Adventures in Bi-Skiing
Feb. 1st, 2020 05:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
anarfeaSo, I'm on week two of my six week Adaptive Ski program, and this afternoon a number of students didn't show up, so we had an impromptu clinic on the bi-ski.
A word on what the bi-ski is: it's basically a sled, with two small skis as runners, a seat (which we call a "bucket"), and a trough to hold the skier's legs. Outriggers can either be fixed to the sides of the ski or held in the skier's hands. The outriggers are basically itty bitty skies (mine were actually the tips of regular skis that had been cut off). It's more stable than it's cousin the mono-ski, which has only one, usually wider, ski. These are for more athletic skiers who have strong upper bodies, as they are always used with handheld outriggers. A bi-ski is usually used by skiers with less strength and mobility or who have paralysis higher up the body.
Anyway, this afternoon, I pretended to be a student so that the guys could practice loading and unloading the bi-ski from the chair lift and tethering it. Tethering is basically when someone skis behind the bi-ski using nylon leashes to control it. Primarily you are acting as a brake to keep the bi-ski from going too fast, but you can also steer it by pulling on the tethers. How much steering you need to do depends on the abilities of the sit skier. I have never been in a bi-ski before and have pretty much no bi-skiing ability, so they used fixed outriggers which are basically like training wheels. If everything is going well, the ski should actually balance on the longer skies. But if we get off balance, the outriggers are there to keep the ski from tipping over.
In theory. LOL. Actually, we tipped over a lot. This is why they were using me instead of a real student. But I had fun. The feeling of a bi ski is totally different from being a stand up skier. When you're skiing, usually you are absorbing small bumps and what not by flexing your knees. The bi-ski has a shock absorber which lets it bounce up and down, but it's still a much rougher ride than skiing standing up. And again, they were pretending I was pretty paralyzed, so they were having me initiate turns by turning my head to the right or left (which actually shifts the balance of the ski quite a bit). I could also lean my upper body to the right or left.
I really have newfound respect for our students. I really appreciated the amount of trust a sit-skier places in their handlers. When I was tipped over, I was completely helpless. The ski is heavy and I had no outriggers, so all I could do is lay there on the snow until someone picked me up. It was really eye-opening. Loading and unloading the lift was also fun. They basically picked me up and lifted me, bi-ski and all, into the seat, and then scooted me off and set me on the ground. Also, riding the chair I was sitting way up high, which was a different prospective. But again, it requires so much trust. The ski has a safety clip that attaches to the lift to keep it from falling off the chair. Still, it's scary being way up high and being totally reliant on other people.
Anyway, here's a pic of me on the bi-ski.
You can't see the outriggers in this picture; they took them off so they could "bucket" me down the bunny slope. "Bucketing" is when a handler gets right up behind the bi-ski and pushes it. We did this on the bunny slope because it's so flat it's hard to get enough speed to get the bi ski going. The physics of skiing dictate that it's actually easier to ski fast, because you're working with gravity and sort of flowing in the stream of it. The ski naturally drifts towards the fall line (the path a snowball would take if you rolled it down the hill), and you only shift your weight to steer. When you're going slow, it's actually a lot harder to control the bi-ski. This was something my handlers struggled with because they were afraid to let me go fast. But I got to go fast when the instructor was demonstrating, and it was a lot of fun. I'm glad that we provide this experience to our student-athletes.
A word on what the bi-ski is: it's basically a sled, with two small skis as runners, a seat (which we call a "bucket"), and a trough to hold the skier's legs. Outriggers can either be fixed to the sides of the ski or held in the skier's hands. The outriggers are basically itty bitty skies (mine were actually the tips of regular skis that had been cut off). It's more stable than it's cousin the mono-ski, which has only one, usually wider, ski. These are for more athletic skiers who have strong upper bodies, as they are always used with handheld outriggers. A bi-ski is usually used by skiers with less strength and mobility or who have paralysis higher up the body.
Anyway, this afternoon, I pretended to be a student so that the guys could practice loading and unloading the bi-ski from the chair lift and tethering it. Tethering is basically when someone skis behind the bi-ski using nylon leashes to control it. Primarily you are acting as a brake to keep the bi-ski from going too fast, but you can also steer it by pulling on the tethers. How much steering you need to do depends on the abilities of the sit skier. I have never been in a bi-ski before and have pretty much no bi-skiing ability, so they used fixed outriggers which are basically like training wheels. If everything is going well, the ski should actually balance on the longer skies. But if we get off balance, the outriggers are there to keep the ski from tipping over.
In theory. LOL. Actually, we tipped over a lot. This is why they were using me instead of a real student. But I had fun. The feeling of a bi ski is totally different from being a stand up skier. When you're skiing, usually you are absorbing small bumps and what not by flexing your knees. The bi-ski has a shock absorber which lets it bounce up and down, but it's still a much rougher ride than skiing standing up. And again, they were pretending I was pretty paralyzed, so they were having me initiate turns by turning my head to the right or left (which actually shifts the balance of the ski quite a bit). I could also lean my upper body to the right or left.
I really have newfound respect for our students. I really appreciated the amount of trust a sit-skier places in their handlers. When I was tipped over, I was completely helpless. The ski is heavy and I had no outriggers, so all I could do is lay there on the snow until someone picked me up. It was really eye-opening. Loading and unloading the lift was also fun. They basically picked me up and lifted me, bi-ski and all, into the seat, and then scooted me off and set me on the ground. Also, riding the chair I was sitting way up high, which was a different prospective. But again, it requires so much trust. The ski has a safety clip that attaches to the lift to keep it from falling off the chair. Still, it's scary being way up high and being totally reliant on other people.
Anyway, here's a pic of me on the bi-ski.
You can't see the outriggers in this picture; they took them off so they could "bucket" me down the bunny slope. "Bucketing" is when a handler gets right up behind the bi-ski and pushes it. We did this on the bunny slope because it's so flat it's hard to get enough speed to get the bi ski going. The physics of skiing dictate that it's actually easier to ski fast, because you're working with gravity and sort of flowing in the stream of it. The ski naturally drifts towards the fall line (the path a snowball would take if you rolled it down the hill), and you only shift your weight to steer. When you're going slow, it's actually a lot harder to control the bi-ski. This was something my handlers struggled with because they were afraid to let me go fast. But I got to go fast when the instructor was demonstrating, and it was a lot of fun. I'm glad that we provide this experience to our student-athletes.
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Date: 2020-02-04 04:13 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-02-06 09:02 pm (UTC)