Today turned out to be a "boots" special. Gulsum and Taha had been sold poor quality boots some time ago and it was becoming clear that the boots were inhibiting progress. Gulsum's boots turned out to be at least two sizes too big and at flex din 50 Taha's were the softest "beginner's" boots I've ever heard off. Cagatay's boots were also not supportive and in addition they were soaking wet inside when I pulled them apart to look at them. All three had been finding it almost impossible to avoid leaning back against the boots when skiing and after changing the boots all three were able to stand correctly. Cagatay showed the biggest skiing improvement immediately on changing the boots. Taha bought the Atomic B120 (flex din 120) especially produced for a wide foot but maintaining high performance.
The flag of Savoie
Skiing past the Folie Douce we skied to the rhythm of the techno rave party music. They use specially insulated speakers to generate earthquake proportion bass sounds outdoors. A bottle of champagne there costs 4500€ and apparently they have no shortage of sales.
Gulsum's First Red
Today's first ski was for Gulsum. We took the Les Lanches chairlift which meant that she would be skiing a very long red run which starts at the bottom of the Grande Motte glacier. I deliberately didn't tell her so that she would be completely unaware of what she was about to ski. In the event, with her new boots and new stance she skied it with no difficulty - her first ever red run. It was after this that we went in out of the extreme cold to warm up with a hot chocolate that I found out the problems with the boots of Taha and Cagatay. To resolve Cagatay's problem it required only a short detour to the local rental shop - but for Taha an expedition to Val d'Isère had to be mounted.
La Face
Les Santons blue run down to Val was closed for avalanche risk so while Gulsum took the Olympic cable car the rest of us skied down La Face de Bellevarde. Due to the cold we kept up a good pace, didn't stop once on the way down and both boys were right behind me at the end.
Carving
Returing from Val to Tignes with Taha's new boots there wasn't a lot of time to work on skiing. With the boys able to ski faster now we did a little bit of work on carving - also for Taha's benefit. Cagatay improved a lot with his new stance and Mete was still doing well - but the short lesson wasn't quite enough for Taha to get it - the adductor muscles were not being used properly in his case and carving was just not happening. there was not enough time to sort it out today. I explained that when learning to carve we place the skis on two edges - the two right or the two left edges - then if it's the two right edges we move the centre of mass to the right over the "inside ski". This is "static" and only when the skis pick up speed and start to turn the skier will the pressure move over to the "outside" ski through dynamics. The static stance and placement of the Centre of Mass is what gets everything into the correct place ready for when the dynamics kick in. Once there is speed the edges can be changed to change direction and despite moving the centre of mass inwards the pressure will remain on the outside ski. The skis must "rail" and not go sideways.
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