Finally the temperature went below zero here in Finland! It is winter now. It is really weird that there has been snow in Europe for weeks already, but nothing here in Nordic countries (remember our news of cancelling Levi alpine skiing race?). Anyhow, now the temperature is cold and soon we will receive masses of snow, right?

Have you just started skiing or are you planning to start skiing? Have you already tried skiing? If you are a beginner, this article series is right for you. We provide you the best skiing beginner’s tips we can imagine. We, three authors of this blog, are all very experienced skiers with more than 20 years of experience, which makes more than 60 years of skiing all together. We know a thing or two about skiing, snowboarding, telemark skiing, moguls skiing and even monoskiing and ballet skiing. We have crawled backcountries and been to races. We are not alpine champions but we have a broad experience in skiing. Ok, was this enough self-promoting? I think it is time to move on with the topic. So this article opens a series of 6 articles on beginner’s skiing tips. We tell you everything we know about learning to ski, based on our experiences. In this first part we start from the very beginning.

It all starts from motivation. What is your motivation to start skiing? How did you come up with the idea of starting to ski? I am not asking you to say if it is a good idea or not, I say it is a great idea. You have discovered a great sport. Instead I want you to think about your motivation and the level of your enthusiasm. What is your driving force to start skiing? It is important to make the motivation clear for yourself, because if your motivation is weak, you might quit skiing in a couple of weeks. This happened to me when I tried golf. My motivation was purely ridiculous. I wanted to play golf just because it was so fancy sport, but I did not understand my motivation on that time. After few days of practicing I realized that golf is absolutely not my sport. I started to think about my motivation to play golf and I found out that in fact I do not have any real motivation or enthusiasm to play golf. I do not like it. So, I quit. I lost some money with this experiment, but not much hopefully.

Lesson #1: Think about your motivation to start skiing. Why are you interested in skiing and do you think your motivation will remain?

The first lesson is related to investments. After you have figured out your motivation to skiing, you probably would like to rush into a store and purchase all the possible skiing equipment. Hold your horses! Skiing equipment are pretty expensive, so consider renting the equipment for the first ten times. Yes, not less than ten, because if you go skiing ten times during the same year, you most probably will continue the sport. If you go over this point, you will not loose your investment to skiing equipment.

Lesson #2: Rent all the equipment for the first ten times. Do not purchase immediately.

There is one thing more to do before you actually go skiing, which is the reading part. I encourage you to read a couple of books and watch at least one instructional DVD of skiing before entering slopes. As with any other thing you do, it is reasonable to read and watch what experienced people say about the sport. I encourage you to borrow books from your local library or order them from a webshop, such as Homeboy’s skiing webshop. Although I recommend you to read books, it is certainly reasonable to read HomeboySki.Com and this article series as well ?

Lesson #3: Read book and DVD’s on skiing in order to understand the basics

We have discussed the very basics so far, your motivation to skiing, renting equipment rather than purchasing immediately, and reading books and watching DVD’s in order to understand the basics of skiing. This was the boring but important part. Next time we go straight to the good and interesting, basics of skiing techniques! Meanwhile, check out these books and DVD’s we recommend.

Anyone Can Be an Expert Skier Book ($16.47)

The Essential Guide to Skiing Book ($16.46)

Inner Skiing Book ($15)

Breakthrough on Skis DVD ($29.95)

All Mountain Skiing Tactics (Price varies)