More on Ira Riklis’ first skiing experience:
“So there I am, about 10 years old, a never-ever skier, with all blood flow to my feet cut off, and my father decides that I need to be more self reliant. It would have been a simple matter for my father, or some other compassionate soul, to have closed the binding on my skis. But I was to stay there until I closed the bindings myself.
I tried to lean forward to close the binding, but my heel is being held down and I’m too short to be able to lean forward and gain the necessary leverage to close the binding. It took me about an hour, and many failed attempts, to figure out how to use the ski pole to close the binding. So there I am, feet aching, finally fully equipped to go skiing, and I haven’t even left the staging area yet. Now I have to learn how to move on skis.”
Ira Riklis continues:
“My father initially tried to teach me to use a herringbone method. I have now been skiing for almost 45 years and I have yet to see anyone use the herringbone for simple movement around the slopes. It is much easier to teach a new skier to use a sidestep method. Also, while modern skis are meaningfully shorter than they were about 45 years ago, the skis I was wearing were so long that I couldn’t even come close to getting the herringbone step to work with my prepubescent stature (or lack thereof).
“After about another hour of total frustration, I had traveled all of about three feet and I simply sat down in the snow and started to cry. At this point my sister, who had already been skiing before, had pity on me and showed me how to sidestep.”