Totally Awesome Day of Skiing

First ski of the season today. and this time I decided to take a lesson, which was totally worth it. I went to pat's peak with my nephew who has skied a lot more than me - like, he's gone on ski vacations and does the black diamonds. We split up and met at the bottom when he did the blacks.

Anyhow, I decided that I should take a lesson this year to start off with and fix some of the little things that I was maybe doing wrong, and learn how to stop. Because when you can really stop, then you can also go faster. We got there a little before 10, so I could take the 10 am lesson - I was trying to decide if I should do a private or risk it with a group, and decided to do a group one. Which I'm so glad I did, because I was the only one in my group :) So, I got a private lesson for group rates. The teacher said that I was a "blue" or level 6+ ish - they only have 10 levels and 10 is freestyle. So, that bumped up my confidence a lot - she said I skied beautifully :)  What I learned:

1. She had me go from one edge back to the other edge, just back and forth. I think I'd been thinking of my knees as driving the turn, but really it's about getting from one edge to the other. Of course!
2. She said to use all four corners of my feet equally - skiing doesn't just come from the toes, or just the heals. It's the whole foot that's driving the shift between edges. 
3. To stop, the easiest thing is to do a J shaped turn and go slightly uphill.
4. To do a hockey stop, do a turn, straighten up a bit as you come into the turn, then bend, go to a 90 degree angle, and get the edges in. Important fact, I can actually do them!
5. When we ski, we lean forward, keep the body facing downhill and weight on the whole foot.

After, I did the green dot several times, then moved onto the blue squares, which I did several times. The green dot was feeling easy at the end! I think the new boots made a huge difference because they really mold to my feet and it was easier to get them to shift. We got there at 10 and left a little after 3 - I was freezing! I need to get some hand warmers.

It was so fun, and I liked going with my nephew! I hope this will be the year that I start thinking of myself as a blue square skier :)