I utterly freaked out when I realized the winter was well underway and there had been no skiing of any kind whatsoever for any of our family. So I scheduled a ski outing with Ben for today, wisely keeping it a secret until it was time to climb into longjohns and load the car. Ben has issues with anticipation, to put it mildly.
To my surprise and great pride, he did a marvelous job! Not only did he manage to ski long into what most folks would call lunch time (thereby missing the worst of the crowds of the lodge), but he really pulled some skills out of his hat. Last year I was pretty much a crane, holding his full body weight while he glided on the skis. This year I stepped aside pretty quickly to let him glide or crash on his own. And in a very short span of time, he had it!
The current teaching mode is "french fry" (parallel skis) vs. "pizza" (snowplow position). It definitely helped, though he voted to substitute "pie" for "pizza." Whatever works. Riding up the Magic Carpet lift was another matter. The sucker is slippery! So standing in parallel meant sliding backwards while the carpet itself went forward. So we improvised, devising a "backwards pizza/pie" to keep from falling back.
I wisely skipped using my own ski gear this year, which meant I could concentrate on his skiing and gear, keeping good traction and comfortable feet in my apres-ski boots. We finished up with lunch at the lodge and he was delighted to find yogurt and muffins, since he won't eat any of the usual kid favorites like mac and cheese, hot dogs, burgers, etc. Sigh.
Anyway, great expedition and I'm determined to get him out another time or two this year. Next year I think we'll spring for some professional lessons and he'll be good to go (Just in time to ski with Grandma and Buppa!).
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