I have enjoyed reading this post and I have learned a lot about skiing, MA and even some tv trivia. I do know the skier in the original video, I believe he is a L4 teaching in Blackcomb and I believe the road he is skiing on is on that mountain.
Geoff, your MA was insightful as always and your tv knowledge was spot on. One phrase did sit with me and that was about the typical Canadians in "the shiting in the woods pose" or as you so kindly put it the "back seat". I hope I don't come across as overly defensive, but I wish to remind the readers that both Harald and Diana learned to ski in Montreal area and that is in Canada. Another favourite skier of mine is Thomas Grandi and while looking on YouTube for some of his skiing I came across this gem of a video. Thomas is incorrectly called "Bob Grandi" on the YouTube title and the split screen doesn't make for good MA but who is that American on the top screen and how did he make the US demo team? If they had guys skiing like this when Harald was on the team how did the coaches not notice the difference in their Skiing? Does the US team supply toilets for the back of the skis because if they did this guy could wear a crown.
http://youtu.be/V8ROCK_D-loTo watch the video of Thomas unencumbered go to this site. This was shot on the ice at the top of Lake Louise, very steep, icey, yet Thomas' pure pmts form makes it look easy. One of the readers of this forum taught Thomas and his sister in a north eastern US ski academy. Did I mention that Thomas is Canadian?
http://youtu.be/9xRU8FJvZ8wSeriously Geoff I look forward to skiing with you, Steve and James in a few weeks at Abasin.