Some very poignant points raised and I am going to address them (welcome herr!)
1) The first is pole use: were they not highly important when skis were long planks of wood without metal sidecuts, when to get to the edge you'd lean up against it (stem-christie turn)? No one invented them by accident so why were they needed? It seems as time has gone on, less and less weight is placed on them, but they are still a comfort-zone for skiers in a few ways: a counter-weight to fling around, a general point of sensation, and probably most entrusted to use for moving across flat ground. The key video here is:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTboYL8CjaU (World Cup GS Stars Free Skiing) I'd suggest to those guys they remove any basket on their pole to reduce drag, they probably don't need poles but are using them out of tradition and rules and see no harm in using them, but they could do without them. These GS stars are all potential heartcarvers, haha.
2) Ahh the Carving Cup. Very nice find Tunco and I have thought and known about it for some time. These are racers who've simply thrown away the poles and cut down the gates. Nothing wrong with it, but their style remains the same. The HC paradigm in a concrete definition would be defined by removing dependence on dropping the hip to get edge pressure. I still do it, and it's a good thing to do on icy slopes because if the ski slides out their is a fallback movement to drop the hip more (there is an equilibrium point to work around) - it's also not a particularly tiring movement: also seems to be a reactive lazy movement that one actively counteracts. But I don't do it automatically and depend on it like most skiers and particularly racers. Also, dropping the hip seems to work well with poles. Here's 2 photos of the hip drop:
http://www.snowboardinginsider.net/w...ki-package.jpg http://www.phenixski.com/sponsorship..._ski_team2.jpg - if I am sitting back, what would you make of them? Their shins are up against the front of the boots, but they are still back. This guy here: I think he could be a heart carver on first look, little hip drop:
http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/...i_1828779b.jpg
3) Difficulty: Biff - "I don't think I'll be a heart carver anytime soon" I'd agree here that there is a difficulty, learning and fear to overcome. It's a little scary to push through the fear barrier of being at terminal velocity most of the time (and without poles) but then again it's only on green or blue runs. There's also a ton of information to process. I personally consider those things to be good. I suppose it's like being on a rollercoaster, or dropping your wings back in an F-14 to get to Mach 2. A lot of great open-minded skiers here should try it and would be better for it.
4) Downhill. If they tried it on a ski board, the first thing they'd get is massive board chatter trying to cut a long radius turn at high speed and high pressure.... I personally am too risk averse for any sort of downhill and the speeds they obtain. The crashes are insane. But if I were to try, and given all the ice they hit, I'd be on 210+ skis and with poles for sure, dropping my hip right down and burning my quads up into putty. Heart carving is about having relaxed quads ideally and doing other things other than dropping the hip to get edge pressure.
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