Customer Reviews

Breakthrough On Skis: How to Get Out of the Intermediate Rut

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I started to ski five years ago at the age of 46 when my wife, an avid accomplished skier, insisted. After numerous group and private lessons, I was probably a 5 on the standard 10 scale. It was discouraging. Then, I discovered Lito's books, tapes and lessons. Now, I'm a 9 on a 10 scale able to easily ski on all but difficult black diamond bumps. Everything else is a breeze and fun. Better skiing is not harder, it's just different. Lito's book takes you step by step, stage by stage, one phase at a time. It's so simple it's remarkable that no other book has come close. For example, since skiing generally requires all your weight on one foot at a time, which foot is it? Most people, even accomplished skiers, answer either the uphill or downhill ski. This answer is both right and wrong. As Lito explains, it is the outside ski which could be uphill at one point and downhill at another point. Next, he explains how and why shifting weight to the other ski must be completed early and dynamically. This is actually simple somewhat like a dance step. The book continues on with secret after secret until the cumulative result is advanced skiing. After five or six days following his advice, it really came together. I'll never forget that time down a black diamond slope using his techniques naturally and easily. At the bottom, I looked back at the formerly imposing slope and realized that it had been a breeze. Looking to the ski, I said thank you God and Lito. Since then, fear and trepidation (except for those black diamond bumps) have forever been excised from my skiing. If you're tired of stopping at the top of a tough slope trying to build up your courage, you've apparently never read Lito's book, seen his tapes and/or implemented his advice. After reading and trying almost everything else, Lito's book allowed the easy opportunity to enjoy this incredible sport. Once again, thank you Lito.

Yeah, I know -- skiing books don't teach you to ski. But this book, a slope, and a week WILL teach an intermediate skier to ski like an expert.

His main point is crucial: expert skiing is a different set of skills. Many of us (me especially) reach intermediate level quickly, but we stay there forever. Refining those skills won't make an expert skier.

Lito Tejada-Flores breaks the skills of skiing down into simple, straightforward technical steps. He teaches you to ski with your feet, not your head.

Skiing only one week a year, I went from NASTAR bronze to NASTAR gold. My wife and I own over two dozen ski books. This one alone did more for us than all the rest. We will both read it again before and during this year's ski trip. It's a winner.

Go to DVD & VIDEO on the Amazon top menu and type in LITO. He has made three videotapes which are as superb as the book. I talked a good deal there in a customer review (for Tape #3) to the effect that the first two tapes are indispensable.

We all learn differently but for me, book and tapes are necessary companions. Bear in mind that the tapes are 29 bucks, full length, and you wind up watching them over and over. An hour of ski instruction on the slope is about 75 dollars--and let's be honest, when was the last time you had instruction of any kind(G)?

I finally got sick of taking this book out of the library every ski season and decided to buy it rather than steal the library's copy. But I did consider that. After having been an intermediate skier for 20 years (taking a 10 year hiatus), reading Lito's book and applying the principles had me comfortably skiing black diamonds within an afternoon. It is the most remarkable book for intermediates but it is not for beginners. Beginning skiers will not understand the application of the terminolgy. They are best served by lessons. But for intermediates who desire "the secret" Lito discloses it clearly, concisely and correctly. In a step by step process, Lito brings you the "Zen" of skiing, the philosophy that translates into perfect parallel's. Lito is to skiing as Colin Fletcher is to walking.

This is the best instruction book on skiing - by far. Follow its advice and you will improve. Don't be put off by the relative lack of pictures and diagrams. Take the time to read and digest what the author is saying and you will know how to ski like an expert. This guy flat out knows how to teach.

It's happened to just about any skiier. You get over the initial fear of falling, and learn how to get from the top of the hill down to the bottom. You move from the greens to the blues, and get a sense of what skiing is generally about. But you're not *great*.

This plateau is hit by skiiers of all ages and backgrounds. They know the mechanics of skiing, and they know what to do. But they marvel at those people zooming down the slopes effortlessly, as if they were dancing on the snow.

The solution is this book. I didn't even buy it on my own originally - it was given to me by a skiier friend who had read it and loved it. The book made a circuit through our skiing group and soon we all had copies of it. We then lent those out to friends, so they could learn too! This wasn't the basics - how to snowplow, how to stop. And it wasn't complicated either. It was full of great, practical, easy to understand *tips* that you could immediately apply to your own skiing.

Highly recommended!

Years ago I ran into this book in my local book store (long before Amazon.com) and bought it. I had taken 2 ski lessions in my life and got started downhill skiing later in life, perhaps I was in my forties. I struggled along with the green and easy blue slopes, but the majority of the mountain was not open to me. If I tried something more difficuilt, I would fear and fall. No matter how hard I worked the green slopes, I just wasn't getting any better. I lacked skill and confidence.

Then I started reading this book. What struck me was how I felt like I understood what Lito was trying to get into me. I remember copying a couple pages of each section and placing them in a zip lock bag when I would go skiing. I'd pull out the lession points I had selected and read it over and over carefully and practiced exactly what he said to do.

I realized that each chapter was seemly long, but also easy to read and then I realized that what Lito had done was to explain the same lession many different ways and one, at least, was sure to hit me right on. That was his key, and what made the book so thick; he explained it over and over but each time from a different perspective until each reader would click on at least one of the explainations and just get it!

As I write this today, I have just skiied all over Kirkwood's black diamonds, I'm 58 years old and 13 years ago had quad heart bypass. I buy a season pass and ski as many days as my schedule and the weather permits and have for years now.

I looked this book up today on Amazon to see if I could buy it for a friend as I seemed to have loaned my copy out and haven't seen it in years. If you have started skiing, taken a begining lession or 2, you will want to read this book like no other. And if you think that you can't really learn to ski well from a book, just remember this "old man" skiing the black diamonds of Kirkwood and every other place he visits.

I was a terminal intermediate skiier, enjoying skiing but facing the fact that at 47, after skiing for about 10 years, I'd probably never really progress. I bought this book, and a few others, and this is the one that has made the difference for me. After a short morning of trying out his ideas (he has one MAIN point in each of 3 chapters that are the real keys) I was grinning from ear to ear. After a couple of days I was at a level where I was thinking to myself, "I can't believe how *incredible* it feels to really ski well -- so this is what skiing is supposed to be like." I was hitting the runs in big swooping carves or popping short radius turns, feeling things from my skis that I had never been aware of before. Many of my friends and, yes, old ski instructors talked to me about my "amazing improvement". The book made sense, the few important points were easy to follow and implement, and I now enjoy skiing so much more than I ever did before. It worked for me.

This book was by far the best of the more than dozen books on skiing I've read. After taking a couple of ski weeks, and being a casual skier for several years, I was still a lower-level intermediate. After reading the book once in the off-season, I was able to ski better at the beginning of the season than I had at the end of the previous. After two days of working on the things in the book, I was skiing better than ever before in my life. I've read it multiple times, and each time my skiing has significanly improved. Skiing has gotten more fun, easier, and less tiring for me because of this book.

As a 1 week/yr. skier, I still wanted to ski better. This book uncovered he secret that eluded me - one foot skiing. I'm still progressing but this is the book you should be reading on the plane flight to the mountains.