Dan DiPiro's Mogul-Skiing Blog

Check Out the New Mogul Skiing Forum

2007-03-17T10:22:00.000-04:00

There’s a new mogul skiing discussion forum online and it’s quickly becoming a home to a bunch of bumpers. If you like talking technique, equipment, terrain and everything else to do with mogul skiing, check out http://forums.mogulskiing.net/index.php.

I’ve also heard a rumor that a new mogul skiing website will be up and running in the months ahead at www.mogulskiing.net -- a companion site to the new forum. So keep your eyes open for that, too.

Hope everyone’s enjoying the spring bumps!

-Dan

Thank You, Readers

2007-02-03T11:16:00.000-05:00

As many of you already know, I self-published my book, Everything the Instructors Never Told You about Mogul Skiing. And as many of you can probably guess, I don’t have a huge marketing budget. But word about the book is getting around the slopes, and “Everything” is ranked #3 today among ski books on Amazon.com. In other words: the book is whuppin’ the tails of literally hundreds of traditionally published, big-budget ski books on Amazon!

It’s also selling well through www.bn.com, www.LearnMoguls.com, other web bookstores, and a number of brick-and-mortar, ski-country bookstores. For this, I thank those of you who are recommending the book to friends and thereby providing me with my most valuable book marketing.

A special thanks to the people who’ve taken the time to submit reader reviews on Amazon.com: K. Ibarra of Seattle; Steven Whitmore; John Metzig of Southern California; James Shohet of Chicago; Albert Reiner of Steamboat Springs, Colorado; “Bill” of Washington DC; “Ski Bum Wannabe” of New Hampshire; and G Blasko of Connecticut.

There’s a lot of fun to be had in the moguls. And when you use the right techniques, moguls aren’t half as hard as most skiers think they are. For years, I’ve been frustrated by the instructing establishment’s ignorance of real mogul technique. This is what motivated me to write the book. And now you, my readers, are helping me get the word out, helping me bring mogul skiing to the masses. Again…

THANK YOU.

Rippin’ Bumps in Southern NH?

2006-09-26T19:32:00.000-04:00

Could it be that southern New Hampshire’s little Pats Peak, with just 710 feet of vertical, will have rippin’ bumps this season? Here's some text from a recent Pats Peak news release:

“This year Pats Peak is solidifying its grip on the best steep/bump skiing in Southern New Hampshire. The Hurricane trail will be home to the only fully automatic SMI fan guns in all of New England. Snowmaking pipelines will charge automatically and guns will turn on and off as temps permit. Blizzards will be produced almost every night to keep the best bump run in Southern New Hampshire in great shape all season long…. And to showcase Pats Peak’s obsession with snowmaking, they are also adding two high capacity water pumps to force the snow out even faster…. With the addition of night lighting on the Hurricane trail, it will be open day and night….”

So, why do I care about this tiny area that I've never skied? Two reasons. Firstly, this summer, my wife, my dog and I moved from the White Mountains of northern NH to the Concord area, and I’m now living just 13 miles from Pats Peak. For months, I‘ve been thinking that the nearest decent bump skiing would be 45 minutes or more away. After I read this press release this past weekend, Otto the rottweiler and I drove out to Henniker and hiked up Pats Peak to see this Hurricane trail for ourselves. It’s tough to judge steepness in the summer, isn’t it? But the trail did look relatively steep. I don’t know… maybe as steep as Cannon’s Rocket trail? Maybe as steep as Zoomer? Or Loon's Flume? Steeper than Waterville's Tyler, I think, but no True Grit. It's tough to say. Otto thought it looked like it could hold a good B-level course, anyway. I’ve never skied bumps at night, but a little nighttime mogul skiing could be just the mid-week stress reliever I need down here in the south. And this trail could be just what I need on those Saturday’s and Sunday’s when I don’t feel like making the long drive to the bigger mountains.

And the second reason I care? Because I love to hear (as I know so many of you do) about mountain managers who embrace mogul skiing and try to provide terrain for us bumpers.

Check the place out for yourself at www.patspeak.com.

Bump Skier Fitness: Get Light for the Moguls

2006-07-22T06:56:00.000-04:00

Chances are, the single best thing you can do for your mogul skiing this summer, fitness-wise, is to lose extra weight, to get light for the moguls.

A lot of skiers spend a lot of time thinking and talking about skiing-specific exercises, the latest conditioning techniques of world-class skiers, the newest gym gadgets or machines that are supposed to condition skiing muscles, and so forth. For skiers who are already in world-class shape, these things might provide a conditioning edge. For most recreational skiers, though, this stuff is just a silly distraction.

The average recreational skier carries extra weight. (I know I’ve carried extra pounds, at various times!) How many pounds could you stand to lose this summer? Ten? Twenty? Thirty?

Think about how this extra weight affects your skiing. If you said “ten pounds,” pick up a ten pound dumbbell and imagine skiing around all day with that much weight in a backpack. Are you 20 pounds overweight? Imagine carrying around two dumbbells then. It's a lot of weight to carry, isn't it?

Now imagine carrying, supporting, that much extra weight, with your legs, with your knees, through every mogul absorption, for a full day of skiing. The results? Greater fatigue; more wear on your knees, hips and back; slower reaction times; and a greater chance of injury.

If you’re carrying extra weight, don’t waste time worrying about World Cup workouts or new gym toys. Set a simple, straightforward conditioning goal for yourself this summer: lose the extra pounds, however you can do it. Get light for the bumps! You’ll ski better, and your body will thank you this winter with fewer aches and pains at the end of each ski day.

Hope you bumpers are all having a great summer!

Interesting Ski Forum Thread

2006-04-29T07:23:00.000-04:00

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

Baffled by Bumps

2006-03-13T06:40:00.000-05:00

Has ski history kept you from mastering moguls?

[Re-posted from October '05]
You’re a fit expert skier, but you’re yet to master the bumps. Over and over, you’ve watched those mogul skiers who glide so fluidly, so effortlessly through the bumps. But when you jump into the zipper line, it spits you out after just a few turns. So, what is it about mogul skiing? It can’t be all that difficult, can it?

Actually, mogul skiing is not so much difficult as it different. That is, different from groomed-trail skiing. The bumps require a special set of techniques that are not widely known outside of competitive mogul-skiing circles. And why are mogul techniques not widely known among members of the skiing mainstream? History, my friend. Ski history.

With your mogul floundering, you’re paying for, among other things, a mistake made more than 30 years ago by the now revered American racing coach and ski-instruction author Warren Witherell. In 1972, Witherell’s book, How the Racers Ski, gave the downhill skiing masses their first comprehensive, understandable explanation of modern racing technique: in particular, the carved turn. The book influenced skiers everywhere. Its message permeated ski coaching and instruction, and helped to improve the skills of countless racers, instructors and recreational skiers. But the book claimed to be more than it was. It claimed to offer no less than “the fundamentals common to all great skiers.” In fact, it offered only the fundamentals common to all great groomed-trail skiers.

Venture away from the smooth, groomed snow, to the bumpy side of the mountain, and the value of racing technique suddenly disappears. Real carving isn’t even physically possible in a tight mogul fall line. The purely carved turn isn’t fast enough for the bumps. It’s also too wide for the bumps, and it requires more ski-to-snow contact than the bumps afford. Also, the racer’s crouched posture and relatively wide stance don’t allow for the rhythmic and coordinated absorption and extension movements necessary in the bumps. In other words, in the moguls, racing technique will get you into trouble. Yes, I know, a few of the more athletic racers out there can ski soft, forgiving moguls with a bit of speed. But have you seen many racers who can ski big, irregular, icy bumps with quickness, smoothness and efficiency, while staying in the fall line all the way down a steep hill? A good mogul skier can do it all day long.

When Witherell described alpine-racing techniques as “the fundamentals common to all great skiers,” nearly everyone believed him. Race coaches believed him. The instructing establishment believed him. Recreational experts believed him. And nearly everyone still believes him to this day. Most skiers, including many instructors, believe that carving and all of the techniques that surround carving are the only legitimate downhill skiing techniques there are. Listen to the advice and instruction that’s commonly passed around by the expert masses these days and you’d think that mogul techniques don’t even exist! Instructors and other groomed-trail experts are constantly suggesting that the narrow, legs-together stance is outdated and incorrect, and that a carved turn is, in all circumstances, superior to a more heavily steered turn.

Although most ski schools do offer mogul skiing lessons, you’d be hard pressed to find, at a traditional ski school, an instructor who knows why the narrow, legs-together stance is technically advantageous in the bumps, or why heavy steering can actually be an efficient means of turning in the bumps. You’d be hard pressed to find an instructor who can explain the crucial importance of absorption and extension in the bumps, or who can ski the zipper line with the speed, smoothness, efficiency and control of a real bump skier. Just as difficult would be finding an instructor who doesn’t traffic in one or more of the common mogul-skiing myths (e.g. fall-line bump skiing is an "extreme" sport meant for daredevils only; mogul skiers aren’t good technical skiers; of the several different ways there are to ski the bumps, none is any better than any other; et cetera).

Today’s mogul myths are no different from other myths that have cropped up throughout ski history only to be eventually disproved and disregarded. The Norwegians used to say that skiing steep, alpine slopes was impossible. After alpine techniques were successfully developed, the common myth said that alpine skiing wasn’t safe enough for the recreating masses. (Daredevils only, they said. Sound familiar?) Hannes Schneider then disabused his contemporaries of this ski myth by developing a safe way to teach nearly anyone to ski downhill. Likewise, today’s mogul myths will pass and the expert-skiing masses will learn to ski bumps, once people gain access to real mogul technique.

At heart, perhaps, we North Americans are still just sappy colonials, endlessly impressed by things European. Alpine racing is, after all, alpine; it comes from the Alps, from Europe, and is done best by Europeans. Yes, yes, I know; every 20 or so years, a Mahre or Street or Miller comes along to produce a blip on the world’s alpine-racing radar. But, let’s face it; alpine racing has been pretty much dominated by Europeans, and we colonials have always been endlessly impressed. “Oh, my!” our skiing mainstream said to itself back in 1972, “Mr. Witherell says the alpine racers all carve their turns. We must all do as the great alpine racers do! You’re no good if you don’t carve like the great alpinists!” And our skiing mainstream has since all but ignored the downhill-skiing techniques that we colonials have pioneered: mogul techniques.

Over the last 20 or so years, America’s kneeling at the racing-technique altar has become an exceptional irony. While the U.S. has produced just a few great alpine racers over the years, we’ve produced many great mogul skiers and we pretty much dominate World Cup mogul skiing today. To put it another way: mogul skiing is the sort of downhill skiing that American competitors do best and that American competitors often do better than anyone else in the world.

On the World Cup bump circuit, it’s not uncommon for the top ten finishers of a contest to include five or more Americans. America has so many good mogul skiers that it’s also possible for an almost completely different set of five American mogul skiers to finish in the top ten a few weeks later. America has enough great mogul skiers to field two or three viable World Cup teams. The American mogul competitor’s biggest challenge often isn’t competing against skiers from other nations, but, rather, earning a spot on the U.S. team. Yet, the average American skier is unaware of America’s mogul skiing prowess, and unaware of authentic mogul technique.

Moguls crop up everywhere we ski, and everyone wants to know what to do with them. (A recent SKI Magazine poll says 34% of skiers want to improve their bump technique more than any other aspect of their skiing.) But ski history has led our instructors and recreating masses to a narrow definition of skiing excellence, a definition built almost solely on racing technique. And so the average expert stumbles through the bumps, trying to apply racing technique where mogul technique is needed. Perhaps, however, the future will allow our instructors and skiing masses to turn away, for a moment, from How the Racers Ski, and to learn something about how the mogul skiers ski. It would only make for better, more versatile skiers. And then, maybe, your local ski school could teach you to ski that zipper line like the bumpers ski it.

[Buy Dan's book, Everything the Instructors Never Told You about Mogul Skiing, at www.LearnMoguls.com, www.amazon.com, www.bn.com, or ask for it at your local bookstore.]

Attention, instructors: In the bumps, it's no longer all about the turn.

2006-02-07T14:03:00.000-05:00

I was training a few mogul competitors in the bumps the other day, when a group of instructors skied through the course. At one point, these instructors stopped nearby and I was able to hear what the clinician was saying to his group. It didn't take me long to determine that the clinician was falling into the same old mogul instruction trap that has been catching up most instructors for years: he was talking about nothing but the turn, nothing but the left-and-right dimension of skiing.

If traditional instructors are ever going to develop decent mogul skiing and mogul instruction skills, they're going to have to make a major change in the way they think about skiing.

On groomed terrain, yes, the turn is nearly all important, nearly all that matters, nearly your only source of control. In the mogul field, however, the turn is only about half of what matters. I'd even argue that it's less than half of what matters. In the mogul field, absorption and extension -- the up-and-down leg movements that allow your skis to ride smoothly along the bumpy contours of the snow -- are just as important, and perhaps even more important, than the turn.

Because instructors pay a lot of attention to the ways in which alpine racers ski, and almost no attention to the ways in which mogul skiers ski, the mogul skier's absorption and extension movements, which don't exist to any appreciable degree on groomed terrain, are practically unknown to the instructing establishment. And this is why most instructors cannot ski the bumps well or teach you to ski the bumps well. Their skiing model, their conception of the sport, precludes the existence of the very skills, the very movements, that make mogul skiing possible.

West Coast Ski Columnist Recommends Dan's Mogul Book

2006-01-31T15:31:00.000-05:00

Los Angeles-based ski writer and North American Snowsports Journalist Association (NASJA) Vice President Bob Cox recommended my mogul skiing book to his readers this week. To check out Bob's column, visit: http://www.dailybreeze.com/sports/articles/2249296.html

New to This Mogul Skiing Blog?

2006-01-31T15:26:00.000-05:00

If you're new to this blog, be sure to explore our archives section, which holds some of our most interesting articles and comments. (Scroll down, right column.)

Welcome.

Eastern EQS Competition: 2006 Preston Cup Highlights

2006-01-09T11:11:00.000-05:00

We had two great days of mogul and big air competition at Waterville Valley on the 7th and 8th. The Preston Cup -- named, of course, after our program director and freestyle forefather Nick Preston -- is Waterville's annual EQS event (for 9 to 14 year olds). Here are some highlights:

More than 100 young athletes participated.
Mountain managers, groomers, club coaches and parent-volunteers created a beautiful mogul course and a great air site for the event.
An eleven-year-old, female Waterville Valley athlete was the high-scoring Preston Cup mogul skier. With her 21.51 point run (360 / spread), she beat every other skier present (boys and girls). That same athlete did well in the big air contest on Sunday and captured the overall win.
Her older brother, another Waterville Valley athlete, won the overall on the boys side.

FirstTracks Book Review: "A concise and well written handbook."

2006-01-03T08:20:00.000-05:00

FirstTracksOnline.com published a full-length review of my mogul-skiing book yesterday. FirstTracks' reviewer Jim Garson called Everything the Instructors Never Told You about Mogul Skiing "a concise and well written handbook" and "the type of handbook I would expect PSIA to embrace and offer to its membership as a means of improving overall group mogul skiing skills." Thank you, Jim and FirstTracks, for embracing my book!

To read the review, visit: http://www.firsttracksonline.com/news/stories/113623436497417.shtm

-dd

New Mogul Article, Book Reviews, Et Cetera

2005-12-20T15:33:00.000-05:00

Mogul miscellany:

Heart of NH Magazine has published a 1,000-word mogul skiing article of mine on line. This same article will run in the winter, print issue of the magazine, due out in February. To jump to the article, go to: http://www.heartofnh.com/outdoors/skiing/BumpSkiing/Moguls101.html

My mogul book has received two official reviews now, both positive. Mitch Kaplan, Vice President of the North American Snowsports Journalists Association, called the book " the most apt...description of mogul skiing I've read to date." In its holiday gift guide, FirstTracksOnline.com said the book was "concise and well-written" and "well worth the $10.80 price tag."

Guess I should now note that the $10.80 introductory price on my book retail page (www.LearnMoguls.com) has been raised a bit to $11.25. That's still affordable, though!

May the last days of the year find you all in soft bumps with lines to your liking!

-Dan

Mogul Tips in New Hampshire Magazine

2005-11-30T15:34:00.000-05:00

The December issue of New Hampshire Magazine includes a short, how-to mogul article of mine. Although the article's introduction is slightly inaccurate (I don't compete "all over the world"), skiers should find the mogul-skiing advice of some use.

If you're interested, look for the piece in the magazine's "UpFront" section.

-dd

Mogul Tip In SKI Magazine

2005-10-31T13:39:00.000-05:00

FYI, the November, '05 issue of SKI Magazine includes one of my mogul skiing tips. The editors rearranged my wording a bit, but the tip remains pretty much intact. If you're interested, you can find it at the top of page 132.

Mogul Skiing News

2005-10-31T08:53:00.000-05:00

New Warren Miller Flick Features Bumper Bloom

Warren Miller’s latest ski film, Higher Ground, includes the skiing and co-narration of World Cup mogul champion, Olympic hopeful, former UC-Boulder football star, NFL-aspirant and sometimes underwear model Jeremy Bloom. Higher Ground documents Bloom’s first heli-skiing experience and beautifully demonstrates the all-mountain ability of good mogul skiers. (Good bump skiers are good skiers. Period.)

Higher Ground’s primary tour schedule began, in various locations around the country, on October 19th and will continue into December. From November 2nd to December 3rd, Higher Ground will tour east coast locations including: Albany, Binghamton, Boston, Burlington, Hartford, Lebanon, Pittsfield, Portland, Providence, Somerville and Stamford. Although most of the mid-west tour stops have already happened, the film will return to the mid-west for one more stop in Royal Oak on December 9th and 10th.

For a complete tour schedule, visit www.warrenmiller.com.

Bump Skiing on Halloween Weekend
New Hampshire’s Wildcat Ski Area was the third U.S. area to open this season. Colorado’s Loveland and A-Basin were first and second. A freak storm dumped four feet of snow on Wildcat, and eastern skiers were choosing lines through soft, natural-snow bumps on October 28^th.

As grooming was minimal for Wildcat’s opening weekend, bumps of various sizes were nearly everywhere on the area’s 20+ open trails (translation: four or so long, distinct routes down from the top of the Tomcat Triple lift). There were a few good, rhythmic lines to be found, and the all-natural snow held up well, even under Sunday’s sunshine and 50-plus-degree temperatures. It was possible to ski all day and not hit a rock!

To see Wildcat photos, visit www.skiwildcat.com.

World Cup and National-Championship Bumpers to Visit the East
This season, mogul skiing fans located in the east will have two great opportunities to watch live, world-class mogul competition. This year’s World Cup Lake Placid meet will take place on January 20 – 22, and the U.S. Freestyle Championships will be held at Killington, March 21 – 26. (Visit www.ussa.org for scheduling details.)

If you’ve never stood beside a modern mogul course and watched the likes of Travis Meyer, Travis Cabral, Jeremy Bloom, Nate Roberts or Janne Lahtela fly by at 30 miles an hour, you need to do it this season. While World-Cup and national-class bump skiing is impressive on television, you will be blown away when you see it in person.

New Mogul Skiing Book Now Available Everywhere
If your local bookstore doesn’t have my new book in stock, ask the clerk to order a few copies: one for you, and the rest for the shelves. Everything the Instructors Never Told You About Mogul Skiing is also available on-line at www.LearnMoguls.com, www.Amazon.com, and everywhere new books are sold.

Baffled by Bumps

2005-10-15T08:00:00.000-04:00

Has ski history kept you from mastering moguls?

You’re a fit expert skier, but you’re yet to master the bumps. Over and over, you’ve watched those mogul skiers who glide so fluidly, so effortlessly through the bumps. But when you jump into the zipper line, it spits you out after just a few turns. So, what is it about mogul skiing? It can’t be all that difficult, can it?

Although most ski schools do offer mogul skiing lessons, you’d be hard pressed to find, at a traditional ski school, an instructor who knows why the narrow, legs-together stance is technically advantageous in the bumps, or why heavy steering is actually the most efficient means of turning in the bumps. You’d be hard pressed to find an instructor who can explain the crucial importance of absorption and extension in the bumps, or who can ski the zipper line with the speed, smoothness, efficiency and control of a real bump skier. Just as difficult would be finding an instructor who doesn’t traffic in one or more of the common mogul-skiing myths (e.g. fall-line bump skiing is for daredevils only; mogul skiers aren’t good technical skiers; of the several different ways there are to ski the bumps, none is any better than any other; et cetera).

Moguls crop up everywhere we ski, and everyone wants to know what to do with them. But ski history has led our instructors and recreating masses to a narrow definition of skiing excellence, a definition built almost solely on racing technique. And so the average expert stumbles through the bumps, trying to apply racing technique where mogul technique is needed. Perhaps, however, the future will allow our instructors and skiing masses to turn away, for a moment, from How the Racers Ski, and to learn something about how the mogul skiers ski. It would only make for better, more versatile skiers. And then, maybe, your local ski school could teach you to ski that zipper line like the bumpers ski it.

-dd

New Mogul Skiing Book Now Available

2005-09-12T10:37:00.000-04:00

Real mogul instruction for the expert-skiing masses

Want to ski like the mogul skiers? Then buy a copy of Everything the Instructors Never Told You About Mogul Skiing.

A first-of-its-kind book, Everything will give fit, expert skiers the ability to ski bumps with the smoothness, efficiency and control of a competitive mogul skier. Accomplished bump skiers and competitors will find the book a useful tune-up guide. And all downhill skiers should find it an original, interesting read.

While the instructing establishment has done much for our sport and industry, that establishment struggles to teach an effective mogul lesson. The problem is that the current instruction model is built almost exclusively on racing and racing-derived techniques, and doesn’t allow for the existence of any other body of techniques, such as the techniques used by skilled mogul skiers.

Everything reveals the special techniques that mogul competitors use to negotiate big bumps and deep troughs on steep slopes. It explains, among other things, how bump skiers maintain balance by using an exceptionally tall “home posture,” how they control speed by actively absorbing bumps and extending their legs into troughs, and how they use special line-choice methods to chart straight courses through difficult, irregular moguls.

The traditional ski school does not teach these techniques, yet they are the techniques that maximize smoothness, control and efficiency in the bumps. These techniques work well in big and small bumps, on steep and gently sloped trails, and at fast and slow speeds.

Buy a copy of Everything the Instructors Never Told You About Mogul Skiing, and start getting ready for the best bump-skiing season of your life.

Buy on line at www.LearnMoguls.com

Buy over the phone through the toll-free book order number: (888) 280-7715

Or you can order a copy through nearly any book retailer.

Three Mogul Myths

2005-08-12T12:45:00.000-04:00

Because mogul skiing is not well understood by the general skiing masses, it’s surrounded by myths. Here’s my first blog attempt to debunk three of these myths. If you think of mogul myths I’ve missed, be sure to leave a comment and explain.

Mogul Myth 1:
Mogul skiers are naturally good athletes with fast feet and no fear, but they aren’t good technical skiers.

Myth 1 Debunked:

Good mogul skiers are every bit as technically proficient as good alpine racers and instructors. Mogul skiers don’t lack technique. They use mogul technique, which is different from racing technique.
Good mogul skiers are nearly always good all-mountain skiers who know how to ski powder, trees and steeps, and how to carve a turn on groomed terrain.
As for fear: Skiers aren't good in the moguls because they lack fear. They lack fear (or their fear isn't as easily triggered) because they're good in the moguls.

Mogul Myth 2:
Mogul skiing is dangerous and especially bad for your knees.

Myth 2 Debunked:

When it’s done with the right technique, mogul skiing is not half as dangerous as most skiers believe. I’ve recently heard of a sports medicine specialist who says she sees more ACL tears in alpine racers than in mogul skiers. This might be due to a stabilizing lateral strength that mogul skiers develop in their knees, a strength that might be less well developed in the knees of alpine racers.
Good absorption and extension technique can make a mogul run feel smoother (less impact, less injury) than a jog on a hard road.
As compared to groomed, high-speed thoroughfares, mogul trails probably see fewer person-to-person collisions.
High-speed collisions with trees seem to be rare among mogul skiers, and more common among groomed-trail speedsters.

Mogul Myth 3:
There’s no single correct way to ski moguls; there are lots of different ways.

Myth 3 Debunked:
So long as you don’t crash into me, I don’t care if you ski moguls backwards on cafeteria trays. If, however, you want to ski moguls with maximum smoothness, fluidity, efficiency, control, comfort and confidence, and with minimum punishment to your body, there is in fact a single correct way to do this, and it is the way that mogul competitors ski. Over many years, competitive bump skiing has identified and refined the correct techniques for the bumps. Examine the skills of skiers who argue otherwise and you'll inevitably find that these skiers are unfamiliar with, or unable to execute, these bump techniques.

-dd

A Preview of the New Book

2005-06-29T12:41:00.000-04:00

To those of you who've expressed interest in my new mogul-skiing book: thank you! The following blog post is the introduction to Everything the Instructors Never Told You About Mogul Skiing. As always, I welcome your comments.

INTRODUCTION
Why are so many fit, expert skiers baffled by the moguls? And why is useful mogul-skiing advice so hard to find?

Most skiers don’t realize that mogul skiing requires a special set of techniques that have nothing to do with groomed-trail skiing. Most skiers try to simply carry their groomed-trail techniques into the moguls. With no knowledge of mogul techniques, these skiers are bound to struggle in the bumps.

Outside of competitive mogul-skiing circles (competitors, former competitors, coaches, judges, devotees, etc.) mogul techniques remain largely unknown and unaddressed. Most ski instructors teach only groomed-trail techniques (techniques derived from alpine racing) and aren’t even familiar with the special techniques used by mogul skiers. Yes, most ski schools do offer mogul-skiing lessons, but many of these lessons are ineffective, because they encourage students to use only groomed-trail techniques in the bumps. From such a lesson, a student can hope to learn no more than a meandering, wide-stance style of skiing that will vastly limit her mogul-skiing potential. Such lessons are more about mogul survival than mogul skiing.

Most of the written mogul-skiing advice one finds in magazines and books, and on Web pages, is just as inadequate as the average on-snow mogul lesson. Most of this advice is produced by ski-instruction writers who, like their on-snow counterparts, don’t know mogul technique. And in the rare instances where good mogul skiers have authored a bit of authentic advice, that advice has been so small a snippet of the whole picture that it has left its readers with only more questions.

With little to no knowledge of mogul technique, many would-be bump enthusiasts have simply thrown up their hands and surrendered. After repeated failures in the bumps, these otherwise capable skiers have told themselves that mogul skiing must lie beyond the reach of the average expert skier, that it must be for daredevils only. And this daredevil myth has grown and pushed the downhill skiing masses even further from the pleasures and thrills of mogul skiing.

Skiing moguls is not about daredevilry. It’s not about taking unreasonable chances. It’s not about closing your eyes, hoping for the best, and just going for it. Skiing moguls well is about physical fitness, practice and proper technique. With the right technique, most fit, expert skiers can become good mogul skiers. And some can become great mogul skiers, and even great competitors.

Under the guidance of freestyle coaches, children on freestyle teams all over the world are learning mogul techniques and skiing moguls well. I’ve successfully taught mogul techniques to skiers as young as 11 and as old as 60. I know, from my own teaching experiences, that most fit, expert skiers who want to ski bumps can learn to ski bumps.

Whether you want to ski gentle moguls with comfort and confidence, turn heads on your local mogul run, or compete in mogul contests, this book will give you the specialized knowledge you need to reach your goal. If you practice the techniques I describe in this book, you’ll gradually gain more and more comfort, confidence and ability in the bumps. You won’t need to take any huge, dangerous leaps. You won’t need to take big chances with your physical safety. You’ll just steadily get better, as you would were you practicing tennis or golf or any other sport. With practice, you’ll be doing things in the moguls that you once thought you could never do.

Some of the techniques I describe in this book are similar to well-known groomed-trail techniques. In some cases, the difference between the mogul technique and the corresponding groomed-trail technique is subtle. But these subtle differences are crucial. All of the techniques I describe in this book are vital to good mogul skiing. They are techniques that have proven their worth in the demanding, put-up-or-shut-up realm
of competitive bump skiing. They are techniques that work well in the bumps, whether you ski bumps at five miles-per-hour or 30 miles-per-hour. They are the techniques you must add to your groomed-trail skills, if you’re going to become a mogul skier or a true all-mountain expert. They are techniques that produce a style of downhill skiing that is appreciably different from the skiing styles of most instructors and racers. And they are techniques of which a surprisingly large number of instructors, ski-instruction writers and racers are remarkably unaware.

-Dan DiPiro
Easton, New Hampshire
Spring, 2005

© 2005 Dan DiPiro. All Rights Reserved.

Something Strange Going On

2005-06-17T08:48:00.000-04:00

I have ski instructor friends who rib me about my technique. Yes, rib me, ridicule me. They do it in a good-natured, joking way, but they tell me that I stand too tall, that my feet are too close together, that I slide my tails, that wedeling went out of fashion in the early seventies. And, while these chiding instructors acknowledge that they can’t keep up with me in the bumps, they seem to respect me only as a sort of risk-taking freak who somehow skis moguls well despite a lack of technique.

Of course, the truth is that I don’t lack technique. I just use technique that’s different from the technique of most instructors. I use mogul-skiing technique. And I’ve used that mogul technique, now and again, to do fairly well in mogul competition. Isn’t it strange that instructors don’t recognize mogul technique that’s been proven in competitive bump skiing? And isn’t it strange that instructors see mogul technique as either improper technique or a lack of technique, even while their own mogul skiing lacks efficiency, smoothness and speed?

This strangeness is due, at least in part, to the instructing establishment’s infatuation with racing-derived technique (carving, arcing). There are a few instructors out there who understand that the bumps (and powder, and trees, and steeps, etc.) require special techniques that have nothing to do with alpine racing. But even these instructors don’t seem to agree upon just what those special, non-racing techniques are. And the average instructor talks about carving and all of the techniques that surround carving as if they’re the only legitimate skiing techniques in existence. But let me dramatize all of this for you.

Let’s say that, while skiing, I come upon a group of instructors on a mogul field, instructors in the midst of a high-level certification exam. And let’s say that I stand and watch the examiner and a few examinees ski the moguls in that meandering, wide-stance style of mogul skiing that is not really mogul skiing at all, but just a form of mogul survival. And let’s say that I then hop into a nearby zipper line and fly by this group of certified professional skiers. Let’s say that I ramp it up to 25 or so miles per hour, hit a big air right next to the group, and then rip the rest of my line, making clean, fast turns all the way down the trail. What do you suppose that examiner would say about my skiing?

Well, knowing what I know about instructors, I can tell you. It’s likely that the examiner would tell his examinees that, despite my athleticism, I don’t exhibit the techniques the examiner hopes to see from his examinees, the techniques that will allow those examinees to pass the mogul-skiing section of their exam. And isn’t this, too, a little strange?

The reality, of course, is that I’ve just out-skied these instructors and their examiner. The reality is that I use techniques of which many mogul competition judges have approved, techniques that allow me to ski even hard and icy bumps with smoothness, efficiency and control. According to the ski instructor, however, I don’t exhibit the correct techniques. Like I said, strange. But let me shift gears here.

The season before last, an instructor association magazine ran a mogul instruction article in which the author claimed that female World Cup bump skiers pivot and slide their skis all the way down the course, while male World Cup bump skiers set their edges firmly at each bump. This just isn’t true. All bump skiers, men and women, make a firm edge set at the bump. Any skier capable of steering his or her skis will make a firm edge set at the bump when those turned skis meet the uphill face of the bump. The firm edge set happens automatically, naturally. You can hardly avoid it. And the women on the World Cup bump tour have been doing it since they were small children. But this instructor-author says that female World Cuppers pivot and slide all the way down the hill. And the magazine editors printed this and distributed it to instructors all across the country.

The main point of the article was that the author had had an epiphany when he realized that racer-like carving is inappropriate in bumps. It’s true: mogul skiers don’t carve like alpine racers. But why is this a huge revelation for instructors? Among mogul skiers, it's fundamental knowledge. Why, for the instructor, is it cutting-edge news to be published in a professional association magazine? Why hasn’t the instructing establishment simply asked us mogul skiers about our technique? We could’ve told them, years ago, that we don’t carve like racers!

Unfortunately, that whole magazine article dwelt on turns, which is typical of the mogul instruction you get from groomed-trail devotees. The average instructor doesn’t understand that, when it comes to bump skiing, the key answers are not to be found in the turn. Yes, to the alpine racer and other groomed-trail devotees, the turn means almost everything. To the mogul skier, however, the turn is only about half of the picture. The other half is the absorption and extension that help the skier to maintain balance and control speed. But let’s move on.

At times, I’ve offered to teach my instructor friends a bit of authentic mogul technique. And how have they responded? A couple of them have been eager to learn. They now ski with me often, and they’ve developed their bump skiing skills. The rest of them have acted as if I were trying to push heroin on them. We’ll be standing on the side of the trail and I’ll ask them to try something and they’ll first look around to make sure none of the ski school’s clinic leaders are nearby. Or one will warn the other, “this might be fun to try, but it’ll hurt your chances of passing your level-two exam.”

Let me get this straight: learning to ski moguls with control, smoothness, efficiency, comfort, confidence and speed will hurt an instructor’s chances of passing an instructor exam? Is it me, or is there something strange going on here?
-dd

The Birth of a Bump Skier's Blog

2005-06-13T14:54:00.000-04:00

Mogul skiers and the downhill skiing masses don't really speak the same ski language. While bump skiers are all talking about absorbing and extending, hitting airs and skiing straight lines, the expert skiing masses are all talking about carving and arcing. Bump skiers and mainstreamers will sometimes even use the same word to mean two different things. Among bump skiers, the word "separation" means you maintain a quiet upper body while your legs pump up and down, absorbing and extending. Among the skiing masses, however, "separation"relates to counter / twisting movements, not absorption movements.

All of which leaves the bump skier, no matter how skilled a skier she or he may be, outside the mainstream discussion of downhill skiing. That's the reason I've started this mogul skiing blog: to give myself and other bump skiers, as well as aspiring bump skiers, a place to talk our talk and read about our sport.

I'll also use this blog to let you know where and when you can get ahold of my other mogul-skiing writing. For example, this summer, my new how-to mogul-skiing book will be released (NOW AVAILABLE AT www.learnmoguls.com / 1-888-280-7715 / AND AT BOOK STORES EVERYWHERE). And I'll let you know when and where to find my published mogul tips and articles, too.
-dd