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The Basics Needed to Ski

Here is a list to make sure you have all the proper gear for going skiing.

Tune Up:
Before your skis are going to be ready for this ski season you need to blow the dust off your skis and get them back into shape. During a day of skiing you can get scratches and gouges in the bottom of your skis. These scratches and gouges cause surface friction and will actually reduce your speeds and your control over the skis. It won't affect you that much unless you are a professional racer, but by taking care of your skis they will last you longer. Skis come with sharp metal edges and every year if not every week during ski season these edges need to be sharpened with a file. This edge is for cutting into the ice incase you hit a slick spot on the slope during a turn. A sharp edge will help keep you in control.

Boots:
Even if your feet have stopped growing you still need to check your boots ever year, and every few years you should replace the foam inserts I your boots to make sure your boots are comfortable and fit properly. Improperly fitting boots can cause a broken ankle or at least some nasty blisters that could ruin your skit trip and hurt for days.

Ski Polls:
It is also very important to make sure that the bottoms of your ski polls are sharp so they can cut thru a thin layer of ice if needed. It is also good to make sure that you have the right size polls. Take the poll and turn it upside down, then place your fist around the end of the poll. Your arm should now be parallel to the ground of it is not you should get new polls. The purpose for polls is to help along with balance and ice. If you are trying to turn and start to slide on a patch of ice you can jam one side into the ice to help you complete your turn or to help stop.

Hands, Head and Eyes
Keeping warm and dry is important to your health, so making sure your hands and head are covered is important. By alloying your hands to get wet and cold you could damage your hands and possibly get frostbite. A hat should cover your entire head and be made from a warm material to help keep the heat from escaping. If you are skiing an have no eye protection how will you be able to see where you are going. At the very least you must have a pair of sunglasses, but proper ski goggles are best just because they wrap all the way around your eyes and are pulled close to make sure no wind gets in your eyes allowing you to keep your eyes open at any speeds or weather conditions.

Thermal Underwear:
Thermal Underwear is made from two ply cotton with a box weave texture to help trap the body heat and deflect cold air from passing to the body.

Ski Pants:
Ski pants have not changed much in the last 20 years. They are made from insulated material designed to keep the wind away from the body, but the newer pants have fleece linings and pocket linings to warm up cold hands. The newest features I have seen on ski pants is actually a throwback from the 20's it’s the bomb drop butt flap, and if you are not sure what that means it is a flap in the back of the pants to make going to the bathroom easy without having to undo all the buckles and straps.