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Great racers are great skiers. Great tree-skiers are great skiers. Great bumpers are great skiers. I most admire skiers who surprise me by venturing outside the category into which I tend to put them. I remember seeing old film footage of the Mahre brothers, years ago, messing around in powder...

Thank you, Tony, for pointing to the heart of the matter. Cannon's natural-snow trails, during any season, not just this particularly bad season, are often closed. When they are open, they are often rocky. For those skiers who don't ski Cannon day in and day out, but who pick and choose their...

So, Rivercoil, to put the whole mogul issue aside and follow your logic.... Would you like to see Cannon without snowmaking all together, like Mittersill? ...because you think it's worth your while to wait for those natural snow days? I'm guessing you'd answer "no" to this. So, which trails...

Rivercoil, You don't understand. I literally grew up on the natural bumps under the Zoomer chair. I learned and trained on Cannon's natural bumps, competed on all-natural bumps, taught on Cannon's natural bumps, and never even skied seeded courses until the last few years. (I'm 40 yrs...

Rivercoil, As a lifetime Cannon skier, someone who's done 50-100 days per season at Cannon between '98 and '05, and the person who founded and taught the ski school mogul / terrain-park class to which HD refers, I can tell you that much of what he says is true. In your response to his first...

Sure. Yes, that's part of it, Jim. -DD

CJ, Simply practice your narrow mogul skier's stance on groomed terrain. Pin your boots and knees together and ski. Practice until you can ski the flats with a narrow stance, an upright torso, and hips never getting back over the heels, hips always driving forward, down the hill. Make fast...

JimG... representing at Hunter! You're fighting the good fight, Jim. -Dan D

That's music to my ears, Ryan. Really glad to know that you find my book useful. These mogul-specific techniques really do work, and the surprising thing for many is that the techniques are not especially difficult to execute (as mogul myths would have it) once you know what they are. Thanks for...

:-) -Dan D

Joe, Good to hear you've got your Loon bumps in. What midweek days do you typically ski? Let me know how those bumps hold up with the rain. Will Loon dust them with a little man-made if everything freezes solid? ...or just mow them down? -Dan D

CJ, When you teach them the right techniques, this 1/3 of the mainstream, so far as my on-snow lessons have proved, loves the zipper line. It's traditional instruction that has made students ski bumps like instructors. I never once had a student say, "Oh, hey, wait a minute. I wanted to learn...

Okay, so let's bring this thread back home. Why, in a nut shell, do bump skiers rule? ...assuming, that is, that they do rule. Here's my shot at it: 1) ...because they learn to balance in the most balance-adverse conditions; 2) ...because they develop, by necessity, extraordinary quickness; 3)...

Hi Joe, ...and we had a great contest on that same Tyler bump course this past weekend (7th, 8th). Over 100 young competitors competed in bumps and big air this weekend. Waterville was the high-scoring team, and our athletes captured both boys and girls overall titles for the weekend. The most...

I agree with Jim here, and would add that the mogul student should be a fit, advanced-level groomed-trail skier to start with. Then you take that skier and say, "okay, here are the special techniques you should use in the bumps." On another note... I was just thinking that, if the PSIA ever did...

Good point, Jim. No, it's not easy to say, "Whoops, hey, sorry, we all changed our minds about that" and to sound professional doing it. But a little Ralph Waldo Emerson could help them get around that; "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds...." -Dan

Why the instructing establishment's resistance to mogul technique? Here's my take on it: About 35 years ago (before modern mogul techniques existed), racers, racing coaches and instructors all agreed that the racer's carved turn was, essentially, the key to all good skiing. Instructors built...

Ryan, Among PSIA folks and even among some USST folks (I hear they're sharing office space or something in Park City these days, trying to unify their philosophies and teachings), there's huge pressure to assimilate mogul-skiing instruction and coaching into the mainstream model of "proper"...

Wow. Great conversation, here. Love it! Ryan, thanks for giving my book a try, and I hope you like it. Yes, it's available at LearnMoguls.com, Amazon.com, and everywhere new books are sold. And thanks, Jim, for your strong recommendation. A few ideas: 1. Joe, when I teach mogul fundamentals...

Wow, things are happening fast here. You guys slipped three or four comments in while I was writing that last one. (Hey Joe. Hey Jim.) I really don't want to make this pick-on-Ryan day, but, Ryan, I have to disagree with you again. Firstly, you can get only so far in the bumps with your feet...