Skiing has been a huge part of my life. Ever since I was young, I would always venture out to the mountains and go skiing. What makes skiing a lot of fun is the environment you get to be a part of. Every hill you go up to, there's always new surroundings you get to interact with. Aside from the environment, one of the primary reasons I love skiing is because I ski race. I am able to compete against others for the fastest time by completing a course. So, when I was in middle school, I signed up for the ski team. Once a week, I was able to practice my skills and improve my time by competing. It became a part of my lifestyle. It taught me that improving myself will lead to success.
Ski racing is a fast paced and competitive sport. It is commonly
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Throughout elementary school, I would ski recreationally. As I grew older, I began participating in a ski racing program. So, during middle school, I learned techniques that helped me to become a faster skier. One of those techniques was to be able to lean my body forward. This allowed me to build up my speed. Another technique was to always look ahead and never allow my eyes to wander off the course. Furthermore, The whole point of ski racing is to be able to find the fastest way to get to that finish line. One more tactic I picked up was to wax my skis. Waxing allows your skis to go faster and maintain better turn handling. During the first year I began ski racing, my timing was considered terrible. Generally, it took me around a minute to finish racing down the hill. Because of this, I would usually rank last on my team. At first, I was upset that I was never able to get a good enough time, but then I realized that if I kept practicing, it would make me a better skier. So around the second year, my timing improved as I would average around 50 seconds, which was a huge improvement from last year. Unfortunately, I still was not able to accomplish a medal rank. So, I kept working on my speed by applying wax and developing better turns around the flags I would ski around. When it was the third year I ski raced, I finally accomplished a bronze medal that I had been hoping for since I’ve started. From this experience, every year I ski race, my timing improves from last year which shows huge improvement. The coach of my ski team would usually congratulate me and encourage me that there's always room for improvement. During warm up, he would remind us that were out there to give it our all. One year I went ski racing, I ended up ranking 5th on my entire team which composed of about 20 people. That is how I’ve known I have grown a long way since I first started ski
Success is not given, it is earned. Waking up for a 5am skating practice is nobody’s ideal Wednesday morning, especially for a hormonal teenager like myself. However, satisfaction of landing a new jump or learning a new spin does not come from letting our ‘wants’ buyout our dreams. “By the time we’d finished, we were amazed at how much the book had taught us: about ourselves.” I don’t always succeed, nor do I always expect to. Throughout all the morning practices and late night workouts, failure is something I have learned from. I remember giving up on myself countless times after falling on a jump or not turning my edges properly, as if I had ‘writer's-block,’ feeling completely numb. Nevertheless, succeeding was the easy part, it was learning to grow into the 6 year old singing, confident, child again, and defeating the numbness. I have learned, along the way, people are going to try to undercut your success or take credit for your hard work. However, it is the end product that matters. It will be I who knows how to complete a program, or I who knows how to work hard. Staying focused as the athlete I am, not letting people side track me, builds the confidence to know ‘I finished the
Snowshoeing is excellent exercise. But, finding the best snowshoe equipment is a harder task. Here is some information on snowshoeing and equipment you will need. Use it before purchasing your snowshoe equipment.
Cross-country skiing is as much of a competitive sport, as it is a back country one. Cross-country skiing is enjoyed by people of all ages, and can be relatively inexpensive. There is no need for lift tickets and with a little maintenance equipment can last for decades. As a result of its broad audience, many people don't realize that physics plays a large role in cross-country skiing. This web page was designed to briefly describe some of the concepts behind the physics of skiing, and give a basic understanding of both the sport and the science.
At 6pm on a Saturday evening, Sally and her parents were on their way to go skiing for their 20th time. The whole family was extremely excited and looking forward to this, especially since the place was somewhere they’d never been to before. As they were in the car, Sally was daydreaming about what the place would look like, and wondered if her worst fear would be there: ski lifts. Everything about this scared her. The car is out in the open, has no roof, and the ride could malfunction at any time. Since this unanswered question was on her mind now, she decided to ask her parents to see if they knew. “I’m just wondering, do either of you know if there are going to be ski lifts at the place?” Both of her parents paused in confusion but didn’t
One of the most visible and mutual environmental impacts of ski areas on the environment is deforestation and grading of slopes. In order to service a multitude of winter sport enthusiast, mountain slopes must be cleared of dense forest in order to make way for ski runs and lifts. With the ski industry in the US showing steady numbers (Satistica) resorts have to come up with new attractions to keep past patrons and attract new customers. One of the ways that they do this is by opening up new terrain, which increases the amount of deforestation damaging the local vegetation. Ski resorts essentially have two options in creating new terrain. First clearing runs by removing trees and other woody vegetation, leaving the topsoil and seed bank intact or by grading slopes by using bulldozers to remove any abnormalities. The second method is preferred as it is faster and more efficient and allows for the slope to be opened earlier with less snow pact.(USA) The impacts of grading slopes by bulldozing destroy the vegetation, reduce the topsoil and greatly contribute to erosion. The removal of woody vegetation can also lead to a drastic change in the local vegetation in order to keep the trails clear it requires constant trimming of the new growth of unwanted vegetation that can help anchor topsoil in place and provide better growing conditions for other plants. The destructive method of bulldozing runs not only leads to environmental degradation but also can be counter productive. According to a UC Davis study, while clearing slopes of vegetation and irregularities by bulldozer might result in opening earlier than other resorts the increase in maintenance, will likely offset any monetary gains (USA).
Skiing is a sport enjoyed by millions of people around the world. The adrenaline rush that skiers get from flying down the slopes is unmatched, but all too often the cause for this rush is overlooked. Physics plays a crucial role in skiing, and without it, there would definitely be no skiing. The concept of skiing is simple. You attach a ski to each foot, go to the top of a hill or incline, and slide down, turning side to side.
There are a few things in my life I could use to write a narrative off of, one that could really strike my mind would probably be snowboarding, not even just the aspect of snowboarding but how it is something you have the ability to do to and kind of use it as a coping mechanism, just something that lets you be at peace with yourself and not worry about anything else in the world. If you were to ask a skier or another snowboarder about the feeling I am talking about. The one where you are going up the lift for the first time of the year or even before you are about to have a nice run from the summit where you are just sitting at the top before you go down the mountain and you are just one with yourself and the mountain
One snowy Christmas day in Muskegon, Michigan, a young girl by the name of Wendy Poppen tried to stand up on her sled while sliding down the hill. Seeing this, her father Sherman ran into the garage and bolted a pair of skies together with wood to ""act as foot stops"" (Crane). While watching Wendy use the contraption, some of the local kids ran up to Sherman and asked him to build one for each of them. Little did he know that he had given birth to the “fastest growing winter sport” (Prosl) known as snowboarding. The history, simplicity, and rate of growth of snowboarding took the sport from being completely banned from ski resorts, to being accepted worldwide with its Olympic debut in 1998.
Pieter and I were determined to become proficient water skiers, while Rhea had knee issues that limited her participation. The Gibson Girl only had a forty horsepower motor, which wasn’t sufficient power for faster skiing or for doing tricks like skiing barefoot. I remember using the Comfort for some of our skiing before Dad traded the outboard for a sixteen-foot Gar Wood Junior, which had an inboard motor and more power. Pieter and I spent hours practicing the basics of getting up efficiently, skiing across the wake and then jumping the wake. It wasn’t long before we developed a passion for mastering slalom skiing. I wanted to ski all the time during that period.
Lindsey Vonn, the world’s best alpine skier since 2005, has been a truly invigorating role model and positively influenced much of my generation. In an article for Oprah magazine Vonn says, "When kids recognize me now, whether they want an autograph, a high five, or to ask me my favorite color, I never say no ... I remember that if you stay upbeat you will have a huge impact on those around you." At the age of 9, one of her skiing idols, when Lindsey asked for an autograph, "coldly said no, and walked away." Since then Vonn has been dedicated to being the amazing skiing role model that she has become. Her impressive medals and awards, her constant dedication and motivation, and her positive involvement in the community has lead her to be one
I was the first person to ski off of the chairlift that day; arriving at the summit of the Blackcomb Mountain, nestled in the heart of Whistler, Canada. It was the type of day when the clouds seemed to blanket the sky, leaving no clue that the sun, with its powerful light, even existed anymore. It was not snowing, but judging by the moist, musty, stale scent in the air, I realized it would be only a short time before the white flakes overtook the mountain. As I prepared myself to make the first run, I took a moment to appreciate my surroundings. Somehow things seemed much different up here. The wind, nonexistent at the bottom, began to gust. Its cold bite found my nose and froze my toes. Its quick and sudden swirling movement kicked loose snow into my face, forcing me to zip my jacket over my chin. It is strange how the gray clouds, which seemed so far above me at the bottom, really did not appear that high anymore. As I gazed out over the landscape, the city below seemed unrecognizable. The enormous buildings which I had driven past earlier looked like dollhouses a child migh...
Hockey. A sport I have always loved ever since I was a kid. It was when my dad had taken me to an open ice skate when my hockey life began. I had my first pair of skates as a present when I was four years old. I never really knew of the sport at the time, but now I was able to expirence it. No one was present on the ice as I entered the rink. The cold of the ice ran down my back as I took my first steps on. The cold didn’t stop me though. As I stepped upon the ice, I had a feeling of relief. Hockey is what let me go fast. Always have I been the fastest kid in my class and hockey let me expand on what I loved to do. One stride at a time I went, until I was able to glide upon the ice. My blades of my skates sunk into the ice like a lion tearing at its prey. As the frost beat against my face, I soon realized that I was able to skate. Even though it was all fuzzy in my memory, I remember feeling all types of joy rush all throughout my body. It was the first sign of potential in hockey. It was a first omen.
Skiing and snowboarding are two very different sports, that have evolved and morphed together to define an entire global industry and are now tantamount as salt and pepper. Skiing was popularized decades before the conception of snowboarding however, snowboarding was conceptualized in part, by skiing. Skiing became a mainstay when it was introduced to the Olympics, it quickly grew to dominate winter sports all over the world. The world was shocked when snowboarding made its way onto the Olympics roster and was perplexed by the influence it carried. The two sports were at war from the beginning, clashing in every possible way. As skiing and snowboarding grew and evolved, so did the winter sports industry. These sports spawned a new generation of athletes, with new trends and ideas, which have completely resuscitated the snow sports industry.
Thin air encompasses me as I commence the final day of skiing at Vail, Colorado. Seven days of skiing elapse rather painlessly; I fall occasionally but an evening in the Jacuzzi soothes my minor aches. Closing time approaches on the final day of our trip as I prepare myself for the final run of the vacation. Fresh off the ski lift, I coast toward the junction of trails on the unoccupied expert face of the mountain. After a moment of thought, I confidently select a narrow trail so steep that only the entrance can be seen from my viewpoint.
These elements must make the sport enjoyable to all involved at many levels, to provide basic leisure, to test one's abilities and to develop the individual's mental and physical boundaries. Skiing includes all of the right elements to produce a perfect sport; it provides challenge at multiple levels, involves differing levels of risk and provides variety in activities.