In the morning, I did a Step Soulful with a customer. He came with XPLORE
equipment. And as expected, he said, "Alpine turns are fine."
Yes. Maybe there is something about the thought that if you have heel-free
boots, you have to do telemark position. That's why you end up on the slopes,
riding the lift, and practicing telemark turns. Even if it's NNNBC. 75mm
soft boots. And 75mm plastic boots. Not to mention NTN. If you have heel-free
equipment, you should do telemark turns. Well, if you think of it as a
matter of preference, it's not my place to criticize others. But, you know,
both XPLORE and NNNBC have step cuts on the sliding surface, right? And
the bindings are heel-free. The boots are made of leather and are soft.
So I think that before getting on the lift and trying to practice turns,
I want them to walk first. . This is me. And that's why we held Step Soulful.
Take a short walk, ski a short distance. Climb as far as you can ski, ski,
and climb again. Repeating this process gradually gives rise to a sense
of spinning. It's like a seamless transition between skiing and walking.
And I've found that this style, as I call it, is uniquely suited to Japan's
snowy conditions. This is what I've felt since starting Step Soulful more
than a decade ago. . The equipment (hardware) is from Europe, but the software
is uniquely Japanese. Telemark turns are often imitated as a matter of
course, but isn't there actually a Japanese style? ? In fact, telehiro
himself says that what he's doing is not a telemark turn. What is a turn
anyway? In the photo above, the tracks reflected in the backlight are traces
of a soft brake applied and released, he would say. And the brake is applied
behind the back. I'll post the mechanism again. I hope it helps. April
12, 2025
