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For the last several years Shred has joined Ski Racing Development and World Cup Supply in the “Fast Skier” Junior Alpine Scholarship Fund, in which young athletes can send us their applications to win a $1000 as well as gear from Shred, SRD and WCS. We are looking for athletes that are driven not just on the slopes but in school and as members of their communities.
Interested athletes may find the application by visiting: www.junioralpinescholarship.com. The application deadline is May 25, 2012. Questions can be sent to: info@worldcupsupply.com – please write “Scholarship” in the subject line.
Ted loves to Shred. He's an Olympic Gold Medalist and World Champion ski racer, all-mountain ripper and loves to push his body's limits.
I’ve always fancied myself as a good freeskier and would watch ski movies totally respecting what those guys were doing but thinking that it wouldn’t be a hard transition and I would be comfortable doing comparable lines. It turns out there is a lot more then meets the eye. First off every race I do I get to slide down the course and memorize where I’m going. Obviously you cannot do that on these lines, so you look at them from the bottom, disguise the line, take some pictures and then look at the line from the heli and take some more pics. Yet when you stand at the top of the line you can’t see anything, or the ridges are way bigger then you thought or the “small” cliff is actually huge or you can see anything until you 60 meters down the line. Outside just finding the line you thought was good, you have to deal with you sluff (mini avalanche that’s normal on these steep lines) and often times you have to ski though or land off features that have already sluffed off which look fine but it turns out those patches of not so awesome looking powder have 3 foot deep ruts and are hard-ish snow. Once you’ve made it most of the way down your line you then have to deal with the bergschrund (mini crevasse) that can be a gaping hole or a moderate sized drop off depending on the line.
Luckily Phil Meier is here, who’s a veteran Swiss big mountain skier, as well as Marcus Caston; a Shred athlete awesome skier and winner of Rahlves Banzai races but very green in this realm too. Phil knows what he’s doing and has dispersed a plethora of advice and knowledge to both of us along the way. Our guides Lel and Rich with Chugach Powder Guides have been extremely helpful as well. I cannot give enough credit to them for helping gauge the lines, finding the good snow and talk us out of doing stupid lines and into good lines.
The first day here was a real eye opener. First filming run Phil lined up a big spine, 4 turns in a slab broke off starting an avalanche that swept him off his feet and into the chute. He deployed his ABS pack and was right on the surface and fine when he came back into site at the bottom. I was standing 10 meters from the crown at the top and was sufficiently scared. Needless to say that ended our first day.
After watching a seasoned vet like Phil take a real ride, we took it back a few notches and have been easing our way back into some of the bigger lines. I’ve taken a few tumbles each of which has taught me a lesson, so that I’m not totally naive to this scene, yet I’ll still admit I’m very green.
Phil Meier one turn before he starts the avalanche
"Spine Cell" where Phil took his ride.
Awesome face.
View from the top of the above awesome face.
Fun leg burner.
Ted loves to Shred. He's an Olympic Gold Medalist and World Champion ski racer, all-mountain ripper and loves to push his body's limits.Like this image? Vote for it by clicking any of the social buttons above.
Your Name – Thanasis Samalekis
What of the 3 Themes? – Why I Shred
Location the Images was Shot – Top of Kaimaktsalan mountain (Greece) 2480 meters
Who Is in This Picture? – My self
Describe Your Image – This image shows Serbian memorial for their dead during World War A in kaimaktsalan mountain in Greece. This is the reason i love snowboard!Exploring new places, exploring the nature!
Stephan works with the SHRED and SLYTECH team and loves to ski, surf, sup and windsurf.On December 23, I will be racing in the V Pay Alpine Rockfest in Paganella, Italy. It will be the second race of its kind; the first was in 2009 in which I was 4th. I’m very excited for this race since it’s the best-run race; it has a great format to compete in and to watch and it’s nice to have races outside the monotony and monopoly of FIS.
I’ve always believed ski racing is presented and formatted poorly. I can’t think of any successful sports that have a 3-hour half time and fans only see their favorite athlete twice for a max of 4 minutes. I can’t imagine going to a basketball game to watch Lebron James play for 1 minute then wait 3-hours to see him play for another minute. It would not make sense for TV or the fans. Yet this is how a ski race is run. I race at 9am for 1 minute 20 then wait until 1:30pm to do my second run. How is a fan supposed to get into that, live or on TV? Suppose ski racing had to keep the two run format and had to have 70 racers in the field; make the second run 15 minutes after the last racer first run. Instead of setting a whole new course for second run just redress the course and do a little course work then race without an inspection. (That goes for GS, in slalom have both courses set in the morning and we have to inspect both before the first run). If number 70 qualifies they would have to hustle but that’s similar to what we do in training. Though this still doesn’t solve the problem of TV presentation and lag time for fans at the venue since most people only pay attention to the first 30 racers.
If I had my druthers’ I would cut the field to 35-40 racers have a 30-40 second course, have 5 runs all on the same course and after each run the field gets cut in half (30, 16, 8, 4, 2=winner). (The top 30 get to start every race but the next 5-10 qualifies through Europa Cups). When you get to the finish you jump on a snowmobile to the start and go again, (If you qualify). This would create constant action and if you are say an Aksel Lund Svindal fan you can see him race several runs. This is similar to how the Alpine Rockfest is done which is more enjoyable to race and watch.
Along with formatting changes, every GS and SL should be held at night. That way most tourists near the area of the race (significant number in most winter resort areas) would come to the race for evening entertainment, instead of now most skiers prefer to ski during the day, so the race misses a huge number of spectators at the venue and on TV because people are skiing. (As they should be). This would also create a party atmosphere since there could be a band playing (like Rockfest) which would draw more then just hardcore ski fans, which should be the goal.
Downhill and SuperG would unfortunately not benefit from these changes but something needs to be done to make the speed events more exciting. Outside Beaver Creek, Kitzbuhel and Wengen, most downhills are pretty boring to watch unless you’re somehow intimately involved. Downhill used to be far more exciting when the jumps were huge, racers were going straight and the tracks were bumpy and icy. Now they have no real jumps, just sweeping turns and are mostly smooth which has made them far easier and in many cases more dangerous. (Counter intuitive I know, but smoother courses are generally faster. Jumps and bumps slow racers down more then the current use of chicanes and wider turns. Grugger’s crash was because of the turns above the Mausefalle, not the jump). What they should do is on courses like Lake Louise, Garmisch or Val Gardena etc is build artificial terrain, more jumps perhaps bank turns, whatever get creative since most of those courses have 60 seconds or more of boring gliding. Downhill is hardcore and dangerous. Yet most downhills don’t look it or feel it, until a racer’s in the hospital.
Aside from formatting changes and such ski racing needs to utilize the technology out there. There is no reason that racers’ current speed should not be on the Jumbo-tron and on TV as the racer is competing. Camera angles are also a problem; coaches on the side of the hill often shoot better footage (not in quality but in show casing skiing) then the TV crews. Most TV angles don’t show our speed and the difficulty of the hill well, there are many creative ways (Rockfest had a cable cam last time) to shoot us in a more appealing fashion.
There are ways (far more then the one’s I’ve mentioned) to make this sport more popular and cool again. Unfortunately the one’s running World Cup and FIS are stubborn, controlling and clueless. Instead of investing in making our sport better they are slowly breeding it dry by creating stifling rules and running a monopoly on ski racing. It’s events like Rockfest that can breath new life into ski racing. If only there were more like them.
More info at www.vpayalpinerockfest.com
Ted
Ted loves to Shred. He's an Olympic Gold Medalist and World Champion ski racer, all-mountain ripper and loves to push his body's limits.Pete Lavin, better known as Baby Huey… his job is to ignite our shredders on the U.S. ski team before they shred down the course. Here is why Huey Shreds:
Carlo founded Shred with Ted and is the principal engineer on the team. He loves to ski, surf and mtb.Last week I wrote about my lack of gliding skills and how frustrating it was to get killed on easy flat downhills. Some of the best gliding advise I gotten, was from Hans Olsson (one of the World’s Best Gliders) last year when he said I should point my toes in my boots when gliding which has helped. Normally I ski with dorsi flexion (pulling toes up) to get more ankle flexion and have better edge control, but this has turned out to be slow when gliding. Seemingly in response to last weeks post Hans posted “Tuck like a champion” on his blog: Hans-Olsson.com
Copied from his page
Tuck like a champion. November 18, 2011
Coming up on the mountain this morning, things were not looking very good. 15cm of fresh powder on top of our freshly injected hill, is normally = f####g Disaster!! I know you can do a lot if you get access to a ratrac & good coaches to give instructions, but today a new level of amazingness was reached. They turned up side down on the whole situation & took out some “gandalf the grey” magic & turned the hill into the icy pist we were looking for!!
Gs went well I must say. Feeling good with the setup.
Yes I´m in a Finish suit, my bag is still missing from my Frankfurt-Calgary flight, but they say its on the way now!!
I´m really satisfied how the DH skis felt on the test track today. although the snow was cold & aggressive they felt slippery & fast!!
So lets go over to some tucking instructions…
Are you a ski racer & have a hard time killing the flats, well listen up…
Tucking ABC..
What NOT to do.
*Do not go to deep in the tuck! That way you can´t absorb all the small bumps & its very hard to move smoothly during a turn.
*Do not lean forward & have pressure on the front of the skis. That makes the skis want to turn instead of floating nice on top of the snow.
*Do not dip you ass low to get the pressure on you tails, that makes your aerodynamic suck nuts+ you can´t absorb bumps in a effective way!
Do not go to a wind tunnel & try to find the best tuck possible. Just because its the best aerodynamic position dosen´t mean its the fastest position while skiing! Your stans, pressure points, absorbing abilities are way more important factors in the search of speed!
What to do…
*Try to have your ass as high up as possible, without dipping your arms & upper body to low. That creates a aerodynamic position that still allows you to move freely & relaxed!
*Make sure you have your knees in a perfect straight parallel position, imagen your self being a sled!
*Make sure to have properly bent poles that fits your tuck!
*Focus while tucking, use every little bump as your friend & try to create speed instead of loosing speed on them!
*If your not fast on the flats & you think its boring to work on your gliding skills… Well go & have some MC Donalds, make sure to super size your meals. Yes thats right, “meals” & not meal, one meal is for sure not enough!!
Questions will for sure be answered by Dr Liontuck!
/Hans
Ted loves to Shred. He's an Olympic Gold Medalist and World Champion ski racer, all-mountain ripper and loves to push his body's limits.Today we trained for the first time at our new US training base in Copper Mtn. The training center is mostly based around creating early season speed training, which is a rarity and even more so if it’s good. This is where Copper steps in, since Copper is at around 10,000 feet they almost always have the mountain open in early November, just in time to prep for the first World Cup speed races. This year we have our own run and lift, complete with A-net, new snow making and the works. This should be a major boon for us for years to come.
Downhill has always been a little perplexing to me, especially gliding. Put me on a steep turny course and I can hang with the best of them but if it’s soft and flat, guys that would be lucky to break top 400 in the world in GS can crush me. (I’m not referring to the guys skiing today but past skiers.) It can be a little frustrating. Watching the best downhill gliders in the world I see that I have to unlearn everything I have worked on in my skiing, instead of being over the outside ski you need to lean in and rotate to start the turn, instead of taking the turns deep you need to take a shallower line. Sprinkle on a little magic and you’re a glider. All so counterintuitive and all things that wouldn’t allow you to buy a GS turn.
On to today, the new speed track here in Copper has a sizable amount of flats at the top and with that it’s snowed a bunch over the last couple days so it’s pretty soft, not exactly my specialty. For not being on downhill skis in a while and not being a glider I felt pretty good and consistent. I figured I’d be a little ways off the fastest guys but not seconds with an emphasis on the plurality of the word. (Austrians trained with us so there was a good gauge of fast.) When I finally saw the times a few hours after training the perplexity of downhill really set in; it was a 90 second course, I ranged between 2-4 seconds out with no rhyme or reason. Riddle me that. After watching Kroell and others I see that I still need to rotate and lean in more while going shallower. I’ve yet to hear a coach tangibly explain glide turns, for example they say less edge angle then you can’t make the radius/next gate. Gliders aren’t much better at explaining it either. A two second disparity between seemingly similar runs really makes me glad I’m not solely a speed skier. In tech being fast is so tangible, arc more, go straighter, take it deeper etc. I can watch GS and SL races and with phenomenal accuracy guess peoples times within tenths. When you’re slow the reasons are mostly obvious and the things to work on are easy to grasp. In speed two seemingly identical runs can be seconds apart which might as well be worlds.
Ted loves to Shred. He's an Olympic Gold Medalist and World Champion ski racer, all-mountain ripper and loves to push his body's limits.Jimmy and I have have improved upon our backpack mount. I tried it in GS too but it sticks out a few feet off our back so it hits too many gates or I have to ski 4 feet off the gates.
Youtube version
Vimeo version
Ted loves to Shred. He's an Olympic Gold Medalist and World Champion ski racer, all-mountain ripper and loves to push his body's limits.
