Transitioning from snowplough to parallel skiing can seem intimidating, but it actually makes your life easier and makes you look cooler on the slopes. Once you master parallel skiing, youll be able to ski faster, make sharper turns, and turn heads as you glide past the mountain side.
Although the idea of moving to parallel skiing might feel daunting, its important to move away from relying on the pizza slice and get your skis straight as soon as possible. This is a crucial step if youre considering a ski instructor course or just want to improve your skills. In this post, well share some tips on how to ski parallel and help you become a proper skier.
1. Initiating the turn
To start a turn, you should extend upwards and lean forward so that your hips are positioned over your downhill ski. This movement should be smooth, and as you lean forward, youll find that the tips of your skis start to point downhill, and your weight shifts evenly across both skis.
When your weight is evenly distributed between both skis, your body and skis should move in the same direction. Its important not to use your upper body to try to match your skis. Instead, your skis should naturally drop into line with your upper body. Once your body is aligned with your skis, you should briefly leave your skis flat and travel straightat this point, youre ready to make an edge change.
2. Edge change
Once youve initiated a turn and your skis are traveling straight ahead, youre ready to change edges. When youre skiing in parallel, you should always be on the same edge of each ski. When making a turn, the edges need to be switched at the point where the skis are going straight and not sliding to either side.
While this might sound a bit challenging, it should actually come naturally at the right moment. Knowing about edge changes is helpful because it affects your balance, which well discuss more in the next section:
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A Note on Balance: Parallel skiing is all about transferring your weight from one ski to the other. Just before you enter the turn, bend your knees and shift your weight onto the outside ski (for example, if youre turning left, this would be your right ski).
After completing the turn, you can then transfer your weight back evenly over both skis. Practicing this movement a few times should help you lift your inside ski. If you struggle with this, it means you dont have enough weight over your outside ski while in the turn. As your skis move across the slope, its important to let them slide sideways. This helps shape your turn and control your speed.
3. Finishing the turn
Once youve got your speed under control, you can start to move across the hill in the direction you want by keeping your weight on the downhill ski and staying in a forward-leaning position.
This helps you control the angle of your skis and how much they slide. Just keep traversing across the hill until youre ready to make your next turn, and then repeat all the steps again!
Top Tip:
If you ever feel like youre going too fast while turning, try turning the tips of your skis back up the hillalmost doing a C-turn. This will help you slow down before you start your new turn. It gives you more control by letting you ski at a speed that feels comfortable for you.
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