CRM.OZ wrote:Hi Guys,
I have to add my thoughts to this post. I rarely post by read your comments almost everyday.
Right now I am sitting in the AA lounge at LAX with my wife and 11 yr old son waiting for the connecting flight to Denver, having just flown in from Sydney Australia.
This is the 3rd year in a row that I have travelled from Australia for camp. This year my wife will take part in the Green / Blue camp for a second year and I will be having private
lessons with Harold in the afternoons of the camp.
I whole heartily endorse Geofda's, Greg (Heluva), CO_Steve - everyone's comments.
My background is that I am 45 and have skied since I was 6 years old. Originally taught by a Polish uncle the "Welan" (not sure of spelling) Austrian ski technique of very close footed
skiing. An elegant and stylish method for old style skis. 15 years or more ago, I discovered Harold and his first book. This was when the ski camps were at Fernie. Peter Stone was selling the books and DVD's in Australia.Given my experience as a skier I quickly realised that PMTS and the "Phantom Move" was the way to go. But I had to wait until 2011 until I could afford the trip to my first Green/Blue camp at Solivsta where I had Dianna as my first coach followed by Rich Messer. That ski experience literally changed my life and my whole love and passion for skiing was re born / re invigorated.
Choosing the Green/Blue camp was the perfect choice for me as I had studied and read many comments from other "newbies" on the forum and almost all talk about the blue camps because they deem themselves to be Blue / advanced intermediate skiers. Now I am not a EGO driven guy and by ensuring I left any Ski ego behind in Australia and starting back at "square one" with the elementary tipping drills was the best decision I ever made. Trying to forget about 40 odd years of ski habits/technique/movement patterns that are ingrained is a difficult task.
2012 I returned to Solvista to attend the same Green/Blue camp and again was selected for the "top" group and luckily for us we have Harold for 3 days. He was sick with a head cold but was still so impressive and tough!. But the improvements and advancements many of us made were simply amazing. I say "many" in our group made major advancements only because some people can talk about the movements, they can articulate and describe what is being taught but just can't seem to do it. Many of you have probably experienced the same in other camps. It is a fact of life and has nothing to do with the quality of teaching from Harold or Dianna or any of the PMTS coaches. By the way a total of 6 Australians (3 couples including my wife and I) are returning this year for the Green/Blue camp and we have all become friends through PMTS.
To anyone that is new or "newish" to PMTS please read and take in these comments form all who have written. Geoffda is spot on about Harold "is always right". If you have any questions, perhaps you should ask yourself "are you right for PMTS?".
Can't wait to be "on the edges" again. 12 months of waiting and hard work in saving to get the family back to CO again. We will be skiing at Loveland, A Basin , Winterpark for the Demo Days of SIA next week, Solvista and lastly Beaver Creek. I would love it if there was an opportunity to meet up or ski with some of you guys one day.
In regards to credibility and posted video I hope to have some clips from my time with Harold in a few weeks so you guys can assess my skiing and be confident I can "walk (ski) the talk"
Finally I would like to say - this forum is an amazing resource of knowledge and experience and one that should be respected and appreciated - not trashed, questioned or baited by those with alternate agenda's or motives. I am embarrassed that the last peanut that caused a stir was an Aussie.
PS. Monsterman and A.L.E if you read this it would be great to have a bear sometime or is it shots?
Harald is always Right - Craig.
Welcome to the forum Craig. It needs a few more sensible Aussies. I try my best to counter balance some of Monster's criptic comments but it's never easy. Odd coming from a Queenslander, they are usually a plain speaking mob as we know. Although he dialed in some very plain speak when he greeted the last Aussie to show up with misplaced reasoning, immediately inviting him to F...Off!!!!
Getting together for a beer would be great but not easy to coordinate. If it's shots then April any year at Hintertux is good for Monster, where he can be found at the bar most days, all day, telling anyone who cares to listen how sore his knee is.
Hope your wife's camp went well. Disneyland on the way home for your son?