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Learning
to
Slalom Ski
with Sam
My son,
Sam Huntridge Fisher aged 9 has been mono skiing on and off
now for about two years, he first learnt to get up on two
skis when he was four and half years old. Sam was not that
keen
 on skiing at first and would only ski now and again. He
finally learnt to run the slalom course for the first time a
little over a year ago. Sam would ski for periods of time
when the weather was good, but then would not ski for long
periods throughout the winter months just like most young
kids who would rather stay in doors and play their video
games. It was fair to say he could take it or leave it. It
all changed when we returned back to Orlando early September
2008, to get the kids back in school. Sam started to ski in
the slalom course every evening after school, through the
fear of being left behind by his younger Sister who out of
the blue decided she wanted to learn to get on a single
slalom ski after only being able to ski on two skis and only
taking them out a few times a year. Alix at the age of seven
at the time, went from skiing on two skis to learning to
drop a ski, deep water starts and running the course
consistently all in 10 days, it’s amazing what pier pressure
will do to a child and what they can achieve when they put
their mind to it. All because Alix saw pictures of Neili
Ross on Facebook and could not live with the fact that
another girlfriend of the same age could do
 something she
could not, she soon fixed that! It was fair to say before
that, that Alix would prefer to leave skiing to here brother
and now she can’t get enough.
With a
few weeks of skiing every evening after school, Sam was soon
hooked and has not looked back since, only every now and
then to see who is playing with his video games! I have
purposely kept Sam at 22 and 24MPH, working on his technique
and form, it has been very repetitive, but this is so
important when kids start out slalom skiing. Bad habits are
hard to break and even tougher when the speed to high.
We have
had some pretty cold weather spells and cold fronts already
in Orlando this winter, obviously only in comparison to
normal weather for this period of the season in Orlando. The
weather over the past few weeks has improved again and it
has been great for Christmas and the start of the New Year,
but we do not normally get the two or three day, cold fronts
until mid January through mid March. It is the first time
that Sam was not really phased by the colder weather, he has
been so excited to ski the weather did not even come into
it.
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