The Skier's Edge

As everybody who wrote review here, I think this is a great book for who go skiing in a little bit "theoretical" way. Some of your tips that helped you as a quick learner in the first week may hold you back from becoming a professional-looking skier. The author of this book is trying to convince you by providing solid physical principle. Also, the illustrations are carefully selected to demonstrate the arguments. Many of them are taken from real competition and show the movement in a sequence. Even you have figured out most of the principles taught in this book, I believe there are still some paragraphs flashing here and there will push you downhill little faster.

This is an amazing amazing book. Unlike other ski books, this book not only tells you "how", but "why". All those times when your ski instructor told you to keep your shins on the tongues of your boots or edge the skis during turns; well, this book will explain what all that madness is about. Of course, the reasoning can be all explained by physics, but the author is very talented in providing just the right amount of science with the sport and as a result produces a book that is comprehensible not only to Einstein.This is a book that can be of value to anyone that is serious about skiing. I believe the beginner can benefit from this book because it offers him a solid foundation to build on. The expert will find many ways to fine tune his skiing through this book. For people who only go skiing once a year or go just to hang out with friends or to look cool, this book will put them to sleep, guaranteed.Although this book is quite technical, it is not comprehensive in the "how to" area. For a more definitive guide in this area, I recommend "The All-Mountain Skier" to supplement this book. Together, you will have possibly everything you need to know about skiing like a pro minus how to install bindings on skis (Can't have everything). "The All-Mountain Skier" will also have a comprehensive guide on equipment and maintenance of it.I can't possibly imagine a ski book getting more technical and specific as this one. Plus, this book have pictures of only pro skiers so you can emulate with security. Lastly, this book is very, very well written which is important since you have to read it!

This is the best book on elite skiing technique out there. (And I have them all. It's even better than Ski Faster by Lisa Feinberg Densmore, which is excellent.) The sequential photographs alone are worth the cover price. The book covers the physics of modern skiing and modern equipment, and demonstrates different key skills (angulation, inclination, rotation, pole plants, cross under, cross over, the virtual bump, forward pressure early in turns with foot thrusts in the transition) with extraordinary side by side and sequential photographs of the best World Cup athletes in competition. Just a few of the things I learned, just from the photographs: (1) amazingly large initial steering angles (pivoting ski before the turn) used by World Cup racers, who can still carve cleanly, (2) World Cup racers consistently catch air over the virtual bump between turns, giving the lie to the advice given junior racers everywhere to always keep their skis on the snow. Instead of general advice and platitudes, the book is full of specifics, with clear illustrations drawn from action photos of some of the world's best skiers (Hermann Maier, Kjetil Andre Aamodt, Katja Seizinger, Alberto Thomba--the book was put together a year before Bode Miller took the World Cup by storm and radical inclination.) It's an essential book for recreational ski racers, and a good book for anyone who aspires to ski with excellence (or who just wants to know how those top racers ski so incredibly well). Now (sigh) I just have to wait some months for the white flakes so I can practice more of the book learning in the gates.

Le Master successfully dissects skiing technique better than any predecessor--using simple written analogies and liberal use of sequential "time-lapse" pictures. This book is worth its weight in gold--especially for the serious skier!

For the most part ski books (and ski instructors) are superficial. They may offer high order instructions such as "turn on the ball of your foot." But never the underlying reasons why this is (in general good advise.) While this is adequate for the casual skier who might take a one or two week vacation a year it is insufficient for anyone really wanting to be a good skier.For us (I live near Aspen and ski very steep terrain -- always trying to improve) we are our own teachers.The Skiers Edge is one of two books (the other being the "All Mountain Skier) that provides detailed and usable information. The side bar page on skiing moguls is worth the price of the book.Every year I have a singular goal to ski better than last .. this has been a year of major break throughs .. all based on clearer understandings provided by these two books.