not nearly enough time talking about absorption and extension.
• Most instructors do not stand tall enough in the moguls to maximize performance and ease.
• Most instructors are completely unaware of the equipment tweaks that can make mogul skiing easier and more enjoyable.

I have other heartfelt beliefs about the way the instructing establishment views and treats mogul skiing, but these ideas, above, are the ones most central to my book.

I’m receiving lots of positive responses to the book, and believe it is striking a chord with the downhill skiing masses. I take this as an indication that my ideas are at least somewhat well grounded in fact… in what’s really, actually going on out there in the mainstream instructing world.

Happy bump skiing to you, and many, many thanks for buying and liking the book!

-Dan DiPiro”

Everything the Instructors Never Told You about Mogul Skiing
A how-to book by Dan DiPiro
www.LearnMoguls.com