From Intermediate to Expert: Ski Tips that Don't Suck

So you want to become an expert skier, but you don't want the process to suck. Fair enough. My philosophy for ski improvement is super simple. So let's dive into the formula, which is going to make you go from an intermediate to an expert skier. Tip number one, repetition. Surprise, surprise. The best way to become a skier is to just ski. The more you ski, the better you're going to get. So take all the vacation. You can go up every single weekend to wherever your local resort is. If you're lucky enough to have one, maybe call in sick a few extra times, just, you know, um, don't tell your boss, I told you to do it. Whatever you can do to get to the mountain more, the more you go, the better you're going to get. And this is really just the fun part. It's fun going to the mountain. So if you're addicted to it and you have fun skiing, you're going to go more and you're going to get better imitation. Following people and imitating what they do is one of the most affordable ways to become a better skier. You don't necessarily have to pay for ski lessons. All you have to do is watch people who are better than you and try and do what they're doing. I learned to carve because I watched other skiers carving underneath the orange chair at Manning park. And I was like, I want to do that. So I figured out watching them, what they were doing with their legs and just trying to copy them. Then the next best thing you can do is follow someone who's better than you. So try and find a rider who is quite a bit better than you, who's willing to ski with you, but you can still keep up with and you're not slowing them down too much. So it's not dangerous for you to try and keep up with them, but it's a challenge to keep up with them. So by following someone who is better than you and just imitating what they do, you're going to improve your skiing so much. You know, why do you think the youngest kid usually in a family improves the fastest and becomes the best rider? It's because he's chasing around his brother and sister, his whole life, just trying to keep up with them and chasing people and imitating what they do makes you a way better rider. Back when I was skiing in the train park at Grouse Mountain, there was this young guy, Blake was his name and I used to follow him around because he was sick. He was doing huge massive cork threes and sevens on the jump line. And I was just doing, you know, super small jumps, but I just really, really looked up to him and just followed him. It makes you such a better skier to just follow someone. Inspiration. Some of my big ski inspirations in my life are Glenn Plake. A lot of you young guys might not know him. The older guys will know Glenn Plake, just such a fun and energetic approach to skiing and his style was so sick. He was so ahead of the times and just gave no shits. Um, an amazing skier to watch blizzard of Oz. If you've never seen that movie, super sick. I'm also a massive Tanner Hall fan. Um, Tanner Hall is like the most resilient skier of all time. The guy is 40 and still sending it. And I always just respected his talent and how hard he worked and how just, you know, beautiful he was at the craft of skiing. Um, and he kind of pioneered a lot of the kind of new skiing, um, that we see today. And, uh, another inspiration for me has always been Stan Ray. He's a local, right? So you, you see him out and about and that guy fricking shreds, man. The first time I saw him was this spankies ladder video where he's like going eenie meenie miney mo trying to pick a line down spankies. And then like does the craziest entrances involving backflips most of the time that I've ever seen. Um, so all those guys have been big inspirations to me and just when you feel inspired by, you know, one of the big dogs, it really gets you just so stoked to get out there and like try and do something like they do, even though like you won't, you know, I will never ever ski like any of those guys I just mentioned. I will never be anywhere near the skill level of the pros, but all of them just like still inspire me to just get out there and, uh, and push myself. It's, it's, it's, it's just that feeling when you watch a crazy ski video, we all know the feeling you just get like, Oh, like, Oh, I could so do that. You know, you're hearing sail playing in your head and imagining yourself doing a cork seven and then you get out in the mountain and I just do a spread Eagle off a side hit, but still like just creates a crazy level of stoke, having inspiration. So find someone who inspires you and watch their stuff because it's just fun. It just, it just gets you stoked. Ski hard in all conditions. Don't be a snow snob, you know, don't be a fair weather skier. If you want to improve, get out all the time in all conditions. And skiing hard in all conditions is going to make you better. If it's icy, if it's deep powder, if it's chunky, if it's chalky, whatever the conditions are, you want to be able to ski everything because when you're on bigger mountains, the conditions literally change from the top to the bottom and you never know what you're going to expect in different conditions, improve your skiing in different ways, right? If you're on the ice, you're going to need to learn to have better edge control. Or if you're skiing powder, you're going to kind of have to learn how to float and how to be kind of jumpy and poppy with your turns. And if you're skiing on Schunder, you've got to be strong. So all the different snow is automatically going to teach you and improve your stance and your edge control and all these things when you're skiing. So just because the forecast looks grim, get out there and ski and ski it fricking hard, man. As long as it doesn't hurt your knees, you know, like you don't want to ski moguls on ice all day unless you got young knees, but you know what I'm saying? Like just ski all conditions. It'll make you better incrementally challenge yourself. So if you're not challenging yourself, you're not going to improve, but there's a fine line in skiing to where you're challenging yourself and to where you're making something dangerous. So you need to make very, very small incremental improvements and challenge yourself a little by little each day. And that's going to prevent you from putting yourself into dangerous situations. You know, you're not just going to go stand up on the top of Sodden Kular if you're still working on skiing, you know, blue runs, right? You're not going to get on a triple black if you're still working on, uh, you know, skiing, blue runs, make sure to be challenging yourself, but be challenging yourself in safe ways. So maybe just go a little bit faster one day when you're on the bumps, you know, go a little bit faster than you did the day before going through the trees a little bit faster. Maybe you're carving and you lose control after the third turn, maybe challenge yourself to kind of keep that control for four hard carving turns. It's all about challenging yourself, just turning up that dial every day, but don't turn it up too high, too fast. Stop giving a I wish that someone told me this, you know, when I was a little younger, it's helped me both in life and skiing and sports. But the reality is, um, no one really cares. You know, no one knows who you are underneath your goggles out there. It doesn't matter. Like drop the ego and just go have the best time ever. I respect the guy who's out there breaking out from pizza into his first French fry just as much as I respect the guy doing his first double backflip. Okay. Everyone starts somewhere and it doesn't matter who you are, what you're doing or what you're riding. Just challenge yourself, have confidence in yourself. It's a, it's a personal sport. It's you versus yourself. No one else, you know, really matters. This also just applies in life in general. For any of the young viewers out there, it doesn't matter what other people think. You know, who gives a flying genuinely, you know, be yourself, have a good time, have fun in whatever you're doing and it makes everything so much better. You know, no one is watching you. No one is judging you. Just get out there and try your best, man. That's all. That's all that matters. And I respect people who are out there giving her. So like so much terrain choice, terrain choice is so important when you're trying to improve your skiing, you've got to choose the right terrain. That's going to challenge you for the type of skiing you're trying to improve. So the first thing about train choice is you want to make sure that you're skiing terrain that matches the skill you're trying to work on. Sometimes they'll see skiers trying to use the same ski style on different types of train, but that's just not the case, right? When you're on a groomer, you want to widen your stance and you want to feel those edges a bit more because you're trying to carve, right? Or if you're on a mogul run, bring that stance in and you know, you're going to get a bit more hot doggy, but you're not going to have the wide stance super wide. Like you're going to have on a groomer that you're going to have, you know, in the moguls when you're skiing pal, you know, medium stance, super athletic, you're going to be a little more poppy. You have to match your ski style to the terrain. Now the other thing with terrain choice is you have to choose terrain that matches your skill level for whatever you're working on. So you can't be going and skiing stuff. That's way, way too hard for you because you're not going to be able to improve the technical aspects of your skiing and actually get better. You essentially want to be able to like tear up the runs that you're skiing and then move on to runs that are even harder. So you want to be like so comfortable with a black run before you go to a double black skiing bumps, skiing bumps. I think in skiing moguls is a lost art and is underappreciated these days, but I think skiing bumps will make you such a good skier. So mastering moguls will just make you an amazing skier. You can't be stiff on moguls. You have to be athletic. You know, you have to have your timing super dialed. You've got to be really quick on your feet. You've got to have quick decision making. You've got to keep your body down the fall line in order to ski them properly. You know, using your hips properly, like skiing moguls will make you such a good skier in so many different ways, especially when it comes to tree skiing. I always tell people if you want to be a really good tree skier and become a really good mogul skier, because most of the time at ski resorts, you don't have those perfect competition moguls. You're going to have these messed up snowboarder moguls from people who aren't skiing moguls properly. And that makes these like crappy snowboarder mogul bumps everywhere. But it's good because like you've just got to think on your feet and turn and learn to absorb those bumps and use them and turn around the next one, absorb it, turn around the next one and keep your speed up and keep flow through like the most heinous bumpy terrain. So skiing bumps is so important to improve. And if you're like an intermediate advanced skier wanting to get better in the trees, I always, always recommend just get real good at moguls and you'll see tons of improvements in your skiing side hits and side trails. There's a reason young kids improve so fast. Obviously they have, you know, elastic bands as bones and their muscles repair very quickly and they feel no pain and have no fear. But besides that, kids are always exploring and playing on side hits and side trails. If you watch kids skiing, they get such a kick out of going off on the side and doing a side trail, going off here, doing a little side hit and they've got it figured out. Like nothing's going to make you a better skier than kind of forcing yourself into like interesting terrain that forces you to be super athletic. So the more side hills and jumps you do, the more you're going to be forced to be athletic, learn to absorb stuff properly, learn to jump off stuff, learn to land, learn to be off balance, learn to make quick decisions. So side hits, man hit a bunch of side hits. It's really, really good for your skiing. One tip I can give you is I see a lot of people when they start off with side hits is they'll go off a side hit super big and land flat. When you jump off anything, you want to make sure to have like a little bit of a downhill cause it hurts a lot less and it's a lot smoother. So like spot out your side hits and make sure you've got a little bit of a downhill at least before you just send it. Um, especially if you're older and your knees are starting to feel it a little more like me learn to fall. I fall pretty much every day that I'm skiing hard. And I always like to say, if you ain't fallen, you ain't trying. So don't be afraid to fall. And falling is your friend from a safety perspective. Um, if you're ever feeling a bit out of control or you're losing it a bit, sometimes like trying to save yourself is worse than just letting yourself fall. Of course, this doesn't count if you're above death exposure, um, hold on for dear life. But most of us aren't going to be skiing near death exposure. So, uh, if you're on the average ski run and you're feeling out of control, you got to learn to just fall and let yourself slide. You know, you're going to have less injuries if you're not fighting it and you just kind of let it happen and don't be afraid to fall. Um, it's not like mountain biking on the dirt and rocks. Snow is pretty forgiving, especially on a pow day. And falling is just part of the sport. So don't worry about falling. I love a yard sale just as much as the next guy. It's hilarious. It's fun. Um, and if you ain't fallen, you ain't trying. So don't be afraid to fall. Focus on one technical aspect of your skiing every single day. So this is one of the biggest tricks to become a better skier and to kind of keep your focus on technique just a little bit every single day when you're out. I still think about little aspects of my skiing one thing a day, every time I go out as well, just to make sure that I am still improving and I'm not getting sloppy. Cause like, you know, my skiing is pretty damn sloppy. We can all, we can all agree on that. It's hard to go out like if you're in a lesson and think about 10 or 20 things on a ski day, you know, improve this, you know, your stance, your edges, your this. The reality is skiing. So distracting. I can only think of like one thing at a time per day. And that's still going to leave my mind. Cause I'm going to have so much fun. I'm going to forget what I was supposed to focus on. So by focusing on like one skill per day, as you're just having fun and enjoying yourself, you can kind of keep reminding yourself to like play around with one skillset and improve that skillset while you're skiing. So here's a bunch of different things you can focus on while you're skiing and riding throughout your day to day. Number one, forward pressure. So play around with your forward pressure and your stance on different types of terrain. So if you're on a groomer, you don't push into the front of your boots and get really athletic in your stance and wide and see how that feels while you're carving. Try the same thing with closer feet while you're back. You know, maybe if you're in powder, see what it feels like to lean back and lean forward and how that affects your turns. So like adjusting your forward pressure for how hard you're charging on your skis and the terrain you're on makes a big difference. So that's always a good thing to keep in mind and kind of reminding yourself to keep forward pressure throughout a day is helpful to keep your skiing pretty technically sound. Number two, practice keeping your body down the fall line. So especially when you're skiing bumps or a little more off piste, you're going to want to keep your body always facing down the fall line and let your hips, ankles and knees, you know, do the work. When you're turning your body, you're not skiing properly, right? Your body should never be turning your skis. Your skis are turned by your lower body. So thinking about keeping your body facing down the fall line is just a great thing to remind yourself throughout the ski day, especially when skiing off piste. Number three, mess around with stance and turn shape. So change up your stance width. I think I kind of mentioned this in forward pressure, but that was more focusing on like the pressure you're putting on your boots for stance. Just mess around with width, you know, go closer on different terrain, go wider on different terrain, see how it affects your turn shape. Number four, chill out your arms while you're pole planting. I see a lot of this in advanced skier. You're doing super, super animated pole plants. Just, you know, you're supposed to keep your hands out front, especially when you're kind of carving and you're tapping. You can get a little more groovy when you're on the bumpy stuff, but like practice, just like controlling your arms. Cause if your arms start doing a lot of movement, then your body's doing a lot of movement. Although this feels pretty good, I'm kind of stiff, but like, you know, if your arms are moving, your body's moving and you're not going to be as compact of a skier and as controlled. So if your arms are in control, your body's going to be in control. So try and always reduce the movement in your upper body. Number four, think about rolling your ankles and your knees when you're turning in order to carve and learning to carve is one of the best skills you can have for skiing. And one of the best drills to do that, I call them J turns. They might have another name. You get wide kind of with your stance. You stand at the top of a groomer, you go straight down and your goal is to turn hard and turn back uphill. And this is a great way to start feeling your edges in order to turn uphill. You've got to roll those ankles hard and lean into the run and try and turn back uphill. And you're really going to feel your edges and all carving really is, is that feeling, but linked together over and over and over again. So kind of focus on those, you know, focus on those edges and those, those ankles those ankles rolling when you're skiing instead of initiating turns with your body. Like a lot of people do. Lastly, the most important thing you can do to become an expert skier is just have fun. If you're not having fun, you're not going to do anything. I just mentioned, you're not even going to get repetition. The only reason we all go back to the mountain time and time and time again is because it's the best man. It just is the best feeling in the world. It's so fun. It's so freeing. It keeps you so present. So just have fun with it. Don't put pressure on yourself. Don't set crazy expectations. Just get out there, feel good, have fun. And you're going to want to go more and more and more. And you know what? The good thing is the more you go, the better you get. And the better you get, the even more fun that you have. So if you're already having fun at the skillset you're at, imagine how much fun you're going to be having when you improve one year down the line, 10 years down the line. Like it just only gets better, which is crazy because it's already so good. Now, if you've tried everything on this list and you're not improving, there is one last secret. You know what it is? Ski sauce, baby. Snow's going to be falling soon. I'm getting antsy. Sayonara.