• Do you ski the same type of terrain in the same way time after time?,
• Do you stick to your two or three well learned methods that restrict you to the same type of turns on similar slopes, usually on the same type of snow.
• Are you getting fed up with the lack of adventure and excitement that lured you to the sport in the first place?
• Or are you just plain fed up with the way you ski?

Well it may be time to SHAKE YOUR SKIING UP A LITTLE
and add a few tricks to your ski skill bag...

This can be when you next ski on snow by just taking opportunities as they arise. So keep your eyes peeled and use your imagination to find a few fun orientated gentle challenges. These must be safe and within your capabilities, but just enough to spark that fun element, i.e. don’t go totally mad !

• Look out for a small fall line ridge, often found running down the edge of pistes near piste markers. Tackle these by turning on opposite sides for each turn going back and forth over the ridge. Right turn on the left side, left turns on the right hand side. Next time round, or further down, develop some finesse by compressing as you go over the ridge and extending down the sides. Then try carving turns over them. For added fun try popping off the ridge and landing on the other side, or even hopping over the ridge, clearing it completely in both directions.

• On seeing a bank of snow, break out of your normal skiing and, using the right amount of speed, run up and turn against the bank (like the wall of death!) to bring yourself back down. If safe (check out before) ski on to the top of the bank then ski back down, or if happy with jumping a little pop off on to the top, turn and then pop off back down.

• If the piste forms a 'U' shaped half pipe, often called a gun barrel, and you are not going to get in the way of other skiers, try rhythmically turning up and down either side of the gun barrel. i.e. right hand turns up the left bank and left hand turns on the right bank.

• Play in the small bumps or ridges that run across pistes (the infamous ploughed field sensation!). Can you keep your turning in time to either the constant or variable rhythm of the bumps or ridges?, can you miss every other one?, can you run them diagonally?

• Depending upon skill level this next challenge can be tried on almost any piste. Constantly vary the shape, size and rhythm of your turns, never do the same turn twice in succession, vary from fall line skiing to diagonally and back. Be unpredictable! but be careful and mindful of other skiers around you.

• Before you start skiing it is always good to do some warm up drills, first with skis off, then may be with skis on but not skiing. Then followed by some drills whilst skiing. Incorporate some of these in to our new fun activities, such as stepping, running, shuffling and turning exercises.

• Play 'follow the leader' in 'Simon Says' fashion. Get your friends to follow down mimicking exactly what 'Simon' does, never doing the same thing twice, this may even involve going back up hill. Take it in turns, may be even rotating the leader whilst on the move. Whilst this sounds like a children's game, it can be great fun in a group of like minded friends!

This list is not exhaustive and is only limited by your imagination, the terrain available to you and the levels of skill in your group. Form a squadron of fighter pilots, give each other appropriate names in the group. Next day be another team, try to enact how different people may ski (ski racers, motor racing drivers, different members of parliament, footballers, mogul skiers, etc.), or just be yourselves.

This is a tremendous way to have fun, learn and boost confidence but, there's always a but. Above all keep it safe and appropriate to your friends, don’t exert peer pressure or satisfy your own ego to the demise of everyone else's  - this is meant to be a fun learning experience.

HAVE FUN and LEARN - Enjoy your skiing