There is a myth out there that the monoski is very difficult to ski. I can't even count how many people I've talked to in lift lines that have some deep rooted fear that the monoski is harder to ski than any other snow-sliding toy. I have found through much trial and error in teaching techniques, that this simply is not the case. If you are not fearful (congratulations!) then you should know how easy it is to monoski with a few helpful hints. There are some very basic steps that you should take first before trying to ski a monoski down a hill. A monoski does not require the same technique as two skis and though the mechanics are very similar, some aspects are exactly opposite and you must be aware of these things before you get on a lift

This is a step by step beginning instructional designed for individuals, demo teams and instructors to teach new monoskiers the basic concepts of monoski function and how they work. We will be including helpful photos to make this process easy for everybody.

There are a few basic steps that make skiing a monoski far easier than skiing on any other snow-sliding device. I have experience teaching many hundreds of people of all different skiing abilities and from ages ranging from 6 years old to 83 years old, so hopefully this instructional can help you to understand the joy and ease of learning how to monoski!

Step 1, buy one, find a friend that has one, rent one, or demo one from a manufacturer or from a representative…good luck!

Phase 1: "Carrying your monoski from the parking lot to the slope"

There are a couple standard methods for carrying your monoski. You can carry your board balanced in one arm, horizontal to the ground, at your side with your poles in the opposite hand. You can carry your monoski at your side with the poles inserted in between both bindings, this will make it easy to transfer arms if you have a long walk to the base area. If you have poles with straps, you can place one strap around each toe piece, cross your poles on the bottom side of your board, lift it above your head and place it against your back with the base against your jacket and the poles over your shoulders.

Phase 2: "Getting into and out of your bindings"

The first rule is always step into your uphill binding first. This will allow you to balance on your uphill edge (if the slope is relatively flat, just use this reference; where is the slope coming towards you from an uphill location). When stepping into your downhill binding, use both poles in your hands to hold yourself in position and firmly click into your downhill binding, being aware that as soon as you do this you will need to again balance on your uphill binding and the uphill edge. Focus on squeezing your knees together and only balancing on your uphill edge, if you put weight on your downhill edge, you will loose your edge-hold and you could catch your downhill edge and fall over the board down hill.

When getting out of your bindings simply take your downhill foot out first. Still be conscious of squeezing your knees together and always balancing on your uphill foot. As soon as your downhill foot is out of the binding, place it on the snow firmly for balance. You might do this a lot while waiting (yes waiting) for your friends to catch up so you can kick back.

Phase 3: "Edge balancing on a flat surface"

Get on as flat of a surface as possible so your monoski does not want to slide any direction. With both poles in your hands, step into your bindings using your poles to hold you in place. You do not want to slide at all while doing this exercise.

**The goal with this exercise is to keep your knees tightly together and comfortably bent, use your arms to balance firmly on your well planted poles and move your knees left to right while balancing on each edge.

Go back and forth slowly, after some back and forth movements balance on one edge for a few seconds and then switch to the other. Do this exercise until you feel very comfortable with keeping your knees locked together and bent at varying angles. The most important thing to focus on here is that you are leveraging the pressure to your edge from your knees, not from rolling your ankles like you do on two skis to leverage your edge. If you leverage your edge from your ankles, you could have the tendency to over rotate and to catch your edge and fall over.

You might think the next step should be learning how to get up while a monoski is locked to both feet, it's not, you'll learn how to do this after Phase 4.

Phase 4: "Understanding how to use your edges"

Now that you know how to do the old in and out and how to stand on a flat surface with a monoski strapped to your feet, you need to train your body how to balance on your uphill edge. This is the most important thing to learn prior to discovering the joy and the power you get while skiing a monoski. Without this basic knowledge, everything else can prove to be very difficult.

Be aware, as a skier, your body and your subconscious are used to skiing, not monoskiing. Though the stance and motion that you use while skiing and monoskiing are very similar, the way you ski a monoski is opposite to alpine skiing in regards to how you will use your edges to accomplish skiing gracefully and effortlessly down the ski hill. You will have a tendency to always want to put pressure on your downhill inside edge which does not exist when you are skiing on a monoski. You must constantly be aware of this! To overcome this tendency, whenever you feel off balance, whenever you feel like you just can't get it together squeeze your knees together and focus on balancing on just your uphill foot.

Now that you know how important it is to be aware of the difference in how your edges will work compared to two skis (snowboarders that have never skied will require some different instruction), to learn how to do this you will need to start with two simple exercises (maybe three) at the base area before you attempt to go up the lift and monoski.

Exercise 1; Walk up a nice moderate 5 degree to 10 degree pitch around the main base area. You will find that you will need a pitch much steeper than an easy green to do this following exercise. If the pitch is too flat, you will not be able to slide down the hill with your edge perpendicular to the fall-line (the fall-line is the direction a ball would roll down a hill).

The goal with this exercise is to train yourself how to balance on your uphill edge while keeping your monoski exactly perpendicular to the fall-line and how not to rely on your downhill inside edge (which no longer exists)

After you hike up the slope a good 50 to 100 feet (you know you need to get in shape anyways), you're ready to start this exercise. Before you step into your uphill binding, one of the most successful scenarios I've experienced in explaining this feeling is to stand on only one leg, your uphill leg and balance with your arms out to your side. Bend side to side while maintaining your balance on only one leg, this is your balance point to remember once you have stepped into your monoski.

Now that you have a basic understanding of what we're trying to accomplish, first step into your uphill binding while using both of your poles for balance. Stepping into your downhill binding will be a bit more difficult on this pitch than it was on a flat surface as in Phase 3. Bend your knees, dig your poles in for balance, and step firmly and quickly into your downhill binding. As soon as it clicks in, pull back up on your downhill leg and squeeze your knees together. Focus on balancing on your uphill foot or your monoskis uphill edge. Remember, as a skier you will have the tendency to step down on your downhill inside edge for balance. To maintain balance, all you really need to do is relax your downhill leg and balance on your uphill leg.

Remember, keep your knees together!

To learn how to balance on your edge while sliding, what you need to do is focus on keeping your monoski perpendicular to the slope at all times. If the tip or the tail drop below a perpendicular angle to the slope, the monoski will want to slide whichever direction the lowest end of your monoski is pointing.

While balancing on your uphill leg, slowly drop, push or put pressure on your downhill leg until the uphill edge no longer grips and allows you to slide down the fall-line just a little. As soon as you feel the edge lose its grip, focus on keeping your knees together and pulling up lightly to regain your balance on your uphill edge. Remember to balance using your poles. Think of your poles as your feelers and make sure they are moving down hill as you slide to achieve balance each time that you release your uphill edge. As soon as you stop sliding and balance on your uphill edge again, replace your poles to a comfortable location so you have room to slide downhill again.

Repeat this exercise until you feel comfortable and balanced on your edge. As you become more comfortable with this exercise, try and slide downhill for longer and longer periods before regaining balance on your uphill edge. Repeat this exercise on your other edge and do so until you are sliding downhill comfortably and controlled. Some new monoskiers will try and turn when they get near the bottom of the hill even before getting to their second edge, if so, just go for it, you might get it, you might not. The next exercise will help you to achieve the ability to turn with confidence.

Remember, keep your knees together!

Note: you will feel much more comfortable with one edge than the other, make sure you spend twice as much time mastering this and all exercises on the edge that you are not as comfortable on.

Exercise 2; After side-sliding toward the bottom of the slope, when you get to an area that is relatively flat try pushing yourself, while maintaining your balance and seeing if you can turn both directions on your own.

Remember, keep your knees together!

The goal with the following exercise is to get comfortable turning on a flat surface using your knees to initiate turns and using your poles to push your self around the turn. You main focus will be to get the tail of your monoski to swing around the turn without carving a turn. Don't forget about the previous Phase 3 instruction, don't role your ankles to turn.

While pushing around the base area, try and keep your knees bent and together and really work on staying centered or staying as forward as possible. Try and stay out of the back seat, riding the back seat is almost as bad for your ability to learn how to ski a monoski as riding on the wrong edge.

The most challenging thing to do here is to learn where and when you need to change which foot or edge that you need to balance on. The flat surface will make this easy to accomplish because the board will not want to go anywhere other than the direction that you are pushing yourself. When turning left, the pressure you apply will be on your left edge. When changing from a left to a right turn on a flat surface, use your left pole to push into the right turn, plant your right pole and simply adjust your balance to your right leg as though you are standing on one leg. Again you must think to not roll your ankles to turn to but use your knees as a single unit to help counterbalance where you rest on your edge at all points of your turn.

If you are having problems with this above exercise, try the following, otherwise proceed to practice Phase 5.

If you are unable to get the tail to slide around the turn smoothly, try putting pressure on the heel of whichever edge it is you are standing on to get it to slide sideways, if this doesn't work on it's own you can use your opposite leg to pull up push down, push forward or pull back to change how you are balancing on your edge. Another technique is to un-weight your edge by literally jumping on to your opposite edge, try and turn while jumping or releasing pressure from the edge you are on so you can transition to your opposite edge. If none of these methods seem to be working for you, go back to Phase 2, work your knees back and forth again to achieve balance and without pushing your self at all, try and swivel the monoski under your feet. You will need to be centered and to have your balance in the right spot to swivel the board like this, otherwise the edge will dig in and it will not break loose. Keep on working on this technique before you head up the chair lift. If you are having problems you will need to work on exercise 2 and 3 until you can figure out how to turn comfortably.

Work on pushing yourself around turning left and right until you feel confident in your ability to maneuver both directions.

Phase 5: "Getting up"

Most people will find getting up quite easy while some will have a very difficult time. If you can not figure out how to get up after a few tries, just click out of your bindings stand up, and step back in again. This will save you a lot of frustration and will also save some of your energy.

If on any pitch whatsoever, you must get your monoski into a perpendicular position to the fall-line below you. The concept behind standing up is to center your body over the top of your monoski and to remain centered above your bindings at all times. The monoski must always be perpendicular to fall line for this to work properly. Get both your poles in your hands to start. If you are on your left hip, you will need to position your left fist into the snow just above your hip with your pole laying behind you at the same angle or orientation as your monoski is to the pitch you are on. While keeping your knees almost as tight as possible, the goal will be to throw your knees down hill or 90 degrees directly over the center of your monoski and to push upward down the fall-line with your left fist. With your right hand be ready to use your pole to stick into the snow once you get up. As you get over the center of your monoski, extend your legs and reach out with your right pole and stick it into the snow down-slope. Use your left pole to counter balance and stand with your weight on your uphill or left leg concentrating on keeping your knees tight the whole time.

With a few tries, this will become easy. If not, get out of your bindings each time to save energy. If it isn't natural for you, it may take a while. One of the problems that you may encounter when trying to get up is to have your monoski want to slide forward or backward. If your monoski is sliding either direction either your monoski is not exactly 90 degrees perpendicular to the fall-line or when you are pushing yourself up, you are not pushing at an angle 90 degrees perpendicular to your board. Often times the later scenario means you are extending your legs too quickly and not following a consistent down the fall line arch. If this a problem that you can't overcome within a few tries, just continue to click out of bindings. As you learn how to monoski and gain better contol of your edges, getting up will become much easier. It is also much easier to stand up one steeper terrain.

Before heading up the chair lift, you might want to hike up that side-sliping area one more time

Exercise 3; (not necessary but helpful in gaining confidence), Step into your bindings and sideslip on your most comfortable edge first. If your right edge is your uphill edge, slide sideways a little to get your balance and to initiate to a left turn you are going to go from standing on your right foot, to standing on your left foot and you will hopefully glide smoothly to your left edge. The timing of the weight transfer is the most important thing here, but there is also a process which will need to be followed to help you get to initiate and to get into the turn easily and smoothly. The time to transfer to your next opposite edge is just a few degrees before you are just a few degrees before you are pointing dirtectly down the fall-line. If you transfer your weight too soon, you will catch your edge and will fall up-hill. If you transfer your weight and balance to the opposite edge too late, you will catch your down-hill edge and will fall down the fall-line.

You will rely on both of your poles to help push you into your turns and to plant downhill so you can pivot onto your opposing edge. To start your left turn, using the same technique that you were using on the flat terrain start by pointing your tip a little downhill, push your upper body downhill with your right pole, transfer your weight to your left foot just before you get to pointing down the fall-line. Make sure your upper-body is down the fall-line as well. If your upper body remains pointed to the right your tip will want to go to the right.

Whichever is your weekest edge for the side-sliping exercise, the same edge will be the most difficult to release and to get into your next turn. The most common problem (and what you will feel) is that your tip will want to constantly pull up-hill. You must get your upper-body to get into the next turn. Make sure you use your up-hill pole to push you into your next turn while experiencing this. If your uphill pole drops behind you, what is happening is your upper-body is turning the wrong direction and is causing the tip of the monoski to pull up-hill

Remember, Keep your knees together!

Try this exercise the other direction now until you can comfortably turn one turn each direction. Do not attempt multiple linked turns until you can do one turn and stop comfortably. As soon as you can stop after a turn and not shake, feel off balance, or feel your knees want to come apart then you're ready to start linking turns. One thing you will do often during the learning process is to use your uphill pole to push yourself into each turn. This is usually referred to as double-poling and is quite acceptable during the learning process. Many accomplished monoskiers will do this when off balance or when not executing turns properly. As mentioned other times in this instructional, I consider this a mandatory technique to train yourself for proper technique later.

Phase 6: "Getting to, and getting on and off of the chair lift"

Unless you are extremely confident after these exercises, I would suggest you go to a beginner chairlift. If you are linking turns at the base with no problems and are confident, you might benefit by going right up an easy intermediate lift. Many new skiers find that easy intermediate terrain is much easier to learn a monoski on that easy green runs. The main reason for this is that if you have a tendency to pull you knees apart and to try and step down on your downhill inside edge (which no longer exists) if the pitch is very flat, it can be very easy to catch your downhill edge and to fall down the fall-line. This type of fall virtually only happens when beginning monoskiers separate their knees or when you get into a turn too early by transferring your weight onto your new turning edge too soon.

Now that you have these options and potential issues in mind, choose your chairlift. You have the choice of locking into both bindings to push through the lift line, or you can also go through the lift line with only one foot in your bindings. Whichever method you choose, they are both acceptable means of getting to the chairlift. Some lift operators will have their own rules for you in regards to which method is acceptable, please do your best to follow these rules when possible.

If you choose to stay locked in, push your self through the lift line with your poles. When you get to the waiting area just before you get to the chair, push your self forward and make sure you do not have your pole straps around your wrists. Use your poles to stop yourself, wait for the chair and sit down. If getting on the chairlift with others try and get an outside position, this will give you the opportunity to rest your legs on the bar (if the lift has one). If you are in the middle and there are two foot rests, some lifts will not have enough room for you to get your board on the footrest.

If you choose to skate through the lift line with only one foot in your bindings, you will need to step in either before you push yourself to the loading spot or when you are ready to sit down on the chairlift. Make sure the bottom of your boot is clean of snow and ice before you get too close to the loading area. You can do this by scraping your boot sole on the top of your binding or by hitting your boot sole with your pole. If using your pole be careful to not hit others in the lift-line. When your boot is clean, place your toe into the toe-piece of your binding and step down firmly. If you did not get your boot free of snow or if your binding has snow in it, you might not have a chance to step into your binding before getting on the lift.

If this happens, clear your boot and binding of all snow and ice while riding the chair-lift. You can place your boot toe into your toe-piece and click in before you get to the top of the lift. Prior to getting off of the lift, simply lift your monoski up at about a 30 degree angle with your toe in place, make sure that your heel is in the heel-cup before getting to the ramp. When your monoski hits the snow-ramp, step down firmly into your binding.

Before you get off of the lift, you will need to concentrate on a couple of things. First, get both poles in your hands so when you stand up you will be able to use your poles right away. Remember when at the bottom of the lift you needed to be on the outside of the chair and not in the middle seat? Now that you are on the outside of the chair, you will have some elbow room to use your poles and you will also be able to go straight or you will be able to take a turn the direction of the side of the chair you were sitting on.

If you can not get into your bindings, you will have to skate off of the lift. Always balance on your one leg that's locked into the binding without rolling your ankles to turn. If you have become comfortable at the base with balancing on both edges this should not be too difficult, but hopefully you can get into your other binding without having any problems.

Remember, keep your knees together!

If you are on the far right side of the chairlift, plan on making a smooth right turn off of the chair lift. To do this just balance on your right leg, keep your knees together and use your poles to help you balance as you execute the right turn that you worked on at the bottom of the ski hill. Remember not to role your ankles into the right edge, if you were balancing on just your right leg, just standing on a flat surface, you wouldn't role your ankle to the right or it would buckle and you'd fall over...right?

Now that you have a ski boot on, if you role your ankle, that leverage point will transfer to your right edge and you could potentially catch your right edge and fall over. If you can tell you are going to fall, try and keep your knees tight and just sit down, try not to extend your legs and your arms, think…"tight as a ball when I fall". Now that you're off the chairlift and that you have mastered the techniques to monoski at the base of the mountain you are ready to try monoskiing down the ski slope.

We will explain advanced monoskiing techniques in our next instructional.