You know what, if I had to pick an instructional system to wed my pedagogy and skier development to, it'd be CSIA. I really like the way their top skiers ski--I think there is something worthy in a CSIA Level 4: They possess Many elements of modern 'carvier' approach, but they haven't thrown out extensions, et al., I always think these guys look way better (to me, and that is a subjective opinion, of course) than the PSIA 'Go with a Pro' demonstrators. They seem to find that subtle balance of strong, stable skiing with a just enough fluidity.
Do these guys differ radically from top PSIA skiers (ala Rogan)? I think so. Honestly, there are elements of their skiing that I am not really equipped to evaluate, and as these guys really do represent and promote an entrenched professional ski instructional model, I think it is fair to critique and evaluate them on a more rigorous level--which means this thread invites all comers. Why not try to ski like these guys? I wish I could.
Sebastien Michel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGrUlmmhZSs&feature=fvwrel This Sebastian Michel is a pretty slick skier-check his bio-pretty interesting guy and coach of para-olympic/ world cup ski teams. I love this short second video of 1 legged carving (obviously a key skill for the team he coaches):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=me3JG2fJ43kThis next video is a great technical video featuring, in order, Michel, and then JF Beaulieu (another really great CSIA demo guy) and then followed by a fairly long segment of Georgio Rocca (not sure what his connection is to the two cannucks in this video....I'm just not up on my world cup athlete bios-is he canadian? Was he training at Lake Louise? Got me....you guys will like his stuff for sure, though)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wop_Zc0x1Sc&feature=related This is JF Beaulieu training in NZ-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzcaN17lbEc&feature=related This is pure Canadian skiing-Josh Foster has tons of these on line ski tips (worth watching just for the exposition-he's almost a caricature of a canadian ski instructor). He's not as good technically as Beaulieu and Michel (who are the best in that system) BUT he is a pretty pure model of the CSIA way.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgb5HPLH-TM&feature=relatedI just get a kick out of the Section 8 guy-as you know he has tons of videos posted up. This one is kind of fun, making bigger turns through soft bumps:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vu_wqCipvZs&playnext=1&list=PL4E1D918866F2034B&feature=results_video Tobin Section 8
Like I said, it's a matter of personal preference, but to my eye, the top Cannuck seem to find that appealing balance between being dynamic and being functional in their skiing.
I have less to say here because these guys have tons of their own literature to defend their chosen style of skiing.