ski clinic
Yesterday Nathan and I drove to Taos to attend the first of six January Local's Clinics. There were about 30 or 40 telemark skiiers signed up for the class, and we all got to ski down the bunny hill one by one to get sorted into different groups.
Our instructor from the last time, Liz, saw us and asked if we wanted to be with her again. We said, "Sure". She said to ski as usual down the hill and she would pick us.
As Nathan and I rode the lift up, we talked about the nervousness of having to ski in front of everyone. And I said my worst fear was to get stuck in the total beginner's class. Well, as it turns out, my worst fear was to come true.
I skiied down the hill, not feeling great, but skiing decently. Liz called out, Mine, and I skiied over towards her. Then Nathan came down, and she called for him as well. Then afterwards, all of the really really bad tele skiiers also got put into our group. People who couldn't tele at all. Nathan and I started giving each other looks. And whispering, "we're in the beginners group!".
THere were about 10 people or so in our group, which got split up based on whether we had signed up for all six sessions or just for that day. Then we took off. Nathan and I quickly realzied that all of our grumbling was for a good reason. The other skiiers majorly sucked. Liz started us all doing the super basic moves, which bored Nathan and I quickly, because we actually have mastered them.
About ten minutes or so into the lesson, I worked up the courage to talk to Liz about this. I tried to be light about it, "I know we don't shred up the mountain or anything..." kind of thing. She said that she thought the others would learn pretty quickly. Which made me think inwardly that by the end of the classes, I wouldn't improve, and they would.
Anyway, we talked about on the long lift up the mountain. The exercises were still useful, and I was trying not to feel too insulted or down about my tele skills. nathan reassured me that I was a lot better than the others. After a year of skiing now, and lots of lessons, I sure hoped I wasn't that bad.
Not long after one skiier complained: "Can we ski green terrain" (and we were), we ran into the next level class, and Liz let us join them.
It was so much better! We rode the lift with Todd, the new instructor, and I told him taht I wanted to work on getting my skis more parallel as I turned. Often they form more of a V-shape, which sometimes leads to crossed skis. Crossed skis are not good.
Anyway, he explained why that happened, and it made so much sense. Then we worked on exercises which basically help improve our transition from one turn to another (which is where that V-shape often happens), and I felt myself actually improving again. IT was a much better level for both of us.
I think that had we not told Liz that we wanted to be in her group, that we probably would have been put in a more appropriate level class. Now the trick is to stay in the class for the rest of the sessions. The cost of the classes and lift tickets is too much to spend bored. I'm glad that I made myself say something even though it seemed difficult to do so. It was much better than sulking through the whole class!
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