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  • Skier’s Guide to Keystone 02/27/2019
  • Skier’s Guide to Breckenridge 02/12/2019
  • THE SILVERTON MOUNTAIN EXPERIENCE 02/04/2019
  • Salomon QST Series Review 02/09/2018
  • DSJ Rider Conditioning Tip #1 11/30/2016
  • DSJ Rider Conditioning Tip #2 11/29/2016
  • DSJ Rider Conditioning Tip #3 11/28/2016
  • From Ye Olde School Whinery: What Ever Happened to Moguls? 09/15/2016
  • When did Ski Reality become Irrelevant? 08/26/2016
  • Ski Resort Economics: What really works? 08/01/2016

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DSJ Rider Conditioning Tip #2

Nov29
by fritzski on 11/29/2016 at 11:22 am
Posted In: Rider Fitness

hiponsnowDSJ has suggested some good preseason conditioning exercises to include the obvious like spinning, box jumping, and jump roping, but also some lesser known like walking backwards on a treadmill at full ramp angle.  Again, we’d like to add something that may help us in the age 40 and over crowd.

Flexibility is actually a hotly debated topic.  Some studies have indicated that it may actually lead to more injuries in action sports.  Regardless, while being able to do the splits may not do a darn thing to help your skiing, having a full healthy range of motion certainly will. 

skier stretchWe all know we get stiffer as we get older and that makes aggressive angulation ever more difficult.  We mainly get angulation from our knees and hips.  With healthy knee joints, articulation shouldn’t be too compromised as we age, but the hips, and more importantly the lower spine are another story altogether.  This area of the body naturally tends to lose flexibility as we age.  Any stretching regime for this area should yield noticeable benefits. 

skier stretch (2)A good exercise is standing with a light to medium barbell across the shoulders behind the neck (or dumbells hanging at your sides) and then bending smoothly and deeply to either side.  Involve the hip and lower spine weighting the outside leg.  This is also a great stretch to include at the top of your first run of the day.

 

sickness

While none of this is likely to make any of us look like this young lady, the closer we can get, the better.

And why does all this really matter?  The only reason she can carve such an aggressive turn with her skis at nearly a 90 degree angle is because of her ability to attain an exaggerated banana or “C” shape.  If she dropped her upper body in line with her legs, she would collapse to the snow.  If she raised her hips to be in line with her upper body she would dramatically decrease the angle of her skis on the snow.  It’s all about “center of gravity”, and hers is actually somewhere close to her left hand.

So there yo have it. You don’t necessarily need to be a Gumby, but a banana might be nice.  Stay loose my friends!

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└ Tags: exercise, fitness, interval, ski, stretching, workout
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DSJ Rider Conditioning Tip #3

Nov28
by fritzski on 11/28/2016 at 11:06 am
Posted In: Rider Fitness

tired skierA note for you senior skiers (sorry, that means all of us 40+).  Exercise recovery time increases noticeably as we age.  The editorial staff here at DSJ has found that our own recovery time is now greater than 24 hours after a day of extreme exertion.  Where this really becomes a problem is when we’re faced with numerous days of straight skiing early in the season and not yet in mid-season condition.  Each day we lose a little more ground and tend to become increasingly sore, achy, and weak. 

You certainly can’t cheat Mother Nature, but you can be a little sneaky!  We’ve found two things help a lot.  A good protein shake with glutamine at the end of each ski day and, here’s the kicker, a creatine drink in the morning.  Yes, creatine has been around forever, and although known more as a strength and power increasing supplement (which can’t bad for your skiing BTW) it has also been proven to aid in muscle recovery.  So much so, that many pro athletes use it to promote faster healing after a muscle injury.  It is actually a concentrated form of what’s found in red meat protein. 

Creatine has been shown to be safe when used in moderation, but you do have to start using it a couple weeks in advance to reap the full benefits.  The latest conventional wisdom is that you shouldn’t bother with fancy mixes, but just straight creatine monohydrate powder which is tasteless and cheap.  No pre-loading required, just 5 grams per day, which is the tiny scoop that comes with it.  Mix it with anything, even just straight water since it’s tasteless.  I wouldn’t suggest using it continually, but it could make a very noticeable early season difference and help keep you at peak levels after that. 

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└ Tags: Conditioning, creatine, exercise, fitness, interval, protein, recovery, ski, skiing, soreness, strength, stretching, workout
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From Ye Olde School Whinery: What Ever Happened to Moguls?

Sep15
by fritzski on 09/15/2016 at 6:58 pm
Posted In: DSJ Articles, News, Events, & Opinion

moguls2Well, nothing actually.  Other than changing shape over the years as skis have become shorter, they’re still alive and well and flourishing at most ski resorts, thank you very much. 

So why is it that the modern skiing establishment would lead you think that moguls don’t matter anymore?  And by this, I mean the notable lack of attention from magazines, movies, ski marketers, and designers.  Well, I think moguls do matter and not only are these guys missing the boat here, but it’s doing us all a disservice in the process. 

moguls1

Moguls still matter because, without grooming, they happen to be on about every ski run with enough pitch and skiers to form them.  Given enough time, this creates moguls on most all expert runs.  At my home resort, even the tree runs start to get bumped out after a few days without fresh snow.

SKI Magazine’s 2014 Buyer’s Guide only mentions the word “bump” or “mogul” in less than half of their front-side ski reviews.  And I take issue with combining Quickness and Bumps as a single category.  While stiffness and high side-cut can create a lightning bolt on groomers, it can also make for a hooky buckin’ bronco in the bumps.  At best, true mogul performance is treated as an afterthought.

READ MORE…

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└ Tags: bumps, design, magazines, marketing, mogul, movies, popular, skiing, skis, technique, tests
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When did Ski Reality become Irrelevant?

Aug26
by fritzski on 08/26/2016 at 11:27 am
Posted In: DSJ Articles

In our previous blog, “What Ever Happened to Moguls?”, we discussed the unfortunate and rather perplexing demise of moguls as they pertain to the modern ski scene.  Could this issue be a symptom of a larger problem?  That being the growing disconnect between industry media/marketing and reality.

scott-markewitz-18-082011[1]I’d bet most outsiders these days probably associate our sport with what they see on the X Games more than anything else.  There seems to be this relentless push to market our sport as “extreme”, when 99.9% of all skiers are anything but extreme.   This disconnect is notably evident in the lack of attention to things like every-day moguls and the converse over-attention to big air and deep powder. 

↓ Read the rest of this entry…

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└ Tags: analysis, big air, fat skis, freeskier, glen plake, industry, k2, marketing, moguls, powder, reality, ski, tim petrick, x games
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Ski Resort Economics: What really works?

Aug01
by fritzski on 08/01/2016 at 5:16 pm
Posted In: DSJ Articles

Ski Real EstateI remember a guy once explained to me some years back that “Ski resorts are just like golf course communities.  The golf course itself is a money loser and is only there as an amenity to attract real estate development”.  Over years of casual conversation with other armchair experts, I have been led to believe a few of these supposed axioms regarding resort economics.  One of the most enduring may be –

“The true economic driver of any big resort is not ticket sales, but lodging and real estate”

↓ Read the rest of this entry…

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└ Tags: area, business, economics, feasability, model, resort, ski, viability
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