by Kenzy England

Created on: August 21, 2008

I'm trying to wrap my head around this one. Can you learn how to ski online?

I hardly think so. Water skiing, for example, requires you to actually be in the water when you learn. If you think you can enter the water for the first time since your online skiing lesson and actually ski, you have another thing coming. What a riot that would be to see someone out there in the water. I wonder, would you have your laptop handy for easy reference? What a riot! Seriously, would you also take out a calculator to calculate the right angles or trajectories?

My grandma taught me to ski when I was 14 years old. I remember being helped into the right position for being lifted up and out of the water by our boat, and flopping. It took several attempts before I was finally able to say I had lift-off that day. I had to learn how to bend my knees properly and to keep them bent at just the right angle in order to stay above water. It really wasn't until the next weekend that I felt I had sort of mastered the art of water skiing. Unlike my sister, who was able to actually make leaps and bounds over the wake, I stayed directly behind the boat (the one time I tried I thought I had become one with the lake!).

For anyone to actually believe that they can learn something like skiing from some online course, they are only kidding themselves. It's a ridiculous notion. It's not really something that can be learned any other way than with hands-on experience. Do you learn how to fly a plane online? Don't you have to have some flight time in order to fly a plane? Why would skiing be any different? If it hadn't been for hands-on experience, I would have broken my neck my first time trying!

Then there is snow skiing. I've never learned how, but I'm pretty sure that if someone came blaring down a mountain after having taken a course online, they would be a goner for sure.

It amazes me at some of the things people come up with to make a little money. If there are really online skiing schools available, couldn't they be held liable if a client were injured or died after taking one of their courses?

I seriously hope no one is considering an online skiing school. For heaven's sake, if you're going to learn, learn it the right way. Don't try to take some sort of shortcut. The results could be disastrous for you. If you don't know someone who can teach you, hire someone who knows what they are doing.

Learn more about this author, Kenzy England.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.