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 Customer Reviews
Ticks all the boxes, 23 Oct 2008
Makes a change to find a practical guide book which has such a good feel to it that it can just as easily be a coffee table book. Lovely quality with matt print and top photos. Suits the armchair skier as much as the hardcore! Will be giving this as an Xmas present to many keen skier friends who have everything!
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Customer Reviews
Ticks all the boxes, 23 Oct 2008
Makes a change to find a practical guide book which has such a good feel to it that it can just as easily be a coffee table book. Lovely quality with matt print and top photos. Suits the armchair skier as much as the hardcore! Will be giving this as an Xmas present to many keen skier friends who have everything! Excellent for intermediate/advanced skiers who have had formal lessons!, 17 Feb 2007
I have to say that for me (can ski anything on-piste) this book is fab!!
It is ideal for good skiers who have had formal lessons in the past on snow. It won't make as much sense if you were taught by mates as the chapters build on the traditional snowplough, stem turn, parallell approach. Having learnt in Italy and France i got so far and then started to struggle on sustaining good technique on steeper slopes. In the last couple of years I have had 2 private lessons by an English & a Canadian instructor who were able to communicate the 'feel and flow' parts of the skiing technique that I was missing on carving skis. Like many I tried to apply the way I had been taught 15 years ago to newer carving ski technology which does not work.
As soon as I started reading I knew exactly what the author was talking about. The drills were similar to those in the 3 hours of private lessons that I had had. What I was reading made sense and I could easily apply it to my skiing.
If you just want to ski and not bothered by technique then this is not the book for you. If you are willing to read it and practise some of the techniques and drills then they will benefit your skiing. Having now skied 9 weeks out of the last 15 years I found his advice and instruction very useful as did my mate (her partner has still not forgiven me for lending it to her -something to do with her reading it at 5am by headtorch!)
The chapters on equipment are very useful. Skiing technology just keeps changing and his descriptions are easy to understand. Out of the group I have just been with they helped one skier sort heel lift with orthotics, another with black toe problems and another whose skiing was adversely affected as the flex was adjusted wrongly - our skiing all massively improved as a result. I can't agree with all the comments!, 20 Nov 2006
It's a good basic book and a useful reference. But it won't make you a good skier and it certainly won't make you "an advanced skier overnight".
If you're anything but a beginner take a look at "The Athletic Skier" by Warren Witherell and see what a really good ski manual is all about. Top notch - still a reference book for me, 24 Oct 2006
I'm a Ski Instructor and can heartily recommend this book.. especially the section on "you can blame your equipment sometimes" ! I used it myself a few years ago when I was preparing for my instructor exams and found it an excellent read. The exercises are useful too and some of them have found their way into a number of my high-end lessons.
It's also good in that it's a modern book - ski technology has changed over the years and therefore so has technique. This book is up to date, as opposed to some (although still excellent in some areas) other books that are now becoming dated.
As others have said, it's not a book for beginners but if you have an idea of proper ski control, body management etc. it can give you a good headstart for a week away and will make an instructors life easier when you go for tune-up lessons ! It just clicks ater reading this book!, 22 Jan 2006
. For someone interested in skiing well, especially the technical side of things, this book is a god send! The author explains things in a detailed manner which is really easy to take on board. I read this book before skiing for two weeks in Austria, on the third day I was skiing fast,(let's face it anybody can) but with perfect control,(not many people can) on any run. It seems like when an instructor is repeating the same thing over and over again your brain just dosen't take it in. However, once you've realised for yourself what you should be donig, it just clicks! The book is is split into common sensed chapters starting with building a collection of basic skills, the author calls this a tool box, tackling basics like; stance, edging, pressure control then moves onto specific techniques for powder, moguls and steeps among other things blending tools from the toolbox to hone a good technique in the differint conditions. I concentrated on one chapter per day, practicing what the author preached. It worked great. There is drills to help emphasis certain technique particulars and also trouble shooting section in each chapter if you still have problems. One of my favourite things in each chapter is that the author tells you what you should see and feel through the skis and your tracks when you get it right. Often this is very simple and you may remember from previuos experience when you have got it right. However, sometimes it's very discreet and you would never have realised. There is also a good section on tuning skis referring to edge angle and binding tuning, although it is a bit ahead of my standard but worth a read never the less. By working with this book you could easily be one of those people everyone watches from the lift! This book is well worth the money and I would definatley buy it if you feel your not getting anywhere with lessons. Maybe your just sick of waiting for all the slow ones to catch up! Lessons aren't cheap at the end of the day and it's a fraction of the price. Although I have skied before a with a good level of instruction, my skiing and understanding of it definatley improved due to this book. Everyone has give 5 stars for a reason, thats why I bought it.
The best ski book. For anyone except total beginners., 21 Jan 2004
Some people will never be able to get any benefit from reading a book on a sport. Not everyone can take the knowledge of _how_ something should be done and the advice on how it should look/feel, and be thinking about it when they are trying to perform the action later. For them, all such books are wasted efforts. Luckily for me I get real benefits from these sorts of books if they are done well. Especially in sports that are technical and often counter-intuitive, which skiing certain is. This book is superb example of a sports manual and it does all that one could hope for in a book. For me the most useful aspects of the book are:
- the author explaining to you in detail what is happening when you ski, how it works, what your body does and what the skis do
- how it should _feel_ to do something right. This allows you to have a goal to work towards and goes some way to addressing the disadvantages of not having an instructor.
- the drills The overall structure of the book is also a strong point. The author breaks down 'skiing' into stance, steering, edging, body movement etc and goes into great detail on each. This helps you to target areas more specifically and find where lies the weakness that seems to be holding you back. There is also a great section on choosing your equipment, and perhaps more importantly, having it set up correctly. Later on in the book the chapters move away from this 'toolbox' approach and onto how a skier should use their tools ski in a certain manner and to deal with different terrain and conditions (steeps, crud, trees, bumps). This sections of the book feels like getting the best advice your instructor/friends ever gave you. Certainly you then have to get out there and do it in order to learn, but at least you know what you should be doing, how it should feel, what your problems may be etc. I have already gone on long enough, but in closing I would remind anyone reading how much even 1 hour of tuition costs. Even if you don't get as much out of this book as I did it is a bargain, and the _only_ book I would recommend. I would defy anyone to read it and not feel that they have learned something which they can use to improve their skiing.
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Mastering Mountain Bike Skills
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Brian LopesLee McCormack;
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Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
*Best price found from Amazon Marketplace seller
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*Amazon: £7.60
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Customer Reviews
Ticks all the boxes, 23 Oct 2008
Makes a change to find a practical guide book which has such a good feel to it that it can just as easily be a coffee table book. Lovely quality with matt print and top photos. Suits the armchair skier as much as the hardcore! Will be giving this as an Xmas present to many keen skier friends who have everything! Excellent for intermediate/advanced skiers who have had formal lessons!, 17 Feb 2007
I have to say that for me (can ski anything on-piste) this book is fab!!
It is ideal for good skiers who have had formal lessons in the past on snow. It won't make as much sense if you were taught by mates as the chapters build on the traditional snowplough, stem turn, parallell approach. Having learnt in Italy and France i got so far and then started to struggle on sustaining good technique on steeper slopes. In the last couple of years I have had 2 private lessons by an English & a Canadian instructor who were able to communicate the 'feel and flow' parts of the skiing technique that I was missing on carving skis. Like many I tried to apply the way I had been taught 15 years ago to newer carving ski technology which does not work.
As soon as I started reading I knew exactly what the author was talking about. The drills were similar to those in the 3 hours of private lessons that I had had. What I was reading made sense and I could easily apply it to my skiing.
If you just want to ski and not bothered by technique then this is not the book for you. If you are willing to read it and practise some of the techniques and drills then they will benefit your skiing. Having now skied 9 weeks out of the last 15 years I found his advice and instruction very useful as did my mate (her partner has still not forgiven me for lending it to her -something to do with her reading it at 5am by headtorch!)
The chapters on equipment are very useful. Skiing technology just keeps changing and his descriptions are easy to understand. Out of the group I have just been with they helped one skier sort heel lift with orthotics, another with black toe problems and another whose skiing was adversely affected as the flex was adjusted wrongly - our skiing all massively improved as a result. I can't agree with all the comments!, 20 Nov 2006
It's a good basic book and a useful reference. But it won't make you a good skier and it certainly won't make you "an advanced skier overnight".
If you're anything but a beginner take a look at "The Athletic Skier" by Warren Witherell and see what a really good ski manual is all about. Top notch - still a reference book for me, 24 Oct 2006
I'm a Ski Instructor and can heartily recommend this book.. especially the section on "you can blame your equipment sometimes" ! I used it myself a few years ago when I was preparing for my instructor exams and found it an excellent read. The exercises are useful too and some of them have found their way into a number of my high-end lessons.
It's also good in that it's a modern book - ski technology has changed over the years and therefore so has technique. This book is up to date, as opposed to some (although still excellent in some areas) other books that are now becoming dated.
As others have said, it's not a book for beginners but if you have an idea of proper ski control, body management etc. it can give you a good headstart for a week away and will make an instructors life easier when you go for tune-up lessons ! It just clicks ater reading this book!, 22 Jan 2006
. For someone interested in skiing well, especially the technical side of things, this book is a god send! The author explains things in a detailed manner which is really easy to take on board. I read this book before skiing for two weeks in Austria, on the third day I was skiing fast,(let's face it anybody can) but with perfect control,(not many people can) on any run. It seems like when an instructor is repeating the same thing over and over again your brain just dosen't take it in. However, once you've realised for yourself what you should be donig, it just clicks! The book is is split into common sensed chapters starting with building a collection of basic skills, the author calls this a tool box, tackling basics like; stance, edging, pressure control then moves onto specific techniques for powder, moguls and steeps among other things blending tools from the toolbox to hone a good technique in the differint conditions. I concentrated on one chapter per day, practicing what the author preached. It worked great. There is drills to help emphasis certain technique particulars and also trouble shooting section in each chapter if you still have problems. One of my favourite things in each chapter is that the author tells you what you should see and feel through the skis and your tracks when you get it right. Often this is very simple and you may remember from previuos experience when you have got it right. However, sometimes it's very discreet and you would never have realised. There is also a good section on tuning skis referring to edge angle and binding tuning, although it is a bit ahead of my standard but worth a read never the less. By working with this book you could easily be one of those people everyone watches from the lift! This book is well worth the money and I would definatley buy it if you feel your not getting anywhere with lessons. Maybe your just sick of waiting for all the slow ones to catch up! Lessons aren't cheap at the end of the day and it's a fraction of the price. Although I have skied before a with a good level of instruction, my skiing and understanding of it definatley improved due to this book. Everyone has give 5 stars for a reason, thats why I bought it.
The best ski book. For anyone except total beginners., 21 Jan 2004
Some people will never be able to get any benefit from reading a book on a sport. Not everyone can take the knowledge of _how_ something should be done and the advice on how it should look/feel, and be thinking about it when they are trying to perform the action later. For them, all such books are wasted efforts. Luckily for me I get real benefits from these sorts of books if they are done well. Especially in sports that are technical and often counter-intuitive, which skiing certain is. This book is superb example of a sports manual and it does all that one could hope for in a book. For me the most useful aspects of the book are:
- the author explaining to you in detail what is happening when you ski, how it works, what your body does and what the skis do
- how it should _feel_ to do something right. This allows you to have a goal to work towards and goes some way to addressing the disadvantages of not having an instructor.
- the drills The overall structure of the book is also a strong point. The author breaks down 'skiing' into stance, steering, edging, body movement etc and goes into great detail on each. This helps you to target areas more specifically and find where lies the weakness that seems to be holding you back. There is also a great section on choosing your equipment, and perhaps more importantly, having it set up correctly. Later on in the book the chapters move away from this 'toolbox' approach and onto how a skier should use their tools ski in a certain manner and to deal with different terrain and conditions (steeps, crud, trees, bumps). This sections of the book feels like getting the best advice your instructor/friends ever gave you. Certainly you then have to get out there and do it in order to learn, but at least you know what you should be doing, how it should feel, what your problems may be etc. I have already gone on long enough, but in closing I would remind anyone reading how much even 1 hour of tuition costs. Even if you don't get as much out of this book as I did it is a bargain, and the _only_ book I would recommend. I would defy anyone to read it and not feel that they have learned something which they can use to improve their skiing.
This excellent book is called MASTERING mountain bike skills!, 21 Jul 2008
I rarely write reviews, but this one deserves a good review and also deserves the record to be set straight with respect to a couple of previous reviews. Specifically, buying a book called MASTERING mountain bike skills (the clue is in the title) and complaining that it is not suitable for beginners is akin to buying a book on vegetarian cookery and complaining that it does not have enough meat dishes in it.
This book is by far the best skills book for anyone who has mastered the basics. It has a mass of detail in it. There are hundreds of hints and tips and the book pays dividends when read a few times over simply because there is so much info in it. I'm kind of gobsmacked at some of the bizarre criticisms I've read here. It's a shame these critics haven't named the books they have found superior. In over 10 years of riding I haven't seen another book/magazine/website/DVD that comes anywhere near providing the wealth of useful info that this book does. Highly recommended for anyone who wants to improve their existing mountain biking skills. Here's another clue/tip: - If you don't know what an endo is, don't buy a book called MASTERING mountain bike skills, buy a BEGINNERS guide to mountain biking.
Dialing the wrong number, 05 May 2008
There are countless thousands of people with mountain bikes looking for a book to help them ride trails more skilfully. Sadly, this is not it.
At the outset the authors declare they want to write a step-by-step guide to mountain biking. They not only fail to do that, they do so in language which excludes newcomers while making asides which are only likely to put off inexperienced riders altogether.
There are a few good tips - drop offs, bunny hops and "manuals"/wheelies are all well and coherently covered. But there's no real sense of progress, and the authors give the impression they would rather be talking to fellow racers than taking time with beginners or recreational riders looking to add a few skills to their repertoire.
It is all written in irritating mountain bike magazine jargon which serves only to irritate and obscure rather than illuminate. Everything is "dialed". Of course. The overall tone is that of a 13-year-old boy pulling wheelies in front of his house.
One can only guess at the authors' motivation for going into details about death, paralysis and broken limbs on the trail or racecourse. Bravado has its place, but not in a training manual. Then again, the main theme of the book does seem to be "whatever you do, don't use the brakes".
Great guidance for all styles of riding, 29 Feb 2008
If you only ever buy one mountain bike tuition book make sure that this is it. Ive only been riding just over a year and ive found every part of this book really useful. It covers loads of subjects, including everything from basic riding techniques to more complicated trials, jumping and racing topics. Its all very well laid out with lots of pictures and despite the opinion of some that it may be hard for beginners to understand due to jargon terms, I still class myself as a novice and had no problem understanding it. Besides, if there are any terms you are unsure of, there is always that wonderful invention, the internet, which is always willing and able to explain things to you....... ENJOY YOUR RIDING!
Buy it, you'll learn something., 22 Jan 2008
I've only been riding mountain bikes since this spring and a mate got me this for Christmas. I enjoy doing some off road stuff but most of what the book shows is well beyond what I'm likely to get into so I initially read it without expecting to get much out of it. Boy did I get a surprise. Within a week I'd managed to incorporate much of what is in the early chapters into my riding and I'm finding I've got a lot more confidence and am attacking the trail far more than I did before. As far as the later chapters go (jumping, dropping and such like) maybe one day it'll be something I want to look at but it's definitely fun to read about in the meantime.
As for the language, some of it is a bit Southern Californian but I managed to work my way round it. I'm still laughing about him suggesting that I might want to learn to "pump the backside".
MTB Masterclass, 12 Nov 2007
Just got this book from Amazon and it is a truly fantastic guide to MTB (and more) techniques! Thoroughly recommend it to anyone, it takes you through just about every aspect of the sport you could think of, and my riding capabilities and confidence have grown dramatically already! If you are into mountain biking, be it XC, dirt, 4X, DH and you know you need help with your technique but don't want to spend a fortune on courses, get this. Its great.
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Customer Reviews
Ticks all the boxes, 23 Oct 2008
Makes a change to find a practical guide book which has such a good feel to it that it can just as easily be a coffee table book. Lovely quality with matt print and top photos. Suits the armchair skier as much as the hardcore! Will be giving this as an Xmas present to many keen skier friends who have everything! Excellent for intermediate/advanced skiers who have had formal lessons!, 17 Feb 2007
I have to say that for me (can ski anything on-piste) this book is fab!!
It is ideal for good skiers who have had formal lessons in the past on snow. It won't make as much sense if you were taught by mates as the chapters build on the traditional snowplough, stem turn, parallell approach. Having learnt in Italy and France i got so far and then started to struggle on sustaining good technique on steeper slopes. In the last couple of years I have had 2 private lessons by an English & a Canadian instructor who were able to communicate the 'feel and flow' parts of the skiing technique that I was missing on carving skis. Like many I tried to apply the way I had been taught 15 years ago to newer carving ski technology which does not work.
As soon as I started reading I knew exactly what the author was talking about. The drills were similar to those in the 3 hours of private lessons that I had had. What I was reading made sense and I could easily apply it to my skiing.
If you just want to ski and not bothered by technique then this is not the book for you. If you are willing to read it and practise some of the techniques and drills then they will benefit your skiing. Having now skied 9 weeks out of the last 15 years I found his advice and instruction very useful as did my mate (her partner has still not forgiven me for lending it to her -something to do with her reading it at 5am by headtorch!)
The chapters on equipment are very useful. Skiing technology just keeps changing and his descriptions are easy to understand. Out of the group I have just been with they helped one skier sort heel lift with orthotics, another with black toe problems and another whose skiing was adversely affected as the flex was adjusted wrongly - our skiing all massively improved as a result. I can't agree with all the comments!, 20 Nov 2006
It's a good basic book and a useful reference. But it won't make you a good skier and it certainly won't make you "an advanced skier overnight".
If you're anything but a beginner take a look at "The Athletic Skier" by Warren Witherell and see what a really good ski manual is all about. Top notch - still a reference book for me, 24 Oct 2006
I'm a Ski Instructor and can heartily recommend this book.. especially the section on "you can blame your equipment sometimes" ! I used it myself a few years ago when I was preparing for my instructor exams and found it an excellent read. The exercises are useful too and some of them have found their way into a number of my high-end lessons.
It's also good in that it's a modern book - ski technology has changed over the years and therefore so has technique. This book is up to date, as opposed to some (although still excellent in some areas) other books that are now becoming dated.
As others have said, it's not a book for beginners but if you have an idea of proper ski control, body management etc. it can give you a good headstart for a week away and will make an instructors life easier when you go for tune-up lessons ! It just clicks ater reading this book!, 22 Jan 2006
. For someone interested in skiing well, especially the technical side of things, this book is a god send! The author explains things in a detailed manner which is really easy to take on board. I read this book before skiing for two weeks in Austria, on the third day I was skiing fast,(let's face it anybody can) but with perfect control,(not many people can) on any run. It seems like when an instructor is repeating the same thing over and over again your brain just dosen't take it in. However, once you've realised for yourself what you should be donig, it just clicks! The book is is split into common sensed chapters starting with building a collection of basic skills, the author calls this a tool box, tackling basics like; stance, edging, pressure control then moves onto specific techniques for powder, moguls and steeps among other things blending tools from the toolbox to hone a good technique in the differint conditions. I concentrated on one chapter per day, practicing what the author preached. It worked great. There is drills to help emphasis certain technique particulars and also trouble shooting section in each chapter if you still have problems. One of my favourite things in each chapter is that the author tells you what you should see and feel through the skis and your tracks when you get it right. Often this is very simple and you may remember from previuos experience when you have got it right. However, sometimes it's very discreet and you would never have realised. There is also a good section on tuning skis referring to edge angle and binding tuning, although it is a bit ahead of my standard but worth a read never the less. By working with this book you could easily be one of those people everyone watches from the lift! This book is well worth the money and I would definatley buy it if you feel your not getting anywhere with lessons. Maybe your just sick of waiting for all the slow ones to catch up! Lessons aren't cheap at the end of the day and it's a fraction of the price. Although I have skied before a with a good level of instruction, my skiing and understanding of it definatley improved due to this book. Everyone has give 5 stars for a reason, thats why I bought it.
The best ski book. For anyone except total beginners., 21 Jan 2004
Some people will never be able to get any benefit from reading a book on a sport. Not everyone can take the knowledge of _how_ something should be done and the advice on how it should look/feel, and be thinking about it when they are trying to perform the action later. For them, all such books are wasted efforts. Luckily for me I get real benefits from these sorts of books if they are done well. Especially in sports that are technical and often counter-intuitive, which skiing certain is. This book is superb example of a sports manual and it does all that one could hope for in a book. For me the most useful aspects of the book are:
- the author explaining to you in detail what is happening when you ski, how it works, what your body does and what the skis do
- how it should _feel_ to do something right. This allows you to have a goal to work towards and goes some way to addressing the disadvantages of not having an instructor.
- the drills The overall structure of the book is also a strong point. The author breaks down 'skiing' into stance, steering, edging, body movement etc and goes into great detail on each. This helps you to target areas more specifically and find where lies the weakness that seems to be holding you back. There is also a great section on choosing your equipment, and perhaps more importantly, having it set up correctly. Later on in the book the chapters move away from this 'toolbox' approach and onto how a skier should use their tools ski in a certain manner and to deal with different terrain and conditions (steeps, crud, trees, bumps). This sections of the book feels like getting the best advice your instructor/friends ever gave you. Certainly you then have to get out there and do it in order to learn, but at least you know what you should be doing, how it should feel, what your problems may be etc. I have already gone on long enough, but in closing I would remind anyone reading how much even 1 hour of tuition costs. Even if you don't get as much out of this book as I did it is a bargain, and the _only_ book I would recommend. I would defy anyone to read it and not feel that they have learned something which they can use to improve their skiing.
This excellent book is called MASTERING mountain bike skills!, 21 Jul 2008
I rarely write reviews, but this one deserves a good review and also deserves the record to be set straight with respect to a couple of previous reviews. Specifically, buying a book called MASTERING mountain bike skills (the clue is in the title) and complaining that it is not suitable for beginners is akin to buying a book on vegetarian cookery and complaining that it does not have enough meat dishes in it.
This book is by far the best skills book for anyone who has mastered the basics. It has a mass of detail in it. There are hundreds of hints and tips and the book pays dividends when read a few times over simply because there is so much info in it. I'm kind of gobsmacked at some of the bizarre criticisms I've read here. It's a shame these critics haven't named the books they have found superior. In over 10 years of riding I haven't seen another book/magazine/website/DVD that comes anywhere near providing the wealth of useful info that this book does. Highly recommended for anyone who wants to improve their existing mountain biking skills. Here's another clue/tip: - If you don't know what an endo is, don't buy a book called MASTERING mountain bike skills, buy a BEGINNERS guide to mountain biking.
Dialing the wrong number, 05 May 2008
There are countless thousands of people with mountain bikes looking for a book to help them ride trails more skilfully. Sadly, this is not it.
At the outset the authors declare they want to write a step-by-step guide to mountain biking. They not only fail to do that, they do so in language which excludes newcomers while making asides which are only likely to put off inexperienced riders altogether.
There are a few good tips - drop offs, bunny hops and "manuals"/wheelies are all well and coherently covered. But there's no real sense of progress, and the authors give the impression they would rather be talking to fellow racers than taking time with beginners or recreational riders looking to add a few skills to their repertoire.
It is all written in irritating mountain bike magazine jargon which serves only to irritate and obscure rather than illuminate. Everything is "dialed". Of course. The overall tone is that of a 13-year-old boy pulling wheelies in front of his house.
One can only guess at the authors' motivation for going into details about death, paralysis and broken limbs on the trail or racecourse. Bravado has its place, but not in a training manual. Then again, the main theme of the book does seem to be "whatever you do, don't use the brakes".
Great guidance for all styles of riding, 29 Feb 2008
If you only ever buy one mountain bike tuition book make sure that this is it. Ive only been riding just over a year and ive found every part of this book really useful. It covers loads of subjects, including everything from basic riding techniques to more complicated trials, jumping and racing topics. Its all very well laid out with lots of pictures and despite the opinion of some that it may be hard for beginners to understand due to jargon terms, I still class myself as a novice and had no problem understanding it. Besides, if there are any terms you are unsure of, there is always that wonderful invention, the internet, which is always willing and able to explain things to you....... ENJOY YOUR RIDING!
Buy it, you'll learn something., 22 Jan 2008
I've only been riding mountain bikes since this spring and a mate got me this for Christmas. I enjoy doing some off road stuff but most of what the book shows is well beyond what I'm likely to get into so I initially read it without expecting to get much out of it. Boy did I get a surprise. Within a week I'd managed to incorporate much of what is in the early chapters into my riding and I'm finding I've got a lot more confidence and am attacking the trail far more than I did before. As far as the later chapters go (jumping, dropping and such like) maybe one day it'll be something I want to look at but it's definitely fun to read about in the meantime.
As for the language, some of it is a bit Southern Californian but I managed to work my way round it. I'm still laughing about him suggesting that I might want to learn to "pump the backside".
MTB Masterclass, 12 Nov 2007
Just got this book from Amazon and it is a truly fantastic guide to MTB (and more) techniques! Thoroughly recommend it to anyone, it takes you through just about every aspect of the sport you could think of, and my riding capabilities and confidence have grown dramatically already! If you are into mountain biking, be it XC, dirt, 4X, DH and you know you need help with your technique but don't want to spend a fortune on courses, get this. Its great.
A must for every serious skier, 17 Sep 2008
This is a very well written, well documented, no nonsense book which was recommended to me initially by UK French Alps specialist PeakRetreats.co.uk as they use it themselves. It does not have details of as many resorts as other books but the ones it covers are well researched.
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Customer Reviews
Ticks all the boxes, 23 Oct 2008
Makes a change to find a practical guide book which has such a good feel to it that it can just as easily be a coffee table book. Lovely quality with matt print and top photos. Suits the armchair skier as much as the hardcore! Will be giving this as an Xmas present to many keen skier friends who have everything! Excellent for intermediate/advanced skiers who have had formal lessons!, 17 Feb 2007
I have to say that for me (can ski anything on-piste) this book is fab!!
It is ideal for good skiers who have had formal lessons in the past on snow. It won't make as much sense if you were taught by mates as the chapters build on the traditional snowplough, stem turn, parallell approach. Having learnt in Italy and France i got so far and then started to struggle on sustaining good technique on steeper slopes. In the last couple of years I have had 2 private lessons by an English & a Canadian instructor who were able to communicate the 'feel and flow' parts of the skiing technique that I was missing on carving skis. Like many I tried to apply the way I had been taught 15 years ago to newer carving ski technology which does not work.
As soon as I started reading I knew exactly what the author was talking about. The drills were similar to those in the 3 hours of private lessons that I had had. What I was reading made sense and I could easily apply it to my skiing.
If you just want to ski and not bothered by technique then this is not the book for you. If you are willing to read it and practise some of the techniques and drills then they will benefit your skiing. Having now skied 9 weeks out of the last 15 years I found his advice and instruction very useful as did my mate (her partner has still not forgiven me for lending it to her -something to do with her reading it at 5am by headtorch!)
The chapters on equipment are very useful. Skiing technology just keeps changing and his descriptions are easy to understand. Out of the group I have just been with they helped one skier sort heel lift with orthotics, another with black toe problems and another whose skiing was adversely affected as the flex was adjusted wrongly - our skiing all massively improved as a result. I can't agree with all the comments!, 20 Nov 2006
It's a good basic book and a useful reference. But it won't make you a good skier and it certainly won't make you "an advanced skier overnight".
If you're anything but a beginner take a look at "The Athletic Skier" by Warren Witherell and see what a really good ski manual is all about. Top notch - still a reference book for me, 24 Oct 2006
I'm a Ski Instructor and can heartily recommend this book.. especially the section on "you can blame your equipment sometimes" ! I used it myself a few years ago when I was preparing for my instructor exams and found it an excellent read. The exercises are useful too and some of them have found their way into a number of my high-end lessons.
It's also good in that it's a modern book - ski technology has changed over the years and therefore so has technique. This book is up to date, as opposed to some (although still excellent in some areas) other books that are now becoming dated.
As others have said, it's not a book for beginners but if you have an idea of proper ski control, body management etc. it can give you a good headstart for a week away and will make an instructors life easier when you go for tune-up lessons ! It just clicks ater reading this book!, 22 Jan 2006
. For someone interested in skiing well, especially the technical side of things, this book is a god send! The author explains things in a detailed manner which is really easy to take on board. I read this book before skiing for two weeks in Austria, on the third day I was skiing fast,(let's face it anybody can) but with perfect control,(not many people can) on any run. It seems like when an instructor is repeating the same thing over and over again your brain just dosen't take it in. However, once you've realised for yourself what you should be donig, it just clicks! The book is is split into common sensed chapters starting with building a collection of basic skills, the author calls this a tool box, tackling basics like; stance, edging, pressure control then moves onto specific techniques for powder, moguls and steeps among other things blending tools from the toolbox to hone a good technique in the differint conditions. I concentrated on one chapter per day, practicing what the author preached. It worked great. There is drills to help emphasis certain technique particulars and also trouble shooting section in each chapter if you still have problems. One of my favourite things in each chapter is that the author tells you what you should see and feel through the skis and your tracks when you get it right. Often this is very simple and you may remember from previuos experience when you have got it right. However, sometimes it's very discreet and you would never have realised. There is also a good section on tuning skis referring to edge angle and binding tuning, although it is a bit ahead of my standard but worth a read never the less. By working with this book you could easily be one of those people everyone watches from the lift! This book is well worth the money and I would definatley buy it if you feel your not getting anywhere with lessons. Maybe your just sick of waiting for all the slow ones to catch up! Lessons aren't cheap at the end of the day and it's a fraction of the price. Although I have skied before a with a good level of instruction, my skiing and understanding of it definatley improved due to this book. Everyone has give 5 stars for a reason, thats why I bought it.
The best ski book. For anyone except total beginners., 21 Jan 2004
Some people will never be able to get any benefit from reading a book on a sport. Not everyone can take the knowledge of _how_ something should be done and the advice on how it should look/feel, and be thinking about it when they are trying to perform the action later. For them, all such books are wasted efforts. Luckily for me I get real benefits from these sorts of books if they are done well. Especially in sports that are technical and often counter-intuitive, which skiing certain is. This book is superb example of a sports manual and it does all that one could hope for in a book. For me the most useful aspects of the book are:
- the author explaining to you in detail what is happening when you ski, how it works, what your body does and what the skis do
- how it should _feel_ to do something right. This allows you to have a goal to work towards and goes some way to addressing the disadvantages of not having an instructor.
- the drills The overall structure of the book is also a strong point. The author breaks down 'skiing' into stance, steering, edging, body movement etc and goes into great detail on each. This helps you to target areas more specifically and find where lies the weakness that seems to be holding you back. There is also a great section on choosing your equipment, and perhaps more importantly, having it set up correctly. Later on in the book the chapters move away from this 'toolbox' approach and onto how a skier should use their tools ski in a certain manner and to deal with different terrain and conditions (steeps, crud, trees, bumps). This sections of the book feels like getting the best advice your instructor/friends ever gave you. Certainly you then have to get out there and do it in order to learn, but at least you know what you should be doing, how it should feel, what your problems may be etc. I have already gone on long enough, but in closing I would remind anyone reading how much even 1 hour of tuition costs. Even if you don't get as much out of this book as I did it is a bargain, and the _only_ book I would recommend. I would defy anyone to read it and not feel that they have learned something which they can use to improve their skiing.
This excellent book is called MASTERING mountain bike skills!, 21 Jul 2008
I rarely write reviews, but this one deserves a good review and also deserves the record to be set straight with respect to a couple of previous reviews. Specifically, buying a book called MASTERING mountain bike skills (the clue is in the title) and complaining that it is not suitable for beginners is akin to buying a book on vegetarian cookery and complaining that it does not have enough meat dishes in it.
This book is by far the best skills book for anyone who has mastered the basics. It has a mass of detail in it. There are hundreds of hints and tips and the book pays dividends when read a few times over simply because there is so much info in it. I'm kind of gobsmacked at some of the bizarre criticisms I've read here. It's a shame these critics haven't named the books they have found superior. In over 10 years of riding I haven't seen another book/magazine/website/DVD that comes anywhere near providing the wealth of useful info that this book does. Highly recommended for anyone who wants to improve their existing mountain biking skills. Here's another clue/tip: - If you don't know what an endo is, don't buy a book called MASTERING mountain bike skills, buy a BEGINNERS guide to mountain biking.
Dialing the wrong number, 05 May 2008
There are countless thousands of people with mountain bikes looking for a book to help them ride trails more skilfully. Sadly, this is not it.
At the outset the authors declare they want to write a step-by-step guide to mountain biking. They not only fail to do that, they do so in language which excludes newcomers while making asides which are only likely to put off inexperienced riders altogether.
There are a few good tips - drop offs, bunny hops and "manuals"/wheelies are all well and coherently covered. But there's no real sense of progress, and the authors give the impression they would rather be talking to fellow racers than taking time with beginners or recreational riders looking to add a few skills to their repertoire.
It is all written in irritating mountain bike magazine jargon which serves only to irritate and obscure rather than illuminate. Everything is "dialed". Of course. The overall tone is that of a 13-year-old boy pulling wheelies in front of his house.
One can only guess at the authors' motivation for going into details about death, paralysis and broken limbs on the trail or racecourse. Bravado has its place, but not in a training manual. Then again, the main theme of the book does seem to be "whatever you do, don't use the brakes".
Great guidance for all styles of riding, 29 Feb 2008
If you only ever buy one mountain bike tuition book make sure that this is it. Ive only been riding just over a year and ive found every part of this book really useful. It covers loads of subjects, including everything from basic riding techniques to more complicated trials, jumping and racing topics. Its all very well laid out with lots of pictures and despite the opinion of some that it may be hard for beginners to understand due to jargon terms, I still class myself as a novice and had no problem understanding it. Besides, if there are any terms you are unsure of, there is always that wonderful invention, the internet, which is always willing and able to explain things to you....... ENJOY YOUR RIDING!
Buy it, you'll learn something., 22 Jan 2008
I've only been riding mountain bikes since this spring and a mate got me this for Christmas. I enjoy doing some off road stuff but most of what the book shows is well beyond what I'm likely to get into so I initially read it without expecting to get much out of it. Boy did I get a surprise. Within a week I'd managed to incorporate much of what is in the early chapters into my riding and I'm finding I've got a lot more confidence and am attacking the trail far more than I did before. As far as the later chapters go (jumping, dropping and such like) maybe one day it'll be something I want to look at but it's definitely fun to read about in the meantime.
As for the language, some of it is a bit Southern Californian but I managed to work my way round it. I'm still laughing about him suggesting that I might want to learn to "pump the backside".
MTB Masterclass, 12 Nov 2007
Just got this book from Amazon and it is a truly fantastic guide to MTB (and more) techniques! Thoroughly recommend it to anyone, it takes you through just about every aspect of the sport you could think of, and my riding capabilities and confidence have grown dramatically already! If you are into mountain biking, be it XC, dirt, 4X, DH and you know you need help with your technique but don't want to spend a fortune on courses, get this. Its great.
A must for every serious skier, 17 Sep 2008
This is a very well written, well documented, no nonsense book which was recommended to me initially by UK French Alps specialist PeakRetreats.co.uk as they use it themselves. It does not have details of as many resorts as other books but the ones it covers are well researched.
Fantastic guide not just for experts, 11 Apr 2007
Great guide that's useful for practical information as well as fun just to read. The fun formatt with lost of great photos, to the point fact boxes and casual text style make it not just a guide book but also a great read. Excellent for researching new destinations you haven't been to yet. As a beginner I was very happy to see that all levels of snowboarders are catered for in the guide. Highly recommend it to anyone with an interest in snowboarding!
Global guide, 19 Dec 2006
Very good layout, very good photos and very good text. The stats on the right hand side also add important information. The resorts are written by people who've been there - it shows. It won't fit in your pocket - I have one that does and it's rubbish. Many years of knowhow by people in the know. Highly recommended !!
great snowboarders guide, 14 Dec 2006
What a great resource this book is for beginners and experienced showboarders alike. It's packed with all the information you need to know, some that you don't (but might make you laugh), tips and suggestions, maps, graphs and easy to read ratings of facilities. Chuck in some great stories from some of the big names and some great photography and it's a pretty much indispensable guide to all the resorts you thought you knew, but will now know much better, and to all the resorts you never knew even existed, but can now visit with confidence.
Great Snowboarding Guide, 28 Nov 2006
Enjoyed Snowboarding the World. Very well laid out with great design. Easy to find all the top snowboarding resorts by region. Pictures are great, with some area maps. Area reviews have all the key information distilled into a brief essense, yet still keeps some inside local knowledge. Now to somehow figure out how to visit all the resort listed!
If "SNOW" is your pasion, then this guide is for YOU!, 28 Nov 2006
This guide is on equal par with its brother in the Footprint series "SURFING EUROPE"
If you like the snow and want to get the low down on what's hot and what's not, how to get there, what to do when you get there, what to expect when you go exploring, reference maps, hundreds of fantastic vibrant pictures, reference to the best accommodation options, weather graphs and statistics, an essencial clubs n pubs guide to each location, the best Internet cafes have been sniffed out for your convienence and even a spot of history thrown amongest the vast aray of easy to desifer bible of Snow!
In my eyes this is the best snow guide to ever hit our shelves!
If you don't own a copy go buy one now! You wont regret it!
If you one of those winter daydreamers who are forever wondering where to be at the right time and to score conditions you can only dream of. Well this is the book for you. It gives you the inside first hand experience that is invaluable to a traveller's itinerary plan. You know what location will suit you before you start booking.
If you are one of those people who insist on knowing what to expect before you get to your destination. Then this guide will open your eyes to all the secrets before you have left the comfort of your front room.
If you have no idea where you want to spend your winter holiday and you wanted to shred some of the most beautiful mountain ranges this planet has to offer, you would use this book as your reference to research all of your avenues! From one end of the earth to the other, they have it covered!
From my own personal experience:
They wrote about my local ski fields in NZ and basically hit the nail on the head with their descriptions, advice, culture, conditions and stories. I would say that it seems consistent through the entire guide.
To back up my review I have just bought 5 copies to pass onto my friends and family as an ideal Christmas gift.
Happy shopping
Peace
Chris Kirkham (NZ)
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Customer Reviews
Ticks all the boxes, 23 Oct 2008
Makes a change to find a practical guide book which has such a good feel to it that it can just as easily be a coffee table book. Lovely quality with matt print and top photos. Suits the armchair skier as much as the hardcore! Will be giving this as an Xmas present to many keen skier friends who have everything! Excellent for intermediate/advanced skiers who have had formal lessons!, 17 Feb 2007
I have to say that for me (can ski anything on-piste) this book is fab!!
It is ideal for good skiers who have had formal lessons in the past on snow. It won't make as much sense if you were taught by mates as the chapters build on the traditional snowplough, stem turn, parallell approach. Having learnt in Italy and France i got so far and then started to struggle on sustaining good technique on steeper slopes. In the last couple of years I have had 2 private lessons by an English & a Canadian instructor who were able to communicate the 'feel and flow' parts of the skiing technique that I was missing on carving skis. Like many I tried to apply the way I had been taught 15 years ago to newer carving ski technology which does not work.
As soon as I started reading I knew exactly what the author was talking about. The drills were similar to those in the 3 hours of private lessons that I had had. What I was reading made sense and I could easily apply it to my skiing.
If you just want to ski and not bothered by technique then this is not the book for you. If you are willing to read it and practise some of the techniques and drills then they will benefit your skiing. Having now skied 9 weeks out of the last 15 years I found his advice and instruction very useful as did my mate (her partner has still not forgiven me for lending it to her -something to do with her reading it at 5am by headtorch!)
The chapters on equipment are very useful. Skiing technology just keeps changing and his descriptions are easy to understand. Out of the group I have just been with they helped one skier sort heel lift with orthotics, another with black toe problems and another whose skiing was adversely affected as the flex was adjusted wrongly - our skiing all massively improved as a result. I can't agree with all the comments!, 20 Nov 2006
It's a good basic book and a useful reference. But it won't make you a good skier and it certainly won't make you "an advanced skier overnight".
If you're anything but a beginner take a look at "The Athletic Skier" by Warren Witherell and see what a really good ski manual is all about. Top notch - still a reference book for me, 24 Oct 2006
I'm a Ski Instructor and can heartily recommend this book.. especially the section on "you can blame your equipment sometimes" ! I used it myself a few years ago when I was preparing for my instructor exams and found it an excellent read. The exercises are useful too and some of them have found their way into a number of my high-end lessons.
It's also good in that it's a modern book - ski technology has changed over the years and therefore so has technique. This book is up to date, as opposed to some (although still excellent in some areas) other books that are now becoming dated.
As others have said, it's not a book for beginners but if you have an idea of proper ski control, body management etc. it can give you a good headstart for a week away and will make an instructors life easier when you go for tune-up lessons ! It just clicks ater reading this book!, 22 Jan 2006
. For someone interested in skiing well, especially the technical side of things, this book is a god send! The author explains things in a detailed manner which is really easy to take on board. I read this book before skiing for two weeks in Austria, on the third day I was skiing fast,(let's face it anybody can) but with perfect control,(not many people can) on any run. It seems like when an instructor is repeating the same thing over and over again your brain just dosen't take it in. However, once you've realised for yourself what you should be donig, it just clicks! The book is is split into common sensed chapters starting with building a collection of basic skills, the author calls this a tool box, tackling basics like; stance, edging, pressure control then moves onto specific techniques for powder, moguls and steeps among other things blending tools from the toolbox to hone a good technique in the differint conditions. I concentrated on one chapter per day, practicing what the author preached. It worked great. There is drills to help emphasis certain technique particulars and also trouble shooting section in each chapter if you still have problems. One of my favourite things in each chapter is that the author tells you what you should see and feel through the skis and your tracks when you get it right. Often this is very simple and you may remember from previuos experience when you have got it right. However, sometimes it's very discreet and you would never have realised. There is also a good section on tuning skis referring to edge angle and binding tuning, although it is a bit ahead of my standard but worth a read never the less. By working with this book you could easily be one of those people everyone watches from the lift! This book is well worth the money and I would definatley buy it if you feel your not getting anywhere with lessons. Maybe your just sick of waiting for all the slow ones to catch up! Lessons aren't cheap at the end of the day and it's a fraction of the price. Although I have skied before a with a good level of instruction, my skiing and understanding of it definatley improved due to this book. Everyone has give 5 stars for a reason, thats why I bought it.
The best ski book. For anyone except total beginners., 21 Jan 2004
Some people will never be able to get any benefit from reading a book on a sport. Not everyone can take the knowledge of _how_ something should be done and the advice on how it should look/feel, and be thinking about it when they are trying to perform the action later. For them, all such books are wasted efforts. Luckily for me I get real benefits from these sorts of books if they are done well. Especially in sports that are technical and often counter-intuitive, which skiing certain is. This book is superb example of a sports manual and it does all that one could hope for in a book. For me the most useful aspects of the book are:
- the author explaining to you in detail what is happening when you ski, how it works, what your body does and what the skis do
- how it should _feel_ to do something right. This allows you to have a goal to work towards and goes some way to addressing the disadvantages of not having an instructor.
- the drills The overall structure of the book is also a strong point. The author breaks down 'skiing' into stance, steering, edging, body movement etc and goes into great detail on each. This helps you to target areas more specifically and find where lies the weakness that seems to be holding you back. There is also a great section on choosing your equipment, and perhaps more importantly, having it set up correctly. Later on in the book the chapters move away from this 'toolbox' approach and onto how a skier should use their tools ski in a certain manner and to deal with different terrain and conditions (steeps, crud, trees, bumps). This sections of the book feels like getting the best advice your instructor/friends ever gave you. Certainly you then have to get out there and do it in order to learn, but at least you know what you should be doing, how it should feel, what your problems may be etc. I have already gone on long enough, but in closing I would remind anyone reading how much even 1 hour of tuition costs. Even if you don't get as much out of this book as I did it is a bargain, and the _only_ book I would recommend. I would defy anyone to read it and not feel that they have learned something which they can use to improve their skiing.
This excellent book is called MASTERING mountain bike skills!, 21 Jul 2008
I rarely write reviews, but this one deserves a good review and also deserves the record to be set straight with respect to a couple of previous reviews. Specifically, buying a book called MASTERING mountain bike skills (the clue is in the title) and complaining that it is not suitable for beginners is akin to buying a book on vegetarian cookery and complaining that it does not have enough meat dishes in it.
This book is by far the best skills book for anyone who has mastered the basics. It has a mass of detail in it. There are hundreds of hints and tips and the book pays dividends when read a few times over simply because there is so much info in it. I'm kind of gobsmacked at some of the bizarre criticisms I've read here. It's a shame these critics haven't named the books they have found superior. In over 10 years of riding I haven't seen another book/magazine/website/DVD that comes anywhere near providing the wealth of useful info that this book does. Highly recommended for anyone who wants to improve their existing mountain biking skills. Here's another clue/tip: - If you don't know what an endo is, don't buy a book called MASTERING mountain bike skills, buy a BEGINNERS guide to mountain biking.
Dialing the wrong number, 05 May 2008
There are countless thousands of people with mountain bikes looking for a book to help them ride trails more skilfully. Sadly, this is not it.
At the outset the authors declare they want to write a step-by-step guide to mountain biking. They not only fail to do that, they do so in language which excludes newcomers while making asides which are only likely to put off inexperienced riders altogether.
There are a few good tips - drop offs, bunny hops and "manuals"/wheelies are all well and coherently covered. But there's no real sense of progress, and the authors give the impression they would rather be talking to fellow racers than taking time with beginners or recreational riders looking to add a few skills to their repertoire.
It is all written in irritating mountain bike magazine jargon which serves only to irritate and obscure rather than illuminate. Everything is "dialed". Of course. The overall tone is that of a 13-year-old boy pulling wheelies in front of his house.
One can only guess at the authors' motivation for going into details about death, paralysis and broken limbs on the trail or racecourse. Bravado has its place, but not in a training manual. Then again, the main theme of the book does seem to be "whatever you do, don't use the brakes".
Great guidance for all styles of riding, 29 Feb 2008
If you only ever buy one mountain bike tuition book make sure that this is it. Ive only been riding just over a year and ive found every part of this book really useful. It covers loads of subjects, including everything from basic riding techniques to more complicated trials, jumping and racing topics. Its all very well laid out with lots of pictures and despite the opinion of some that it may be hard for beginners to understand due to jargon terms, I still class myself as a novice and had no problem understanding it. Besides, if there are any terms you are unsure of, there is always that wonderful invention, the internet, which is always willing and able to explain things to you....... ENJOY YOUR RIDING!
Buy it, you'll learn something., 22 Jan 2008
I've only been riding mountain bikes since this spring and a mate got me this for Christmas. I enjoy doing some off road stuff but most of what the book shows is well beyond what I'm likely to get into so I initially read it without expecting to get much out of it. Boy did I get a surprise. Within a week I'd managed to incorporate much of what is in the early chapters into my riding and I'm finding I've got a lot more confidence and am attacking the trail far more than I did before. As far as the later chapters go (jumping, dropping and such like) maybe one day it'll be something I want to look at but it's definitely fun to read about in the meantime.
As for the language, some of it is a bit Southern Californian but I managed to work my way round it. I'm still laughing about him suggesting that I might want to learn to "pump the backside".
MTB Masterclass, 12 Nov 2007
Just got this book from Amazon and it is a truly fantastic guide to MTB (and more) techniques! Thoroughly recommend it to anyone, it takes you through just about every aspect of the sport you could think of, and my riding capabilities and confidence have grown dramatically already! If you are into mountain biking, be it XC, dirt, 4X, DH and you know you need help with your technique but don't want to spend a fortune on courses, get this. Its great.
A must for every serious skier, 17 Sep 2008
This is a very well written, well documented, no nonsense book which was recommended to me initially by UK French Alps specialist PeakRetreats.co.uk as they use it themselves. It does not have details of as many resorts as other books but the ones it covers are well researched.
Fantastic guide not just for experts, 11 Apr 2007
Great guide that's useful for practical information as well as fun just to read. The fun formatt with lost of great photos, to the point fact boxes and casual text style make it not just a guide book but also a great read. Excellent for researching new destinations you haven't been to yet. As a beginner I was very happy to see that all levels of snowboarders are catered for in the guide. Highly recommend it to anyone with an interest in snowboarding!
Global guide, 19 Dec 2006
Very good layout, very good photos and very good text. The stats on the right hand side also add important information. The resorts are written by people who've been there - it shows. It won't fit in your pocket - I have one that does and it's rubbish. Many years of knowhow by people in the know. Highly recommended !!
great snowboarders guide, 14 Dec 2006
What a great resource this book is for beginners and experienced showboarders alike. It's packed with all the information you need to know, some that you don't (but might make you laugh), tips and suggestions, maps, graphs and easy to read ratings of facilities. Chuck in some great stories from some of the big names and some great photography and it's a pretty much indispensable guide to all the resorts you thought you knew, but will now know much better, and to all the resorts you never knew even existed, but can now visit with confidence.
Great Snowboarding Guide, 28 Nov 2006
Enjoyed Snowboarding the World. Very well laid out with great design. Easy to find all the top snowboarding resorts by region. Pictures are great, with some area maps. Area reviews have all the key information distilled into a brief essense, yet still keeps some inside local knowledge. Now to somehow figure out how to visit all the resort listed!
If "SNOW" is your pasion, then this guide is for YOU!, 28 Nov 2006
This guide is on equal par with its brother in the Footprint series "SURFING EUROPE"
If you like the snow and want to get the low down on what's hot and what's not, how to get there, what to do when you get there, what to expect when you go exploring, reference maps, hundreds of fantastic vibrant pictures, reference to the best accommodation options, weather graphs and statistics, an essencial clubs n pubs guide to each location, the best Internet cafes have been sniffed out for your convienence and even a spot of history thrown amongest the vast aray of easy to desifer bible of Snow!
In my eyes this is the best snow guide to ever hit our shelves!
If you don't own a copy go buy one now! You wont regret it!
If you one of those winter daydreamers who are forever wondering where to be at the right time and to score conditions you can only dream of. Well this is the book for you. It gives you the inside first hand experience that is invaluable to a traveller's itinerary plan. You know what location will suit you before you start booking.
If you are one of those people who insist on knowing what to expect before you get to your destination. Then this guide will open your eyes to all the secrets before you have left the comfort of your front room.
If you have no idea where you want to spend your winter holiday and you wanted to shred some of the most beautiful mountain ranges this planet has to offer, you would use this book as your reference to research all of your avenues! From one end of the earth to the other, they have it covered!
From my own personal experience:
They wrote about my local ski fields in NZ and basically hit the nail on the head with their descriptions, advice, culture, conditions and stories. I would say that it seems consistent through the entire guide.
To back up my review I have just bought 5 copies to pass onto my friends and family as an ideal Christmas gift.
Happy shopping
Peace
Chris Kirkham (NZ)
Essential reading for skiers at all levels, 05 Apr 2006
The inner sports series brings advanced sports psychology techniques, previously only available to elite athletes, to us all.
There are plenty of instructors in the mountains who can guide you with exercises to improve your technique, but this book goes much deeper than that.
By understanding the psychology of sport and how we learn new skills you can greatly increase your development as a skier. Clear explanations, backed by excellent anectdotal examples, help us understand how we can make the best of ourselves and our time on the mountain.
Thanks to this book, within 2 years (ie 2 weeks spread over 2 years) I have gone from an average skier who often wound up flat on his back to a very proficient and confident skier - my technique is now the envy of all my skiing friends.
Indispensable!
Another thing to get wrong, 11 Nov 2004
This book will add a new dimension to your skiing mistakes. Not only can you ski with your feet too close together, hands in the wrong place, bad posture and all those other things ski books go on about, but you can also think in the wrong way. Excellent. Another thing to think about.
A small number of classic text that can guide skiing, 04 Jul 2000
Many great professionals strive to spread the exilleration and potential that exists in the mountains. It is no enditment on the majority that there are so few truly great books, but here we have one. I have been lucky enough to have a coach who has had the appraoch detailed in Inner Skiing for a number of years, although without any labels. Reading Inner Skiing I was pleased to discover the background to my coaching to date. So simple is the premise of Inner Skiing that if the reader is able to let their mind free their performance can develop to their own personnal highs. To attempt to explain Inner Skiing is meaningless. Just read, take note and try it out. Having seen similar techniques in practice, in Europe, I can vouch for the look of joy on a friends face and the quatum increase in their performance. A must for all skiers from beginners to instructors, just as long as you are not expecting a technical manual. Your mind has a greater effect on your performance.
An effective and inspiring guide to freeing skiers from fear, 26 Nov 1998
I have been reading this book for about twenty years(first publication was November 1977); it was the first of two Inner Game books which, although differing in details, both transformed my attitude to and my performance in the sports I love. I was fortunate to have been given it by a patient who was an Inner Game instructor (or rather, facilitator). If Inner Skiing has only now (1997) become widely available, thanks to the Internet, a generation of British skiers has lost out; for years it has been available only in the USA and to members of Inner Game workshops. With examples from life and from Inner Skiing workshops which are encouraging, inspiring, and often emotionally touching, the book helps skiers of all standards to confront their fears and to tap into the mind's and the body's unconscious store of knowledge and skills; the fears of "flying", falling, speed, injury, failure, and the fear of looking stupid; the knowledge locked into Gallwey's Self 2, a Self which, he teaches us, is ours too. Where his Self 1 is trying, tense, unsure, scared and controlling, Self 2 is free, relaxed, effortless, powerful, and instinctive. Gallwey and his co-author Bob Kriegel, a more experienced skier than he and a psychologist, equip their readers with simple but highly effective keys to Self 2, enabling us increasingly to find in skiing the exhilaration of the breakthrough run, and unlocking the confidence without which the sport can be an exercise in anxiety. Most of us in the UK only get to ski once a year. I reread Inner Skiing annually as an essential pre-ski exercise, and if I don't read every word I never fail to take a dose of inspiration from the paragraph in the last chapter which begins "Inside us all is a mountain with no top and no bottom. The skiing there is perfect. The snow is made of pure peace and there is not a trace of Self 1 interference.................Skiing this inner mountain has the power to satisfy the human longing to know oneself and the reason for which one was born." You may guess from this that Timothy Gallwey's is the inner game of life, with applications far beyond the realms of sport, as his other writing attests. Dr. Basil Lee, London, England.
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Customer Reviews
Ticks all the boxes, 23 Oct 2008
Makes a change to find a practical guide book which has such a good feel to it that it can just as easily be a coffee table book. Lovely quality with matt print and top photos. Suits the armchair skier as much as the hardcore! Will be giving this as an Xmas present to many keen skier friends who have everything! Excellent for intermediate/advanced skiers who have had formal lessons!, 17 Feb 2007
I have to say that for me (can ski anything on-piste) this book is fab!!
It is ideal for good skiers who have had formal lessons in the past on snow. It won't make as much sense if you were taught by mates as the chapters build on the traditional snowplough, stem turn, parallell approach. Having learnt in Italy and France i got so far and then started to struggle on sustaining good technique on steeper slopes. In the last couple of years I have had 2 private lessons by an English & a Canadian instructor who were able to communicate the 'feel and flow' parts of the skiing technique that I was missing on carving skis. Like many I tried to apply the way I had been taught 15 years ago to newer carving ski technology which does not work.
As soon as I started reading I knew exactly what the author was talking about. The drills were similar to those in the 3 hours of private lessons that I had had. What I was reading made sense and I could easily apply it to my skiing.
If you just want to ski and not bothered by technique then this is not the book for you. If you are willing to read it and practise some of the techniques and drills then they will benefit your skiing. Having now skied 9 weeks out of the last 15 years I found his advice and instruction very useful as did my mate (her partner has still not forgiven me for lending it to her -something to do with her reading it at 5am by headtorch!)
The chapters on equipment are very useful. Skiing technology just keeps changing and his descriptions are easy to understand. Out of the group I have just been with they helped one skier sort heel lift with orthotics, another with black toe problems and another whose skiing was adversely affected as the flex was adjusted wrongly - our skiing all massively improved as a result. I can't agree with all the comments!, 20 Nov 2006
It's a good basic book and a useful reference. But it won't make you a good skier and it certainly won't make you "an advanced skier overnight".
If you're anything but a beginner take a look at "The Athletic Skier" by Warren Witherell and see what a really good ski manual is all about. Top notch - still a reference book for me, 24 Oct 2006
I'm a Ski Instructor and can heartily recommend this book.. especially the section on "you can blame your equipment sometimes" ! I used it myself a few years ago when I was preparing for my instructor exams and found it an excellent read. The exercises are useful too and some of them have found their way into a number of my high-end lessons.
It's also good in that it's a modern book - ski technology has changed over the years and therefore so has technique. This book is up to date, as opposed to some (although still excellent in some areas) other books that are now becoming dated.
As others have said, it's not a book for beginners but if you have an idea of proper ski control, body management etc. it can give you a good headstart for a week away and will make an instructors life easier when you go for tune-up lessons ! It just clicks ater reading this book!, 22 Jan 2006
. For someone interested in skiing well, especially the technical side of things, this book is a god send! The author explains things in a detailed manner which is really easy to take on board. I read this book before skiing for two weeks in Austria, on the third day I was skiing fast,(let's face it anybody can) but with perfect control,(not many people can) on any run. It seems like when an instructor is repeating the same thing over and over again your brain just dosen't take it in. However, once you've realised for yourself what you should be donig, it just clicks! The book is is split into common sensed chapters starting with building a collection of basic skills, the author calls this a tool box, tackling basics like; stance, edging, pressure control then moves onto specific techniques for powder, moguls and steeps among other things blending tools from the toolbox to hone a good technique in the differint conditions. I concentrated on one chapter per day, practicing what the author preached. It worked great. There is drills to help emphasis certain technique particulars and also trouble shooting section in each chapter if you still have problems. One of my favourite things in each chapter is that the author tells you what you should see and feel through the skis and your tracks when you get it right. Often this is very simple and you may remember from previuos experience when you have got it right. However, sometimes it's very discreet and you would never have realised. There is also a good section on tuning skis referring to edge angle and binding tuning, although it is a bit ahead of my standard but worth a read never the less. By working with this book you could easily be one of those people everyone watches from the lift! This book is well worth the money and I would definatley buy it if you feel your not getting anywhere with lessons. Maybe your just sick of waiting for all the slow ones to catch up! Lessons aren't cheap at the end of the day and it's a fraction of the price. Although I have skied before a with a good level of instruction, my skiing and understanding of it definatley improved due to this book. Everyone has give 5 stars for a reason, thats why I bought it.
The best ski book. For anyone except total beginners., 21 Jan 2004
Some people will never be able to get any benefit from reading a book on a sport. Not everyone can take the knowledge of _how_ something should be done and the advice on how it should look/feel, and be thinking about it when they are trying to perform the action later. For them, all such books are wasted efforts. Luckily for me I get real benefits from these sorts of books if they are done well. Especially in sports that are technical and often counter-intuitive, which skiing certain is. This book is superb example of a sports manual and it does all that one could hope for in a book. For me the most useful aspects of the book are:
- the author explaining to you in detail what is happening when you ski, how it works, what your body does and what the skis do
- how it should _feel_ to do something right. This allows you to have a goal to work towards and goes some way to addressing the disadvantages of not having an instructor.
- the drills The overall structure of the book is also a strong point. The author breaks down 'skiing' into stance, steering, edging, body movement etc and goes into great detail on each. This helps you to target areas more specifically and find where lies the weakness that seems to be holding you back. There is also a great section on choosing your equipment, and perhaps more importantly, having it set up correctly. Later on in the book the chapters move away from this 'toolbox' approach and onto how a skier should use their tools ski in a certain manner and to deal with different terrain and conditions (steeps, crud, trees, bumps). This sections of the book feels like getting the best advice your instructor/friends ever gave you. Certainly you then have to get out there and do it in order to learn, but at least you know what you should be doing, how it should feel, what your problems may be etc. I have already gone on long enough, but in closing I would remind anyone reading how much even 1 hour of tuition costs. Even if you don't get as much out of this book as I did it is a bargain, and the _only_ book I would recommend. I would defy anyone to read it and not feel that they have learned something which they can use to improve their skiing.
This excellent book is called MASTERING mountain bike skills!, 21 Jul 2008
I rarely write reviews, but this one deserves a good review and also deserves the record to be set straight with respect to a couple of previous reviews. Specifically, buying a book called MASTERING mountain bike skills (the clue is in the title) and complaining that it is not suitable for beginners is akin to buying a book on vegetarian cookery and complaining that it does not have enough meat dishes in it.
This book is by far the best skills book for anyone who has mastered the basics. It has a mass of detail in it. There are hundreds of hints and tips and the book pays dividends when read a few times over simply because there is so much info in it. I'm kind of gobsmacked at some of the bizarre criticisms I've read here. It's a shame these critics haven't named the books they have found superior. In over 10 years of riding I haven't seen another book/magazine/website/DVD that comes anywhere near providing the wealth of useful info that this book does. Highly recommended for anyone who wants to improve their existing mountain biking skills. Here's another clue/tip: - If you don't know what an endo is, don't buy a book called MASTERING mountain bike skills, buy a BEGINNERS guide to mountain biking.
Dialing the wrong number, 05 May 2008
There are countless thousands of people with mountain bikes looking for a book to help them ride trails more skilfully. Sadly, this is not it.
At the outset the authors declare they want to write a step-by-step guide to mountain biking. They not only fail to do that, they do so in language which excludes newcomers while making asides which are only likely to put off inexperienced riders altogether.
There are a few good tips - drop offs, bunny hops and "manuals"/wheelies are all well and coherently covered. But there's no real sense of progress, and the authors give the impression they would rather be talking to fellow racers than taking time with beginners or recreational riders looking to add a few skills to their repertoire.
It is all written in irritating mountain bike magazine jargon which serves only to irritate and obscure rather than illuminate. Everything is "dialed". Of course. The overall tone is that of a 13-year-old boy pulling wheelies in front of his house.
One can only guess at the authors' motivation for going into details about death, paralysis and broken limbs on the trail or racecourse. Bravado has its place, but not in a training manual. Then again, the main theme of the book does seem to be "whatever you do, don't use the brakes".
Great guidance for all styles of riding, 29 Feb 2008
If you only ever buy one mountain bike tuition book make sure that this is it. Ive only been riding just over a year and ive found every part of this book really useful. It covers loads of subjects, including everything from basic riding techniques to more complicated trials, jumping and racing topics. Its all very well laid out with lots of pictures and despite the opinion of some that it may be hard for beginners to understand due to jargon terms, I still class myself as a novice and had no problem understanding it. Besides, if there are any terms you are unsure of, there is always that wonderful invention, the internet, which is always willing and able to explain things to you....... ENJOY YOUR RIDING!
Buy it, you'll learn something., 22 Jan 2008
I've only been riding mountain bikes since this spring and a mate got me this for Christmas. I enjoy doing some off road stuff but most of what the book shows is well beyond what I'm likely to get into so I initially read it without expecting to get much out of it. Boy did I get a surprise. Within a week I'd managed to incorporate much of what is in the early chapters into my riding and I'm finding I've got a lot more confidence and am attacking the trail far more than I did before. As far as the later chapters go (jumping, dropping and such like) maybe one day it'll be something I want to look at but it's definitely fun to read about in the meantime.
As for the language, some of it is a bit Southern Californian but I managed to work my way round it. I'm still laughing about him suggesting that I might want to learn to "pump the backside".
MTB Masterclass, 12 Nov 2007
Just got this book from Amazon and it is a truly fantastic guide to MTB (and more) techniques! Thoroughly recommend it to anyone, it takes you through just about every aspect of the sport you could think of, and my riding capabilities and confidence have grown dramatically already! If you are into mountain biking, be it XC, dirt, 4X, DH and you know you need help with your technique but don't want to spend a fortune on courses, get this. Its great.
A must for every serious skier, 17 Sep 2008
This is a very well written, well documented, no nonsense book which was recommended to me initially by UK French Alps specialist PeakRetreats.co.uk as they use it themselves. It does not have details of as many resorts as other books but the ones it covers are well researched.
Fantastic guide not just for experts, 11 Apr 2007
Great guide that's useful for practical information as well as fun just to read. The fun formatt with lost of great photos, to the point fact boxes and casual text style make it not just a guide book but also a great read. Excellent for researching new destinations you haven't been to yet. As a beginner I was very happy to see that all levels of snowboarders are catered for in the guide. Highly recommend it to anyone with an interest in snowboarding!
Global guide, 19 Dec 2006
Very good layout, very good photos and very good text. The stats on the right hand side also add important information. The resorts are written by people who've been there - it shows. It won't fit in your pocket - I have one that does and it's rubbish. Many years of knowhow by people in the know. Highly recommended !!
great snowboarders guide, 14 Dec 2006
What a great resource this book is for beginners and experienced showboarders alike. It's packed with all the information you need to know, some that you don't (but might make you laugh), tips and suggestions, maps, graphs and easy to read ratings of facilities. Chuck in some great stories from some of the big names and some great photography and it's a pretty much indispensable guide to all the resorts you thought you knew, but will now know much better, and to all the resorts you never knew even existed, but can now visit with confidence.
Great Snowboarding Guide, 28 Nov 2006
Enjoyed Snowboarding the World. Very well laid out with great design. Easy to find all the top snowboarding resorts by region. Pictures are great, with some area maps. Area reviews have all the key information distilled into a brief essense, yet still keeps some inside local knowledge. Now to somehow figure out how to visit all the resort listed!
If "SNOW" is your pasion, then this guide is for YOU!, 28 Nov 2006
This guide is on equal par with its brother in the Footprint series "SURFING EUROPE"
If you like the snow and want to get the low down on what's hot and what's not, how to get there, what to do when you get there, what to expect when you go exploring, reference maps, hundreds of fantastic vibrant pictures, reference to the best accommodation options, weather graphs and statistics, an essencial clubs n pubs guide to each location, the best Internet cafes have been sniffed out for your convienence and even a spot of history thrown amongest the vast aray of easy to desifer bible of Snow!
In my eyes this is the best snow guide to ever hit our shelves!
If you don't own a copy go buy one now! You wont regret it!
If you one of those winter daydreamers who are forever wondering where to be at the right time and to score conditions you can only dream of. Well this is the book for you. It gives you the inside first hand experience that is invaluable to a traveller's itinerary plan. You know what location will suit you before you start booking.
If you are one of those people who insist on knowing what to expect before you get to your destination. Then this guide will open your eyes to all the secrets before you have left the comfort of your front room.
If you have no idea where you want to spend your winter holiday and you wanted to shred some of the most beautiful mountain ranges this planet has to offer, you would use this book as your reference to research all of your avenues! From one end of the earth to the other, they have it covered!
From my own personal experience:
They wrote about my local ski fields in NZ and basically hit the nail on the head with their descriptions, advice, culture, conditions and stories. I would say that it seems consistent through the entire guide.
To back up my review I have just bought 5 copies to pass onto my friends and family as an ideal Christmas gift.
Happy shopping
Peace
Chris Kirkham (NZ)
Essential reading for skiers at all levels, 05 Apr 2006
The inner sports series brings advanced sports psychology techniques, previously only available to elite athletes, to us all.
There are plenty of instructors in the mountains who can guide you with exercises to improve your technique, but this book goes much deeper than that.
By understanding the psychology of sport and how we learn new skills you can greatly increase your development as a skier. Clear explanations, backed by excellent anectdotal examples, help us understand how we can make the best of ourselves and our time on the mountain.
Thanks to this book, within 2 years (ie 2 weeks spread over 2 years) I have gone from an average skier who often wound up flat on his back to a very proficient and confident skier - my technique is now the envy of all my skiing friends.
Indispensable!
Another thing to get wrong, 11 Nov 2004
This book will add a new dimension to your skiing mistakes. Not only can you ski with your feet too close together, hands in the wrong place, bad posture and all those other things ski books go on about, but you can also think in the wrong way. Excellent. Another thing to think about.
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