Now it’s time to change the angle of your skis edges to follow through with the turn. As the ski tips turn your weight should move over onto both skis.Īs you reach the point facing downhill your weight should transition to be evenly split across both skis. Both skis will now be flat and facing directly downhill for a few daunting moments. The ski tips will now begin to drop downwards to face toward the gradient. This has the effect of loosening the edges of the ski so that it lies flat across the slope in preparation for the turn. As you do this shift your hips over towards your downhill ski and begin to lean downhill toward your turn. To begin the turn extend your body upward by pushing up through your knees and lean forward in one smooth movement. Preparation.īefore starting the parallel turn, make sure you have the correct skiers stance.Īssuming you are skiing sideways across the slope gradient – your weight should be across the middle of your downhill ski, your knees bent slightly with a very slight forward lean and torso rotation facing down the slope.įor beginners, it’s easier to learn to turn while you are skiing at speeds over 8-10mph (at least a joggers pace). Once you’re at this base level of experience then you can progress towards the parallel turn.
You turn but with one of the skis pointing at an angle and both skis don’t fully come together until the end of the turn. You should be at the stage where you can turn right and left with a beginner wedge or stem turn.Ī wedged turn is halfway between a parallel turn and a snowplough turn.
You should know how to snowplough and turn left and right by putting more weight into one ski than the other. Photo by Jonathan Fox Do this before learning to parallel ski.īefore learning to make your first parallel turn, you should be comfortable with skiing on green beginner slopes. Once you have both in the right position and with a bit of practice, it will suddenly all click for you – I promise.Īfter a few sessions, muscle memory will begin to develop and each movement will get easier and easier. The parallel ski is all about the position of your body weight and the angle of you ski. There will come a point where suddenly everything all slots into place and that stubborn uphill ski finally follows through with almost no effort!
When you make your first parallel turn it feels amazing and eventually it feels very natural to ski in parallel. Parallel skiing uses less energy than a wedged turn because both skis are moving in the same direction – with the edges of the skis tipped sideways which makes for a faster movement with less friction. Why it’s easier to parallel turn at speed.Body exercises to improve your parallel turn.How to use your ski poles during the parallel turn.Do this before learning to parallel ski.