Product Details

• Actors: Linde Waidhofer
• Directors: Lito Tejada-Flores
• Format: Color, NTSC
• Number of tapes: 1
• VHS Release Date: October 1, 1998
• Run Time: 53 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 0941283186
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #283,731 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

In this third video in a 1998 set produced by veteran skiing instructor Lito Tejada-Flores, the focus is on the newer "shaped" skis and special techniques that can make a skier an expert when using them. Utilizing films of himself and others on the slopes, Tejada-Flores shows a series of drills that a student can practice to get the most out of modern skis. The emphasis is often on the role played by the "inside" and "outside" foot during a turn, and close-ups of a skier's feet are used to show clearly how the weight should shift during a turn. Special drills are shown, including one in which a skier is instructed to skate on skis while concentrating on how the feet must move and the body's weight must shift to keep moving forward. The lessons are very detailed, yet they also often have a poetic nature to them, such as when an expert skier is shown moving gracefully downhill while Tejada-Flores explains the "subtle, almost invisible, foot action" on display. The lessons on this video alone won't make someone an expert on the slopes, but the material is presented in a manner that is easy to remember, and if a viewer puts the lessons to use when on her skis, her performance is sure to improve. Also included is a booklet that essentially duplicates the information on the video. --Robert J. McNamara

Product Description

Welcome to Breakthrough On Skis III - The New Skis, my third video ski lesson, an in-depth exploration of the new generation of super-sidecut or shaped skis. Creating this video was almost as exciting as my own encounter with these remarkable new skis. I worked with a handful of great skiing friends--all of them, like me, absolutely smitten, totally converted and enthusiastic about these new skis. I asked my gifted cameraman, Edgar Boyles, to zoom in, closer than ever, on what takes place between our skis and the snow. Edgar outdid himself and produced, I think, the clearest, most revealing shots of ski-snow interaction I've ever seen. I'm hoping that his exceptional cinematography, together with my explanations, will give you a fresh vision of what really happens down at the snow level, where skier meets mountain.

Just as I did for my previous video ski lessons, in this booklet I want to offer you a few more tips, a few practical suggestions on how you can get the greatest benefit from this new Breakthrough on Skis videotape.

Let me start with a bold statement: I think these new skis are the most important development in skiing in the last twenty years. A lot of skiers whom I've skied with and worked with recently have told me they weren't very eager to switch to the new super-sidecut skis. "What's wrong with my old skis?" they asked. "They turn great. I really love them." The answer is simple. There is nothing wrong with older, traditionally designed skis. But the new skis, if treated right, open the door to a level of on-snow performance that, previously, skiers could only dream about but never really achieve. In my own case, I know I'm skiing better today, on super-sidecut skis, than I ever thought I could...and I was an expert skier to begin with.

Besides, this new design for skis--significantly wider at the tip and tail, and proportionately narrower at the center or waist--is her to stay. These skis are not a fad. This is the way skis are now being designed and built. Sooner or later, you will be looking for new skis, and when you do, you'll find that traditional ski designs will have virtually disappeared.

The reason that this new design for skis has won such widespread acceptance is simple. Deep-sidecut skis really do make everything easier.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

83 of 86 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lito's Third Tape Adds to the Collection, December 3, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Breakthrough On Skis III, The New Skis [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Lito Tejeda-Flores is by far the most intelligent, rational and non-irritating teacher of skiing to intermediates. Especially if you only ski a week or two a year, and can't seem to make progress to your satisfaction, he will change all that. His book, "Breakthrough on Skis," is a starting point. His first two videos are indispensable companions to it and lay out a very simple strategy for the graceful, less tiring, and ultimately addictively satisfying realization of skiing as it should be. If you currently make windshield-wiper turns, wobble like a weeble, and proceed through bumps at low speeed all the while wondering not if but when you'll fall, take heart: they are solveable problems, you will see immediate improvement. Most worthy: you will see what you are trying to do, and the mystery will be replaced by the simple need to develop some new tools and then to enjoyably practice them for the rest of your life. BUT, the fact is that the new skis, which are hugely better than the olds ones, don't change technique very much at all. They are simply easier to ski well on. Sorry, but if you own older skis you must throw them away, demo entry level "shaped skis," and eventually buy a pair. Plan to demo this winter--a different brand each day. They will be shorter in length than previous--probably about as long as you are tall. That's all there is to it, in reality. For a strong intermediate guy start with the equivalet of K24-brand skiis. For Women, the Rossis that are the most popular rentals. The skiis will turn much more easily than you are used to. If they chatter or are unstable when you go fast, you need to upgrade to the next skills level of demos. The implication of these remarks is that Lito's new tape is the least necessary. All his ideas are promulgated in the earlier tapes. Alas, this one seems an advertisement for them, and it advocates the techniques of Harold Harb, who's in it. But Harb's elegant observation--that whatever you do to your unweighed ski, the weighted ski will follow--is really only a tip. You need the entire Tejeda-Flores course to change your skiing style and life. All in all, this tape is by no means essential. Lito seems to have been Aspenized, there is an advertising quality that is absolutely out of character from the easlier work. By the way, Lito's book and the first two tapes make an excellent present for anyone you know who would like to be a better skiier. I have watched them both 100 times and never gotten tired. I'm not a ski instructor. You can buy thenm all for the price of one lesson at Vail. And remember, nobody can teach you this stuff--you have to teach yourself. Only when you have a question can anybody help you. Good luck. Tejeda-Flores is the master. And he skids his turns a little, which is hope or solace for us all.

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the finest Ski Instruction Videos ever produced!, October 8, 1999

By 

Peter Wodinsky (California, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Breakthrough On Skis III, The New Skis [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Within the opening frames of this relaxing but engrossing video, one is transported to both a new manner of teaching as well as just great basic instruction. This video acts a great teaching tool for everyone from green circle to double black diamond. You can review portions of the instruction all season and learn excellent technique over and over again.

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Just a summary of first two videos in this series, December 11, 2002

By 

Gill Bates (Signapore) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Breakthrough On Skis III, The New Skis [VHS] (VHS Tape)

I bought this video first and found the first five minutes of the video useful. But then I got got the first of the series and found it to be just incredible (I will be rating that video five stars). This video is first of all...boring. I almost fell asleep drinking a glass of wine about halfway through. I just found this video to be a mapping of the techniques in I & II to the shaped skiis. Basically, the techniques Tito speaks of don't change from I & II but he stresses that the shaped ski is more responsive than the older skiis. Don't waste your money on this one. I recommend the first in the series if you want to ski the groomed slopes and the second for bumps and powder.