Skiing Backwards

[shortydude]

I've always been envious watching other people spin around and ski backwards any time they wanted. It's a beautiful thing to watch people do it effortlessly. This weekend I was at a small Wisconsin hill called Devils Head which has very easy green, blue and black runs. I waited till after the afternoon group lessons were over and then went up to the lesson registration desk and asked if they have an instructor that would be willing to teach an old geezer how to ski backwards. The guy gets this really funny look on his face and said they've never done that before. I replied that if they have someone willing to try that I'd do a lesson. So the guy goes into the instructors breakroom and comes back out a few minutes later saying they can do that. So we did it. By the end of the 90minute lesson he had me going down several blue runs spinning backwards-forwards-backwards. I'm not sure who was having more fun, me or the instructor.

I was on Sherpas. But, it still worked out fine on longer boards. My new superpower skill makes me feel like a kid with a new toy.

[Ukuvox]

Nice! Way to inspire the rest of us "geezers"!

[Deddly]

Cool! Do you have any tips to share?

[shortydude]

Tips? I've only worked on it for 2 days now. I'm not qualified to give other people tips. However, I can share what started working for me. It ain't pretty but it seemed to work.

To get into it, I was doing more of a J turn followed by a quick rotation to backwards. The first part is a sharp turn greater than 90 degrees then finish the 180 degree turn with feet and hip rotation. He warned against using your upper body for the in/out rotation momentum due to likelihood of over rotating.

Just like beginning skiing forward, he had me skiing backwards in a pizza wedge & using both inside edges to control speed.

I found that my backwards pizza stance had to be wider than my forward stance to keep my tails from crossing.

It was easier with a little bit of speed. When I had a hard time gaining speed I had to not only flatten the skis but also lean backwards and put pressure on the back of my boots to put pressure on the leading tips. Of course going into french fries instead of pizza will help gain speed too.

From the backwards wedge to turn left, I would put more pressure on the right inside edge and flatten the left ski. As the outside ski carves around, that's a good time to peak over that outside shoulder.

I never could see the whole width of the run at one time. I could only see half of the run (at most). So each turn right and left I was seeing just parts at a time. So that's a good reason to keep making a lot of turns.

Turning to the right is just the opposite. Pressure the left ski inside edge and flatten the right ski.

Getting out of it was a bit harder for me than getting into it. I had to have a little bit of momentum to carry me through the transition maneuver at the end of the J hook portion. I seemed to keep getting stuck at the 90 degree point. Returning to forward skiing also required an additional element. Right at the final pivot I had to pick up the uphill ski and set it down closer to the downhill ski, then just ski off forward.

I also found out something about myself. I had a much harder time turning one way than the other. Evidently things are exaggerated when skiing backwards. The instructor said I tend to favor my left leg, which made turning left difficult and I need to actively concentrate more on using my right leg than my left. That finally made a lot of sense to me, I have a rod & screws in my right leg. It's not noticeable skiing forward. But, it makes a huge difference backwards.

It may have been the best ski lesson I've ever had. Plus, it's probably good to capture my How-To thoughts here in this thread. I hope this all makes sense and gives a little visual on a very basic way to ski backwards. I plan on practicing it every time I go skiing so I can eventually do more paralleling than wedging.

[Deddly]

Thanks a lot, shortydude! I found that helpful. I've been doing just a little skiing backwards and all I've picked up so far online is to have one foot forward of the other, but that movement tends to spin me around back to forwards. Useful, but not what I intended to do... I'll try deliberately doing a little reverse pizza/snow plough next time I head up the slope, thanks for sharing the lesson

[shortydude]

I asked the instructor about that one foot forward thing. He said don't worry about it, focus on edge pressures in turns and that one foot will naturally track slightly ahead of the other. But, that's not the right thing to focus on.