Replying to Teaching Starters
So today me and my buddy were out on the hill, and the entire 6 hour we were there I was begging him to finally come to the park and try out some rails and boxes. He eventually gave in, so I started off with teaching him a simple 180 off the box. He got that down pretty nice, so I figured I'd take him over to some rails and see how he could do. Since I broke my arm 3 times last year and couldn't get any skiing in, at all, I hadn't hit rails in a long time. Needless to say I wasn't the best option for teaching him the rails. Then this guy who we had seen filming for an edit earlier came up, and started taking my bud friend through the entire process of getting onto the rail and getting off it, he was cool about it and above all impressively patient with all the questions asked. (Keep in mind these questions are coming from a racer wearing 100 flex Lange boots and his dads old green snowpants complete with goggle gap.) He tried it twice, and both attempts were pretty brutal, but he decided something after his last try. As soon as the guy got finished showing him the ropes, he skied down to set an example and threw a pretty smooth 270 off before riding away. Immediately afterwards my friend said "I think I haven't given park skiing enough credit for its difficulty and it's community, let's come back here tomorrow and hot lap the park all day. That'll be a way for me to get my rails down." I thought it was awesome that the guy pretty much just changed my friends opinion on park skiing with a few minutes of kind explanation and patience. But anyways, I believe the edit they were filming for will be called "Afton Alps Objects," and they run the Electric Snail Video Crew. Check em out on Facebook, good stuff. On a last note, post some experiences you've had with skiers who were substantially better than you but still went out of their way to help you out.
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