Today was Maxwell’s introduction to skiing by himself. The main goal is to get him comfortable moving around with the skis attached to his feet and to familiarise him with the accelerations of sliding. It takes the body a while to adapt to such things – for adults as well as very small children - so lots of patience and persistence are required. The more independent (unassisted) the skier is allowed to be the faster progress is made. Some actual skiing aspects are better to be assisted (to avoid defensive snowploughing for example) but the key is for the young skier to support his own weight and feel everything through the feet.
Maxwell adapted quite quickly to moving around first of all with only one ski and then with two. He even tried to copy me skating – skis diverging and falling forwards – but we didn’t spend too much time on this. His first pair of skis broke (binding fell off) and that caused his first fall. The replacement skis were not running well in the sticky snow (warm air but fresh falling snow) with ice forming on the skis at one point. Maxwell gradually became aware that he had to point his skis in the direction he was going and soon wanted to show off to his mum and dad that he could slide to them on his own. It all of course ended in tears when he fell – but they were baby tears due to being tired. Refreshments in the little café didn’t do the trick either so it was session over for today – but a lot of progress was made.
I only managed to capture a very short video clip of Maxwell exploring this new universe – most of the time I was focused on assisting him and so couldn’t use the camera.
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