Learning how to Ski - 1 year progression

my name is Alex and this is me skiing for the first time one year ago I could barely stand up and it was super embarrassing falling over in front of the kids who was just so much better than me but this is me now one year later over the past year I've been determined to get better at skiing but this has been tricky since I live in England and it doesn't snow much here so one year ago whilst I was taking a holiday in a small Austrian town called verberg I met a guy called Marcus who runs a ski school who sorted me out with a couple of ski lessons with an instructor called Phil how long have you been a ski instructor for uh it's my fourth year now four years yeah yeah W and is skiing your main hobby yeah in the winter time it is and what do you do in the summer when there's no snow I work in construction okay yeah it's completely different yeah very too very different thing during my first 2hour ski lesson I learned about skis and how they work these skis are for either foot they there's no left or right both of them can be used on either of my feet the ski boot goes in here but the ski boot will detach if you fall which is important to not hurt yourself I got the hang of the real Basics and slowly got used to standing on skis which felt so uncomfortable at first luckily at most ski places there's a space for people to learn before they hit the big slopes Phil taught me how to put the skis in a pizza shape which controls the speed and is much easier way to learn than having the skis parallel Phil taught me how to turn left and right which is done by putting weight on either of the skis depending on what way you want to turn you put the weight on the left ski if you want to turn right and on the right ski if you want to turn [Applause] left and that was my first time skiing I want to get better now I want to be able to go faster and down a steeper Hill on my second 2-hour ski lesson I learned how to take a te- bar lift to the top of the slope so I could attempt going down a proper Hill this is going to be my last time skiing for a year maybe forever no I don't say that no hopefully not after two lessons I still felt incredibly unbalanced but for the time that I was standing upright it felt so good to be sliding down the [Music] mountain [Music] good skiing nice job thanks for teaching me how to ski though welcome it was good you did really [Music] good the next day I returned home to England where I was faced with a dilemma if I don't go skiing until next winter I would forget everything that I'd learned and it would be like starting from scratch again but I also can't really go back to the mountains anytime soon because I live and work in England what do I do I almost felt like it's not worth putting in any more effort I'm from England after all maybe I'm not meant to be a skier geographically it doesn't make sense a few weeks later I was visiting a friend in Scotland when I realized there are actually multiple ski resorts up there I went along to one of them only to be met with no snow and a broken ski lift that meant the Upper Mountain wasn't accessible this didn't matter though as they had a little dry slope where I could get some practice I spent pretty much the whole time just getting used to standing on skis again but I think a little progress was made I did some more research and learned that there are actually a few places I could practice skiing in England there's quite a few dry slopes like the one I went to in Scotland but also places where they make artificial snow the closest place to where I live was a 2hour drive from the outside it looks like a big shopping mall but past the fast food and clothes shops is a rather impressive ski slope it's basically a giant freezer of course I'd rather go skiing outdoors in the mountains but if I wanted to get any better at skiing this seemed like the best way for about £40 you can hire all the equipment that you need and also use the slope for 3 hours so that's what I did once every few months I drove there and spent 3 hours [Music] G I also spend a lot of time watching other people skiing trying to work out how to improve my technique I felt like I improved a decent amount during this time and in general just began to feel more comfortable on skis winter was approaching and I was desperate to get out to the mountains again and go on a proper skiing trip let's go to the Alps and go skiing oh I'm so excited a friend of mine who lives in Austria suggested a few good places to go so I booked up some accommodation and planned a trip I'm on the train which goes under the sea and in about 25 minutes I will arrive in France there's quite a few different routes to the Austrian Alps but I chose to go through Belgium Luxembourg and Germany to avoid all the French toll roads which can get pretty expensive I've just stopped for the night I've been driving for about 7 hours oh you know get out the shop I'm all tucked up in bed in my van going to try and get a good night sleep and then arrive in the mountains tomorrow now I've been keeping an eye on the local weather forecast for where I'm heading to which is the Austrian Alps and I think I have timed things perfectly because there hasn't been much snow the past week and then this weekend like yesterday and today they are apparently getting loads of snow which is wonderful because to go skiing you need snow although I did see someone skiing in a desert which looked pretty [Music] crazy that's what I like to see that's like a foot of snow we haven't arrived yet we're just having a little pee break beautiful though absolutely stunning I bought two packs of Mentos one mint and one fruit it's just how I was feeling my destination in Austria was near a town called Mel which is in Saltsburg but it's very close to the Tero border it's also very near to kitbull you may have heard of kitsbow it's very famous for its skiing mountains ski LIF anyway after arriving I found a place to hire boots and skis hiring skis is really easy you just fill out a form with your details and you can get a hold of all the equipment that you need I built this little ski holder that fits perfectly so neat now all I need to do is check into my Airbnb get some sleep and then tomorrow morning I can go skiing in the mountains it's been a year since I went skiing last in Austria and I'm back and I'm going to take a lift up the mountain my accommodation was a BNB shared with a number of other guests my room was on the top floor of The Farmhouse and it was so ideal as each morning there was a proper breakfast with Meats cheeses bread and fruit it was also so close to the uh ski lifts it's pretty exciting because from one lift at the bottom you can get up to like another level of mountain where you can then get another lift to another part of the mountain and then you can ski down different ways so the whole thing is interconnected it says here that there's 58 ski lifts that is mad and then there are so many more slopes this is my accommodation I think I'm in that room over there anyway I need to grab some food piz the Kebab shop open [Music] m the pizza V Lea [Music] bedtime minus 4° W I picked up my lift pass which would allow me to take any of the lifts within the kipy area for the next 4 days but first I decided to take the short te- bar lift and have a few practice runs down the small slope there's a few different types of lifts that I would be using over the next week this te- bar lift sits under your bum and pulls you up the hill it's probably the trickiest to use it it's a little bit unstable at first but very easy after a bit of practice you also have these chair lifts which you sit on and of course the gondolas which are like little cars that you get inside and these do the longer Journeys up the [Music] mountains [Music] after feeling stable on my feet I decided to head up the chair lift you walk up to the little barrier in front of the lift and it scans your lift pass which you keep in your left hand side coat pocket and it lets you through you then walk up to the red line these lifts can fit up to six people but as I was here during the week it was pretty quiet and I only ever Shar a lift with someone a couple of times you simply wait for the chair to move underneath you and you sit down and Away you go up the [Music] mountain it's so quiet what am I doing I want a ski lift my ears are popping when you arrive at the top you simply stand up and slide [Music] off the visibility was pretty bad and it was was almost impossible to see where I was going everything is just white and you don't know how steep the slope is luckily the visibility got better as I went further down the mountain I don't think I'm ready for this oh no I wasn't ready for this that was the best thing ever I felt like a pro for about 5 seconds then on the first run down I was not ready for the steepness and the slope was much more uneven than what I had ever gone down before luckily I found my way back to the blue run through the trees where I felt a little more comfortable it's like I've died and gone to heaven so the slopes here are colorcoded you have the blue runs which are the easiest to go down and then you have the intermediate red runs and then also the trickier black runs the blue run that I went down was super relaxing a nice comfortable speed and it was pretty nice going through the trees but on the next run down I wanted to attempt the steeper slope again let's go I realized how important it is to keep my legs bent when going faster and down more uneven surfaces as they act as suspension and absorb all the bumps in the road and you can bend your knees so much more than you think is necessary and it really [Music] helps [Music] oh God that was a that was a hefty Hefty Little Fool look at me I'm covered covered in snow wow that was the most fun I've had in years I didn't realize skiing was that fun it's just a mix of my favorite things like incredible Mountain scenery that you get to go through the forest and see all the footprints in the snow of different animals I was hearing a deer barking and you can slide down a hill just a thoroughly enjoyable day however I am shattered now I just got back to my accommodation after 6 hours of skiing and my body really wasn't ready for that I am not Norm doing that much exercise I I go walking quite a bit and uh I play squash and baminton every now and then but this was a lot more um a lot more demanding on my thighs my legs hurt quite a lot anyway I don't really know how it took me 25 years to start skiing after the first blue run down through the forest through the trees I was just left speechless like I was in in heaven and I think we made a bit of progress today I could definitely see uh from the start of the day to the end uh some some progress made however there was a point about an hour from the end of the day where I started actually getting worse because I couldn't like I couldn't move my legs like I could in the morning I want to be able to go down those red runs looking a little bit more in control going down a mountain on skis is honestly the most fun thing ever although temperatures were about -1° C up on the mountain it surprised me that you don't actually have to wear too many layers to keep really warm I first have these really nice Marino wool base layers these are not only very warm but they help Wick sweat away from the body and they're also they don't end up smelling bad which is crazy but this special type of sheep the Marino breath makes wool which is good for uh not making you smell smell bad I cover these base layers up with my normal linen trousers these are super thin trousers but it didn't seem to matter um I wear these almost every day and with the base layers underneath it's actually really warm over my top half I started by wearing this jumper followed by down jacket however the jumper was just too hot uh when I started sweating so I didn't actually use this for most of the trip over the top I wore a waterproof jacket which really helps keep the cold wind out and also some waterproof trousers lastly I had some warm gloves and a buff which really helped keep my face warm when you go down a hill and you got the cold there brushing against your face you get very cold so this was very [Music] helpful day two was beautiful and sunny and it helped a lot being able to see where I was going I managed to stop falling so much and started going a little faster however if you look at my skis you can see they are sliding a lot across the snow rather than carving through it this is because I'm not putting enough weight on my outside ski this is something I wanted to improve on throughout the trip anyway it was such a great day skiing in the Sun and once again slowly making more progress and getting more confident look at the weather today the most amazing thing it's not that I don't like people but you know doing things when uh there's not many other people doing them is kind of more chilled out and relaxing there's like no one here I think I've got a chair left with other people twice the whole time I've been here I'm a I'm a proper loner and I enjoy it but I have been watching the few people who are here because I think I learn best from like observing other people do things but I like try and watch them and take little things and implement it into what I'm doing easier said than done though on day three I plan to meet up with a friend called Harry who I met last year while was traveling we went on a mountain hike together and he said I should return for some skiing in the winter Harry works at the ski park here shaping jumps and running their social media page it was his day off today and he very kindly showed me around the mountains and gave me some much needed skiing advice we're about to go down that Harry promises me it's going to be okay down the Fig it's mad you can explore all day on these lists like we're on I don't know what the temp lift and this one's got heated seats it's mad and by the way I survived the big hill I'm still here just had a really nice hot chocolate that was so good we're so far away from where we started today like I don't know how long have we been going like 3 hours or something 3 hours of just exploring the mountain [Music] I walked away from the camera in that last shot and I completely forgot about it Harry's skiing back to see if it's still there but I mean there's a there was a lot of skiers around and skiers will probably want a camera like that so yeah that [Music] sucks in some ways I find it really nice skiing on on my own because I can go at my own pace and um I don't feel like I'm slowing anyone else up but skiing with a friend uh it does make the day more fun more enjoyable and um in general it's it's a better time I think after the day of skiing we then drove to another Gondola lift further along the valley anyway here we could take the gondola up the mountain and then go down the world's longest floodlit to Boggan run it's something like 14 km long so a few months ago I started Brewing my own beer and I actually brought a few bottles with me to Austria and we're taking this um how many meters up 2,000 M 2,000 M it's already pretty explosive in there um I'm hoping it doesn't explode in my bag and then we're going to sled down the hill sounds like a perfect day to [Music] me [Music] we drunk the home brewed beer watched the sunset and then grabbed some food in a restaurant there a super cool peek alen gust looks like bacon and potatoes and egg okay ready let's go this is amazing oh no oh [Music] oh [Music] [Music] on [Music] okay let's [Music] [Music] go mate that was the best thing ever that was inside and that is the end of the day the next morning I made my way an hour and a half West to spend a few days in viberg which is the little village where I learned to ski a year ago well I just arrived in viberg and down in the valley whilst I was driving it was really like foggy but up here we're above the the Mist that you can see down there the Mist up here is beautiful blue skies and I've spent quite a bit of time in this little village cuz last winter I I actually booked up this uh Hut in the mountains and I stayed there for like a whole month and then the year before that I also stayed there for a week so it kind of feels like a second home almost it's such a beautiful little village but the plan now is to stock up on food check into my new Airbnb and then hire some skis today I don't think I'm going to go skiing I need to rest my legs cuz it hurts there and there so I'm going to take a break today and then ski lesson maybe tomorrow we are fully stocked up we got baguette eggs beer apples honey yogurt milk everything I need and here we are that little slope behind me is where I learned to ski one year ago and this slope here is where I fell over many times ah it's good to be back I just checked into my accommodation where I'm going to be staying here in viberg and it's just the best feeling ever when you're welcomed into someone's home uh I just met Christine and Hans the owners of this place they converted like part of their house into this Airbnb and it is super super nice they've even welcomed me with this lovely bottle of yes this is Austrian wine ideal with meat and cheese anyway the location of this place is perfect because just across the road is Marcus's ski shop and the plan is to head next door hire some equipment and then have another skiing lesson oh yeah that's very comfortable whilst I was getting some boots and skis Markus showed me inside their ski servicing Workshop where each year they sharpen and service hundreds of skis for their customers the sharp edge of a ski has to be maintained and this is where it all happens I'm just about to head up the mountain to the ski lift to meet up with Phil who gave me my first ever ski lesson one year ago so it's going to be great to meet him again and uh he can hopefully teach me some more uh give me some more advice on how I can improve as a [Music] skier how's it going good how are you good good good I didn't think I'd ever see you again I didn't think I'd ever go skiing again I'm glad you're here you want to sit somewhere oh yeah it was great to catch up with Phil again and he had been really really busy over the past year building his own house studying media design and also running his own business he actually showed me his Studio One evening where he uses the technique of screen printing to create some quality and thought-provoking clothing I think I might have to film a separate video about this at some point because it is really quite interesting let's go let's go okay yeah it's rolling So yeah thank you [Music] so we go down yeah I'm going to follow you and then follow and then I'm going to see what see what I'm doing everything you're going to do horribly wrong I'm going to correct you on it okay great let's go let's [Music] go [Music] what what happened what would you mean was it good or bad it was good yeah yes I think I've improved a bit a lot I mean last time I saw you I couldn't really stand up that was crazy oh nice really nice so much fun I didn't expect that I really didn't expect that and full gas no brakes all the way down yeah all right we're going to go up again yeah there's still things you can I'm I'm sure there [Music] are I could see that your hips and your shoulders are in the right position yeah but you could still lean a little more okay and you still have a little more too much pressure on your upper foot still okay so you have we going to get rid of that mhm but otherwise it was really nice have you ever ridden one of those boxes before no we have to do it okay yeah we should you already have the shoulders in position position and also your butt is are going uphill okay so that's good okay you should leave it like this but now we're going to try you used to have it your weight a little more in the upper ski still okay so you're like this and now we're going to try to bend you over even more your chin goes even outer your outer ski but we're still going to try to get our weight a little more outwards yeah so should I push the knee like yeah harder this knee pushes basically over here oh okay that makes sense it feels right like that we're going to try this now you're going to follow me mhm you're going to see how I do it and then we're going to break and then I have an exercise for you okay okay at first it feels wrong to lean more downhill as you think you're going to fall but actually it gives you more stability because more weight is on the downhill first now the left shoulder forward do you notice key eye no it's your how's it called belly button yes your belly button is his key eye and the key eye always has to point downwards it has to see the valy Phil told me how you should keep your upper body facing down the hill so when you make a turn to the right your upper body moves to the left and when you make a turn to the left your upper body swivels to the right whilst I was thinking really carefully about the movements that filler just explained I found it really hard to actually put it into practice but as I relaxed more the movement began to feel more natural and made more sense good you can stop here all right how does it feel it feels a bit weird but I I get I I can see once I get used to it it will feel better and right I have one exercise for that you're going to twist yourself like here we have 90° right yeah here we also going to stay with the 90° and now all you have to do is keep your poles aligned with the valy okay stay down all the [Music] time yeah there you have it good Phil also explained that going into a corner you should first have your legs bent more and compressed and when you make the turn you should lift up a little this kind of makes you lighter on the corner making it easier to turn and up again and up again so few people who are taller than me when I keep that really I am an anomaly of a human race for some reason they thought it it was good to make me 6' five or something on the next rundown Phil showed me an exercise which involved lifting the inside ski up and down which helps keep more weight on the downhill [Music] [Music] ski Phil showed me the basics of going backwards which starts off by using the pizza shape in the skis but the opposite way around if you were going forwards then by turning your head either over your left shoulder or right shoulder you can then turn direction then if you want to go slower you can make the pizza shape bigger before the day was up I wanted to attempt the boxes the first run down I went nice and slow and made it over the first and second box but on the next run I felt more confident and tried to hit all three Everything feels fine off from my face it's quite hard that's why it hurts a little everything went really fine you just were too fast a little bit M and it was because of the the bump yeah you went in the air already so you didn't drive above it you already jumped and you went on it and then you qu right on the on the edge so bad how are you feeling um I'm fine you want to try it one more time yeah I need to we have to finish it I need to finish it on good [Music] yeah hey yeah well done thanks for teaching me how to ski B again so maybe I'll see you in another year hopefully for another ski L yes I'm going to build even bigger champs for you then yeah and I can see you improved a lot and it makes me really happy to see you like this you go down and cruising along and we have a smile in your face yeah oh it's so much fun it's it's like the funnest sport I've ever [Music] [Applause] done well sadly it's time to go home oh I'm just looking back at some of the footage of me skiing over the past week and I can clearly see that I'm still not a great skier and when I compare myself with people like Phil and many of the other skiers that I've seen this week yeah I I'm clearly still not great at skiing and I've been guilty in the past of comparing myself with others when really you should compare yourself with yourself um and when I look at myself skiing one year ago and compare myself now to that it makes me incredibly happy I can't quite believe it when you're I could not stand up on skis really and now well I'm a lot better than I was and I'm going to take a moment to be proud of myself and I really want to thank all the wonderful people that I've met over the past week uh thank you Harry for showing me around the kit ski area thanks Marcus for uh sorting out my ski lesson and thank you Phil for teaching me how to ski not just last year but this year as well thank you for watching I hope this video maybe inspires you to give skiing a go or just give something a go that you have never tried before cheers for watching everyone I will see you [Music] soon

Channel: Just Alex

Views: 296,157

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Id: MUaCE03FPLY

Length: 34min 9sec (2049 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 30 2024