My Skiing Journey
By Zev Gur
On a snowy day with clear skies, my dad and I were skiing down a mountain. Fresh snow helped my skis slide smoothly down the hill, sun rays were hitting my clothes, the wind was going along my cheeks, and I was having fun. This experience motivated me to love skiing and to try my hardest to get better. Luckily, we purchased a house in Tahoe, and we visited more often, and on top of that, covid struck so I was practically living in Tahoe for 2020. I started skiing all the time during winter: after school on Fridays, weekends, and most days off. I was skiing all the time during that winter and had almost 80 days of skiing during the 2020-2021 season.
Since I didn’t know anyone when I joined the ski team, I was worried that my teammates would already be close friends with each other, and I would be all alone. That wasn't the case, and my ski teammates and I all quickly grew close. The ski team meets every weekend when Alpine Meadows ski resort is open and sometimes during the weekdays on special holidays such as winter break and ski week. Since I was living in Tahoe, I was showing up every day possible and rapidly improving my skiing skills. When we had practice, sometimes we would work on our form and ski slowly down the mountain, getting feedback from our coach, but other times we would hike to an unskied part of the mountain and get fresh tracks in the new-fallen snow. Other times we would practice for competitions by finding a particular terrain, skiing it multiple times, and finding a creative and challenging route. Sometimes the terrain would have a cliff or a lip that, if skied correctly, could launch you into the air and gain extra points. Of course, there is a right and wrong way to jump on skis; when you're landing, you should bend your knees a little bit to lessen the impact, and you should jump up a little bit before the peak of the jump, so you have more control while in the air.
One time during practice, we worked on how to correctly jump off cliffs.
"Should I send it?" I asked as I was above a cliff with my skis.
"Go for it!" my coach yelled to me from below.
"Alright, 3, 2, 1, dropping!" I screamed while skiing towards the cliff.
As I was falling, it felt like I was flying, and with the snow to cushion my fall, I landed without any pain. As I was skiing away from the cliff to a spot to watch my teammates, my coach congratulated me.
Last year, I got to go to Utah with my dad to meet another coach to help me learn new tricks. The unique thing was that it was a one-on-one lesson at a resort with only jumps, and it was made especially for learning new tricks and getting better. While I was at this place called Woodwards, I learned how to do a 180, which consists of going on a jump and turning 180° and landing backward. I also learned how to jump backward and 180° to turn back around forwards. Another cool thing I learned was a 360, and it was hard for me to learn because you have to practice on a larger jump since there is more time in the air that is needed, which was scary since most of the time I would fall.
Once I came back to California, I showed my teammates the new tricks I had learned, and they got a little jealous and started trying the tricks I had learned all the time. Soon, my entire team was doing the tricks left and right.
One time, while I was skiing with my team, we started hiking with our skis in our arms. We hiked for over an hour to get to the other side of the mountain. Fresh snow is fun to ski because it is light and fluffy; while skiing on it, it feels like you're gliding in the air. It feels like you're floating. As we got to the point where we started to ski down the mountain, I could hear screams of joy before we even started skiing while looking down at what we were about to ski. We spread out across the open area, and then we were gone. We all went down the hill and grouped back up at the bottom of the short run.
Then, our coach took us to another open area that was unskied. The great thing about fresh, unskied snow is that you don't have to worry about falling since the snow is so soft and fluffy it's hard to get hurt. Since we hiked so much, there was no one other than ourselves. We grouped back together again towards the bottom of the mountain and heading back to the resort, which required more hiking. The day was so fun since we found some fresh snow and got to feel like we were floating. I will never forget this day of pure fun!
One con about skiing is that it doesn’t snow in the Bay Area, and it’s a 4-5 hour drive to find snow in Tahoe. Another con is that even in Tahoe there isn’t snow from spring until fall, so I can’t ski ¾ of the year anyways. It sucks, except when it’s winter I try to get as many days of skiing in as possible.
I have a personal connection to skiing since I love it so much, and I ski a ton. During my winters for the past 8 years, I have been skiing with my family in many different places. Skiing is something that my entire family does and sometimes I go on trips with my dad to go skiing. Skiing is part of my identity cause it is a hobby that I love and try and do it as much as possible.
