Dec 18, 2023
The other day I had the opportunity to teach a friend how to Telemark ski for the first time. I absolutely love sharing the turn with my friends but it’s been awhile since I’ve gone out with someone that has never made drop-knee turns before and starting from scratch. It reminded me of of things that I wanted to share with you as we head into this holiday season.
IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN SEEING ME DO A TELEMARK TECHNIQUE BREAKDOWN of this you can become a Blue or Black-Level Member of my YouTube channel and listen to the commentary as we watch me breakdown skiing with my friend.
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So I’m calling this podcast GIVING THE GIFT OF TELEMARK | Your Guide To Sharing The Turn
And I put together a pretty simple list of some of key points that I remembered while I was sharing Telemark with my friend along with some new things I learned from this particular experience.
- Assess the level of your friend or family member before you hit the hill
- Make sure they have gear that is going to help them enjoy the experience. Match it correctly to the person if possible.
- The very first run let them warm up with some P-turns to understand the skis, what it feels like to have a free heel, and what the boots feel like.
- Start on some flat snow to do a couple of things: Teach them how to step-in and fasten their bindings properly. Then show them the basic shape of the Telemark stance. Then have them practice doing one Telemark stance to another — keeping in mind the distance of the feet apart and heel to toe.
- Identify some very beginner terrain - slopes that are wide open and have less people on them.
- No Poles - ditch them or have them or hold them out like a tray in front of them on the down hill side of the slope
- Have them traverse the slope holding the shape of a Telemark stance. Learn balance, foot distance, etc. STOP ONCE YOU GET TO THE OTHER SIDE OF THE SLOPE or DETERMINED STOPPING POINT.
- Once they have a stable stance — move from stopping at the end of the traverse and have them come into a snow plow position and use that as the transition to turn their skis to go the other direction. ONCE THEY COME ACROSS THE FALL LINE have them drop into a Telemark stance again and continue to traverse to the other side.
- If they can get the hang of the snow plow transition — have them try coming fully parallel at the end of the traverse and then using a parallel turn instead to make the transition.
- Slowly work out the parallel at the end of the traverse moving towards a Telemark stance into a Telemark stance
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