Meet Future Olympian Ava Keenan - “I have a picture of the Olympic rings and a gold medal on my bunk bed”

Is there a common problem you would say you see with other kids, maybe not as good at learning, or adults even, when they go to try and absorb, they do this versus what should you be doing? Can you give us some insight into that?

A big problem which I struggled with, I see a lot of younger kids struggling with, adults struggling with, is all absorb with their chest. So they bring their chest down to their knees, so they kind of turn into like this whole rocking situation instead of just bringing your knees up they bring their chest down to it and it just throws off your entire turn.

That was Ava Keenan, a young 13-year-old mogul skier with sights set on the 2030 Olympics and a gold medal nonetheless. Welcome back to another episode of the Big Picture Skiing Podcast. I think this is going to be a really inspiring episode and great timing— early season, set your goals now. I think that's the main takeaway from this, uh, chat I had with Ava. It certainly inspired me to really check my goals. What do I want to do over the next bit of time? Yeah, it just reminds me whenever you see sort of stories about world champions, you often see this theme of, you know, they've set the goal well back, like when they were small, there was something they wrote down. There's a video of them talking to their parents about how they want to become a gold medallist or be world champion. So, I think it's really powerful. We all know that setting goals is important, but, you know, if there's something you really want to do in your life, like write it down and be accountable for it. So, I think we're lucky to sort of catch her in this moment, someone who I think is really on their way there. This episode, I loved it. I love mogul skiing, I love technique, and I got to chat with Ava about it. Similar things I'm kind of working on in my own mogul skiing. We talked to her about what she's trying to fix, some of the problems, equipment, other insights into the world of competitive mogul skiing. So she's a brilliant young lady. I wish her all the best. And if you can do me one favor, I'd I'd say follow Ava Keenan on Instagram, ava.keenan. You'll find her there. Could be someone to really watch out in the future. And I think if we get behind her, support her, let's just see what this young lady can do. All right, that's enough for me. Let's get into the episode of Ava Keenan on mogul skiing and making the Olympics in 2030. Hey Ava, to kick things off, my, my first question to you is, when did you first decide you wanted to go to the Olympics?

I think I first decided that I wanted to go to the Olympics when I was about 9 years old, and I just finished my first season of mogul skiing and I was— I really liked it. I thought it was a great community. I was like, ooh, I get to go fast and I get to do jumps. So much fun. And then I was watching all these like competitive people compete and obviously I'd watched Olympics in the past and I'm just overall super competitive person. And so to go to the largest competitive sporting event in the world, I was like, that's where I want to go. That's where I want to be. Those people look like they, they've got it all figured out, you know? I was like, I want to beat that person one day, so I'm going to go there. And I was just kind of 9 years old and just said it and it kind of just stuck. And I've just been like working towards that ever since.

Yeah, I find it fascinating that I think so many world champions, when you go back and you, and you know, you listen to this, to their story, they have that moment where they— like, I remember seeing, there's a— do you know Scotty James? He's like the Aussie snowboarder from, from the— anyway, he's like halfpipe. He, uh, like has won one world championships before. And I saw a video where he's at school, young, like, you know, 12 years ago or something. And they go, so what do you want to do when you grow up? He says, I want to win a gold medal at the Olympics or something. And he's like sort of done that. So yeah, I find it fascinating. So you've set this goal, you're already charging towards it. What— because I think that's where a lot of people fall down. I think people dare to dream big and to go for that sort of stuff. Would you say, so you've set this big goal, Like, are there other things you do, like, routinely, daily? Do you have a poster on the wall? Do you write notes in a journal? What are the things that help you kind of, like, intrinsically inside you motivate you to keep going towards this goal?

Okay, so I have bunk beds, right? And I'm on the bottom bunk. And so at the bottom of the top bunk, I have my goals. And then I have my goals right there, so every time I lay down to go to bed, I can see it. And I And I have a poster that I did myself with all the Olympic rings on it and a gold medal at the bottom, 2030 Olympics. And I put that up there too. So every day I wake up, go to bed, and I see that, and it just motivates me to get there.

Yeah. And I bet— do you have this feeling just inside you, this very strong feeling that helps, you know, you get through the days where you're tired or you're over it?

Yeah, yeah, it— yeah, for sure.

Yeah. Okay, cool. All right, so let's take a step back from that. So to get to somewhere like that, you've got to be disciplined, you've got to do the work, you've got to get technique right and everything. If someone like— say we're going to try and help other people who are going to get into, you know, improve their mogul skiing— do you think— can you think of one or two drills that really impacted you helped your technical mogul skiing?

I think my number one was just regular old short swings, and that's where you just go on the flats and you make these— when you— and you make these tighter turns. But the thing about these tighter turns is it's not just like a push, right? You actually have to like pop into it. So it's like a really, really, really, really, really like miniature turn, but it helps a lot.

What would be like the, the tempo? Like, I'm gonna— like, how fast would each turn be?

Like, uh, it kind of depends on a lot of things, but I try to do like boom boom boom boom, like about that tempo.

And similar to how you're gonna ski bumps, right? Like the rhythm you're probably capable of Yeah.

And as you get better at those, you can go faster. 'Cause believe it or not, it's actually pretty difficult to go faster on those flats doing that. But it has all the same components as a mogul turn. So it's definitely, they're incredibly similar and they translate very well. The problems I have in the moguls are the same problems I have in the flats, vice versa.

What's, what's, what's one problem you've gotten better at then that, that you could see on the flats that you've worked on improving?

Uh, I tend to keep my vision down, so when I'm in the flats, I'm always thinking about looking up, and it's easier to do that in the flats because not as much is going on. But once you start to build that muscle memory, it'll eventually translate over. It'll make it easier for you to do that in the moguls.

Yeah. And did you find it was hard to, in the beginning, to get away from— because it's very easy to just push the turns, isn't it? Push, push, heel, push, heel, push.

Yes, that's what it does to start too.

So how do you get— and you know what, every adult does as well. Yeah, help us. How would you— what was the new feeling like, or how long did it take to stop pushing and start kind of like rolling on and then steering?

I'm still not there yet. I'm okay, I'm, I'm getting better for sure. I'm definitely not as like but I'm still definitely not on like a full carve yet. So yeah, but I, I've noticed that it kind of just helps if you take it slow. Flats definitely help with that turn because you're not scared on the flats, so you're not going fast. So if you just take it slow or you go in the moguls really slow and you just like— and yeah, you just visualize also what you want it to look like. I know I'll do that like before I go to bed, like just watching my tips hit the bump. Right now I'm kind of like, like that instead of, you know, like that.

Okay, cool. For the people that maybe are listening to this and can't see that, because, uh, what you're talking about there I think is a really important, uh, step that everyone goes through as they get, get, get into moguls. So I'll try and help explain maybe the start, but you You're talking about most people come to the moguls like almost like a hockey stop into them. Yeah, like you kind of slam them sideways. Now the better skiers actually like pierce the tips of the skis into the bump down the hill first, and, and they don't actually hockey stop into it.

Yeah.

So yeah, how long did it take you to start getting that, that concept and that happening?

I think I just started understanding it a little better and how to fix it la— this last year. So it took me about 3 and a half years just to understand how I can start changing that and how I'm able to get better at being more direct. And it also just comes with like, if there's any younger kids out there that are frustrated with it, it also just comes with getting bigger and stronger because you have to be pretty strong to be able to just point your tips into it. Yeah, so I— that, that is also helping, just getting taller, stronger.

I'd say that's adults too, because yeah, a lot of people listening here too, but they probably don't get to ski as much as you do. So also the athleticism, like, that's, that's part of it. Okay, so then do you think a part of the reason is like people are— people are— it's scary to go tips in to the mogul, correct?

Absolutely. Yeah, it's terrifying.

Yeah, but it's kind of surprising, isn't it? Because it— when you get it right, it's— it doesn't— like, what you think is going to happen, which is flip over your, your tips, it doesn't happen, does it?

It makes it— no, it does not happen. And it makes it so much easier to get down that run. I've done like a couple really good turns, that's about it. Like a couple really good ones where I really truly pointed it straight, and I'm like, whoa, That was so smooth. When people, yeah, tend to hockey stop into it, you know, their upper body kind of buckles over. That's right, it rocks them and their absorption gets all off. But when you just do that, it's like, whoa, that would be—

you can absorb. Yeah, you can absorb, right? The hockey stop way, you can't really absorb it because you kind of like sideways into it instead of like the way humans are built to absorb is straight onto something. You know, we jump off something, we absorb straight in, in a straight line with our bodies.

Yeah, you can definitely still absorb, but it's not as smooth, and it's kind of like shaky. And but when you just point the tips in, everything just flows along so much nicer, and it's very visible to see that.

Yeah, and it's also very cool. So then you go ahead, what are you gonna say?

Oh yeah, some of the big things that help you is if you have some fresh snow on your course or just in the free bumps really focus on it there. That's what I've been starting to do, like, especially last year. Instead of freeskiing some days, I'd like go over to the course and really just focus on pointing them straight there, because it helps you gradually build confidence. And then you can do it when—

yeah, because there's a bit of a cushion on them. Instead of being rock hard, you've got this maybe like 3, 4 inches of, of cushion there that you can kind of trust.

And, and it also slows you down without you having to do Yeah, exactly.

Yeah, yeah, totally. So another thing I know, I've only a few times tried proper mogul skis like the ones that are behind you, those ID ones behind you. But tell us about the first time you tried a proper mogul ski and how that feels compared to— try and describe to us how that feels different to a regular ski, and maybe even connect that with the tip piercing thing.

Okay, so my first year of competitive mogul skiing, I did not have a proper mogul ski. They're kind of like thicker and they were shaped weird and different. And, and it was mostly just because I didn't know that I was like fully committed to moguls yet. But the next year I got the proper mogul ski. I definitely noticed it because they're not so thick and heavy, you're— and you're able to do so much more with them. And they definitely have some more tip flex, so you're able to go into the mogul with some more bend, and which makes it easier to stay that more direct line. Yeah, yeah.

So, so if we were to say it then, like, how narrow— what's— do you know the waist width of your skis behind you? Like, are they—

oh, I Maybe it says there.

Does it? Yeah, maybe grab them because I, I remember— I can't remember what it was, but speaking to Stephen Fearing, an ex-World Cup coach, overcoach, I want to say it's like— because a World Cup race ski is like 66. Yeah, underfoot. And I think those are narrower, like maybe even 62 underfoot. Yeah, so it's even narrower. Yeah, and it's easy because easier you have to be so fast foot to foot in the moguls, right? Like left foot, right foot, left foot. And that narrow width, just like an ice skate, you can just go bam bam.

Yeah, makes it so much easier, just like switch over faster.

Yeah. And then the sidecut thing, because what you're describing there also is that, you know, like a lot of skis that people ski on the piste, they have this big shape in them. So the tip's wide, tail's wide, waist is narrow. These ones are not like— do you know what the radius of those skis are? I mean, they're quite straight, right? They're really turny, are they? They don't—

they're just like a toothpick, I guess. Top, yeah, comes up like a little bit and then it just goes straight, straight, straight, straight, straight. And it, yeah, and it stays straight all the way to the bottom and it come— it flares out a tad at the bottom. Yeah, yeah.

And compared to like, do you ever ski on normal skis much?

Uh, not really. I'll— when we get like a fair amount of snow, I'll take out like my powder skis and getting on those compared compared to these is crazy. It feels like I'll have like paddles on my feet or something. They feel so way heavier and yeah, yeah, and just harder to like move around. These feel slow rolling on the edge and yeah, exactly.

Yeah, all those things really, really help. And then what about— so then you, you're noticing like that, that technique of skiing into the bump with the tips more, the skis behind you, proper mogul skis, that the flex pattern in, in the front of the ski is different to a normal ski too, is that right?

Yeah, yeah, it, it allows, it allows you to be able to like flex it more, which makes it easier and more comfortable to get the tip direction.

Yeah, okay, cool. Hey, so when you start out proper mogul training, so you go, right, I'm gonna make the Olympics, you know, say my son, he's, he's 6, maybe he joins in a couple of years a club or something. Do you remember some of the, like, how early on do you learn absorption? Do you remember that? Is it pretty early on? Is it not as big a focus?

I think I started working on it and focusing on it, uh, three-quarters of the way through my first year.

Yes, pretty early on.

Yeah. Or maybe the beginning of my second year, but Okay. You, it, most people it kind of just starts to come with it as you start learning other things. And so then you start to work on it as you start to understand it without people like telling you. I know I didn't, no one told me to like absorb, it just kind of started happening once I got better. So there's not really like a set age, but if someone doesn't like fully understand it, then they'll probably start teaching it to you like right away. But I didn't start like focusing, focusing on it till feel about myself, like technique of absorption, until—

yeah, yeah, Molly's second season. And what, what were some things you learned that helped maybe refine your absorption? Like, is there, is there a common problem you would say you see with other kids, maybe not as good at learning, or adults even, when they go to try and absorb, they do this versus what should you be doing? Can you give us some insight into that?

I see a lot of people when they go to absorb, they just don't absorb enough, which makes it—

so range. So they, they absorb— they think they're bending a lot, but they bend hardly any, but they're not.

Or a big problem, which I struggled with, I see a lot of younger kids struggling with, adults struggling with, is all absorb with their chest. So they bring their chest down to their knees, so they kind of turn into like this whole rocking situation. Instead of just bringing your knees up, they bring their chest down to it, and it just throws off your entire turn. So yeah, I worked on that as well.

And how did you fix that? Because that's a hard one. I would agree, that is a really hard one.

I got my hips up. So when your hips are back, it kind of already kind of puts your chest in like this weirder, more bent over position, so you can't really support yourself enough when you hit that mogul, especially when you like slam into it, and then everything will just like, like buckle over. Your head will bob, your chest will drop. So getting— if you get your hips up, you already have a more structural, like, uh, more sturdy position to keep you upright.

It's going to encourage the, the knees coming up instead of the upper body coming forward.

It makes it harder for that chest to buckle over.

Yeah. Okay, cool. And do you use an absorption tank much?

Yes. So it's, it's kind of hard for us to build it because The racers get a lot of space. We have like the small little sliver of our space, but if we have the space, we'll try and build one. And I definitely notice a difference when I use it because it's so smooth and it really emphasizes everything you're doing wrong, but it also makes it easier to fix it. So I know. Yeah. So I use it a lot.

I think every ski resort if it has moguls, I think the resort should build a mogul tank. And so, so people know what we're talking about here, it's basically like a wave of rollers that are shorter together on a pretty mellow pitch that you can just practice absorption extension without. And you can add turns in if you want, or you can just go straight at it, correct?

Yeah, yeah, exactly. I use it a lot when I go to summer camp as well because Uh, the camp I go to, Momentum Camps, they build really good absorption tank, so I use that as well.

Yeah, I remember hearing, uh, there was this great— I'm not sure if you've seen it— like Canadian mogul skiing video that was made maybe 7 years ago, and like they kind of give tips, and one of the tips they talk about is like hold your absorption. Do you know what I'm talking about?

When Yeah, yeah.

Do you want to speak to like, is that something you also learned, like patience in not—

it's, you don't want to just absorb and kind of throw it away because when people do that, they like, a lot of this comes back to throwing your feet out. So when you hold your absorption more, it keeps it so that you're able to get smoother down the backside of the mogul and then that translates into putting your tips out. So when you absorb and you get out right away, your feet get in front of you and you can't do much besides there except push it out because you've got no room. Yes, exactly.

You're on top of this mogul and the only place you can't push down, so you kind of push out. And yeah, this, this tip of like hold your absorption is hold that squashed up position for a few microseconds longer until you— and, and then you've got that space to go down into the, into the bump and keep the skis more facing down the hill.

Yeah. And if you hold your absorption, you get to the back side of it and you're like and you just are now starting to release, even if you go to push out, you won't have as much time to do it. So you're not gonna, so you're still gonna be making like a pretty decent turn because you're already so close to, to that next mogul. Even if you wanna push out, I don't think you'd really have the time to fully push out, which would then correlate into like a nicer turn even though you weren't even trying.

Mm-hmm. This episode is sponsored by Carv, the digital ski coach, and one of the updates I've really enjoyed this season is the addition of separate SkiIQs for moguls and short turns. In the past, Carv scoring was mainly built around carving metrics, which meant everything was viewed through that lens, but Carv have gone deep on that research and completely separated what makes a great short turn or mogul turn different from a carved turn. To give you an idea of how accurate it's become, the person at the top of the Carv leaderboard right now isn't a carving specialist, it's Olympic mogul skier Matt Graham. So the best SkiIQ in the world at the moment is coming from someone who lives and breathes bumps, and to be honest, my own highest SkiIQ is also in the moguls, which makes sense because that's my favorite type of skiing. What's really exciting this year is the addition of turn tempo, so basically your turns per minute. It's such a simple external output that's incredibly fun to play with. So good skiing isn't just about edge similarity or parallel skis, it's about how you interact with the terrain and whether you can change your tempo on demand. So seeing numbers like my quickest tempo of 117 turns per minute in the bumps gives you something concrete to compare, refine, and work toward. I've been working with Carv since 2020, and every year I'm genuinely impressed with how much the product evolves. They keep expanding what you can measure, and they're covering more and more of the turn types that skiers actually use all over the mountain. So if you're interested in tracking not just your carving but every turn you make on the snow, check out Carv. And a big thanks to the team for supporting this episode.

Yeah.

And what, uh, what about pole work and hands? You spend a lot of time— yeah, I've talked about that.

I struggle with my hands a lot. I still struggle. I kind of reach forward with my right hand, my left hand gets stuck back, and then it does this weird dropping thing. And I've definitely—

like, that kind of happens just on the right side more than the left? Yeah, asymmetry.

Yeah, I need— they're not symmetrical. And I'll be so aggressive with the right side of my body, and my left side will get left behind, and my left hand will tend to drop. And so my run will kind of like it kind of just like goes like that. And then my left hand pole plant, it looks nice because I don't have as much control over it. And so I don't feel the need to like rush because I'm just not like thinking that because I just don't have as much control over my left hand. And then as soon as I get to my right hand, it kind of like doesn't work out very well. So a big thing is just to wait, be very patient with your pole plants because when you start to pole plant on the front side, it'll just like bring your hand like super far back.

So it, it'll react by the, the, the, the, the bump will push into the pole and push your arm back.

Yeah. And then that messes up a lot of things that could completely throw you off balance. So you wanna be very patient and tap on the backside and don't try and tap on the backside like how I do it by reaching with your whole, uh-huh, side of your body.

Yeah.

Just with your wrist as it's there. You don't even wanna reach. You just wanna get a nice flick with your wrist. As—

yeah, so your arm doesn't extend, your body doesn't kind of— like, it's all one unit. The, the wrist is all— is the action. And so you're kind of waiting for everything to get over the backside of the mogul to pole plant instead of trying to get like your hand and your pole in front. Is that right?

Sometimes, yeah, sometimes it could be okay if your arm kind of does this. I know some people do that when they're trying to get rid of like the, like the big reach.

If your arm does this, because it straightens your elbow, for the people that They can't see, she's, she's just straightening your elbow. Yeah, sorry.

And so if you like bring your elbow in and then back out, it hides pretty well because if you're going pretty fast, the— it's— you're not all over the place off balance. It's just like in, out, in, out, in, out, in, out. And then once you get better at that, then it's all the pull flick.

Yeah, okay. So yeah, you spent— you're like, this season you're going to be working on your, your hands and Paul's quite a bit because you sometimes—

it'll like, when I go to here, it'll completely throw my whole body off balance, and that leads to like a lot of my crashes or blowouts, like getting out of control.

Cool. Hey, switching topics here because we were chatting with your dad, was, uh, just with us before. How did you get into skiing? Uh, because there's some, some unique things here I mean, from memory, what he was saying, I mean, one, you, you were, for your age, US National Champion last year in moguls.

Junior National Champion.

So it was like, yeah, what does that mean for duals?

So it was just for my age group. So F15, it's F13 and F15, so it's girls 11 to 13 and then 13, yeah, and then 13 to 15. So in that, I was the F-15 dual champion and then runner-up for singles, like just one person at a time. And then, and then the F-13 dual and single champion.

Yeah. And then also your, like, your back— your heritage is, uh, you're Africa— African-American.

Yeah.

Yeah. So do you want to— so talk to us about, because your dad got you into this sport and anything on, on that side that's interesting to, to let the audience know about? Like, how did it all start?

Okay, so I've been skiing since I was just turned 2. So I remember like the first time I went skiing, I went on those little bunny hill with like those really small like plastic ski things, and I would just start going and And my dad would be like, do the pizza, do the pizza. And I'd start pizza out again and then bring it back in again, do that out again. And then once I got a little bit better at that, I joined this— I joined this, it was called— it's called DEVO at our— I actually hadn't even joined that yet. It's just like this little group of all these small children and they'd bring them to the bunny hill so my dad could go off and ski. He didn't have to be with me anymore. And they'd bring them to the bunny hill and they would just do the same drills. And then you'd start to level up on the bunny hill. And once you got there, you could go to the big mountain. Which is a big deal. And then, then you would just start progressing from there. And after I got a little tired of Devo, I went to Ski Club Vail and started mogul skiing, which I didn't even— I didn't even know.

Is your dad a skier? Was he, has he always been a skier?

He's always been a, he's not really. So he never competitively, he never skied competitively.

Okay.

And he started really skiing in his 20s when he moved here. From Boston, so he had skied a little bit when he was younger but not very much.

Okay, okay. So where did his desire to be like, I'm gonna make sure my family has the opportunity to ski— and I think it seems like that's definitely there, right? That's part of your, your— the opportunity you've got here, like your dad and your mom and stuff, like they've given that to you.

Yes, yeah. So my dad just, he wanted to go skiing, and when he had kids, he was like, All right, well, when I go skiing and their mom isn't here, I don't want to have to go like stay them, stay here with them. So I guess they'll have to be good enough to come ski with me. And so I think that was his big motivation to get us to start skiing. And he had no aspirations of us becoming competitive skiers at all. He just wanted us to all be good enough to ski with each other, to do it together, just, yeah, ski anywhere we wanted on the mountain without having to like worry about it and just all ski together. And it's just kind of like tumbled into a lot more.

Okay, yeah, nice. So can I ask you then, because my son Archie, he's just turned 6, and he's also had the opportunity to come overseas a lot with the skiing I do in Australia, uh, but I'm scared. I don't want to ruin his love of, of it by maybe pushing him. Would— is there any advice you can give me that, that helps, that would maybe help, or even help other parents what kids really love about skiing, maybe in the early days before you kind of maybe turn 9, 10, and you start thinking about more like, yeah, I'm actually— I really want to do this more competitively, or not?

Oh, that's a hard question. That's a hard question. But I don't think, I don't think that at such a young age you can really take their love away from it yet if they don't really even know how much they like it. If I like— I don't know, when I was—

would you— did you used to like— would you always look forward to skiing? Or sometimes, you know, when you're 6, 7, you're kind of like, oh, I could— I actually also just— I want to go play with my friend. Or—

yeah, for sure. But then, okay, when my dad would bring me out there, I'd always start having a good time. So I don't— I don't think that there's— if your son doesn't want to go skiing one day, but you know, he ends up going anyway. I mean, he's probably having a good time.

Yeah, yeah. Okay, cool. And did you— and did you make a lot of friends in the, like, the Vail ski groups and that sort of stuff? Have you got friends still from those?

No, not still anymore, but— no, not still anymore, but I'll still see them on the hill occasionally. We'll say hi, but like, we don't like stay in touch all the time. But I made— yeah, lot, lots of friends. It was really good experience.

Yeah, cool. And you have a good group of friends around you in, in the competitive environment now?

Yeah, yeah, there's a lot of nice people, really cool people.

Yeah, awesome. Are they almost your friendship kind of group at the moment? Are they like— do you even outside of skiing, or is it sort of like when it's ski season, that time, that's when you really hang out a lot with them? So different group of friends outside of that?

When there's like different people from other mountains, it's just like, well, like talk to each other sometimes, but we're really just friends like during that, like ski, like competitive season because that's when we actually get to see each other. But with just the kids in my group, either most of them are a fair amount older than me, so there's only about 2 or 3 people that I'll actually hang out with a lot outside of skiing. And the rest is just the people from my school and stuff because none of them are like in my grade, so it makes it kind of difficult to be with them all the time.

Yeah, yeah. Okay, cool. Hey, switching back to more tech technique kind of stuff, do you, do you get a lot of video of your own skiing? Is that helpful?

I do. It is about every run we do. Yeah, we do video review. I just came back from a Chile trip and we'll do video review every night after dinner and every every per— every single person, every run that they did that day, we'll go over as a group. And sometimes we'll be at that table for like an hour, like on the long ones, sometimes like an hour and 15 minutes. And it got really long, but it's all worth it, especially watching other people ski is really helpful too.

Yeah, like, can you— that Chile trip, is there something that stood out from the video that maybe you, you couldn't feel or you weren't aware of, but is maybe if, like, is that where you got the hand thing? You're like, right, done, I'm gonna fix this. Or like, what's— what have you picked up recently from video analysis of your own?

I need to get more absorption. I'm not absorbing enough, which is kind of making it so that I'm wanting to push out more, just like finish the turn and push out more, like I mentioned earlier. So, okay, so I need to hold that absorption like you were saying. Get it up longer, and then I'll be able to kind of like pump down the backside and get a nicer carved turn. Got it.

So, so more range and don't— and, and hold it for longer. Would it be both those things?

Yes. Yes. And some things that you can feel in your skiing, like if you really start to think about it, like my hands, I know with my hands that like when I'm going down the run that they're kind of wacky and weird. And I'll know with other things too, if my chest starts to drop, you can definitely feel that because your whole body like shakes. So yeah, kind of start to fix things in the run as you feel it, but there are some things that you can only see in video afterwards.

Yeah, okay. So yeah, after seeing that, you're okay. And sorry, that was the other thing I was going to say, because helpful to other people, it's like if they have video of themselves, what you would see in order to need to fix that was that kind of— you, you were pushing out sideways, you're doing the hockey stop going kind of lateral with your legs instead of them being more under you. And then what you talked about there is, is the, is the technical focus to fix that happening. Yeah, yeah, cool, awesome.

Yes.

And what about, uh, have you done any sort of playing around with boots? Do you find that, like, have you had boots that have worked better? Have you— do you do anything special there, like spoilers, heel lifts?

No, not necessarily. I've always rode in the Fulltilts, I guess, since I started mogul skiing. So my first year I didn't— I don't know what boot I was in, just kind of like the generic, you know, boot.

That kind of boot.

Yeah, exactly. And then I switched over to Fulltilt. They fit my feet well, they were comfortable, and I've been with those for a couple years.

Yeah. Yeah. And you just, you just put them on heat mold the liners, and off you go.

Yeah, yeah.

Okay, cool. Yeah, it'd be interesting because I, I mean, I haven't skied much in a 3-piece boot like what you're talking about, the Full Tilt, but they definitely work better for moguls and tricks because they allow your ankle to flex a whole lot more. I mean, I don't know if you know, when you ski with some of your friends, you probably can flex your ankle better than a lot of them. Would that be fair to say?

Yeah, for sure. Their boot are a lot more stiff and they're— yeah, so with mogul skiing, that's nice because it's able— it makes it so that you can get like the— your weight to the front of your ski more so that you're not riding in the back and doing that kind of chest forward, bum back thing. Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Yeah, nice. And what about ski tune? Do you, do you have any— like, how do you set up your edges? What's a good mogul ski tune? Am I catching you out here, or does someone else do it for you?

Yeah, someone else doesn't for me. I do not— I don't do it.

Okay, so you— okay, right. Okay, does that— does your dad do it, or does, uh, one of your coaches?

Like a shop that we have in Vail. Uh-huh.

Okay, that could be an interesting one maybe to, to look into, only because I know, like, I've found finding the ideal ski tune and making sure it's consistent just takes that out of the equation as like a really, you know, it's just, it's just you can do— sometimes that can actually make things not good if the ski tune's not set up ideal for what you're trying to do with it. So, uh, interesting because I know ski, ski races at your age, when they get to that point, they're all tuning their skis, a lot of the good ones themselves. So, uh, it could be another competitive advantage, Ava, right?

Yeah, you know, something you could Definitely for racers, they have more of an advantage to know what their like tuning is or to know how to tune because it gets— because they have to do it like all the time for like multiple pairs of skis. And so it starts to become less expensive when they know and learn how to do it themselves and they get taught all that and stuff. But yeah, for sure, I definitely think I could benefit. I could benefit from knowing more about that.

Yeah, I don't mean overstep the line there. It just seems like, you know, you're on your way to this incredible goal. It's just, yeah, could be awesome.

Oh yeah, no, you weren't overstepping the line. No.

Okay, no problem. And okay, so then what, uh, are there any particular challenges you've, you've really found difficult in the last sort of maybe 3, 4 years? Like, can you remember one that you're like really frustrated with or Might not even be a technical thing.

Uh, just, I don't, I haven't had a lot of problems in like my first 2 years, but these past, this past like year and a half, just, you know, schedule starting to get busier, more schoolwork, more training. So just disciplining myself to get up and actually go to the trainings and do everything I need to do and come home and do schoolwork. Those have been some of my challenges that I've been starting to like work with it better. And I've learned how to manage my time better for sure. And any tips there?

Because even for myself, because I know that is, that is tricky, right? Yeah, you've got to balance everything. What have we— what have you found works?

Um, just during the day, I'll make— I'll realize how much fun I'm having, and then I wake up in the morning and I don't want to go. I'll just like remind myself, like, just remember, when you get there, you have fun. It may be hard for this hour where you're getting ready in the morning. Once once you get there, you're gonna have fun, you're gonna start learning stuff. So it's a, it's a little bit more difficult. I'm not gonna lie. When it's like the flat season and you're just doing these like flats on without any moguls or anything like that, it starts to become a little—

At the moment.

Yes.

Like at the moment.

Yes. When we just go out with our group and we do like these short sections and get these feedback, it does become a little bit boring. So it's a little harder to wanna become motivated, but I always just tell myself if I do this, it'll make the moguls better, which will be more fun. It'll all pay off in the end.

Keep reminding yourself of how, how that links towards your end.

Yeah.

Yeah, excellent. Cool. Well, Ava, I've, I've really enjoyed our chat. Um, is there anything else you want to, you mention? I mean, I think I haven't kind of said it else I would have said in the beginning, but you know, 13 years old, where you're currently tracking Uh, you're going to be doing tricks this season that I don't think, from your knowledge, anyone else in your sort of age and category is doing. Um, yeah, what, what are you hoping— what are you hoping to bring as the goal for the end of the 2024 season? Where have you got kind of like, that's what I want to do at the end of 2024?

I want to be able to throw a back truck, which is like a backflip, but you kind of have your ski straight straight out, like your legs are straight out and you have to like bend down and grab both of them and kind of like pull them apart. It's really weird trick. You guys look it up though. It's super cool.

Yeah. Truck driver backflip, truck driver kind of thing.

Yeah. And then on the top air and then throw a cork on the bottom air and ski both of them out in a full run by the end of the year. That's my goal.

Nice. Final question then. Can you mind— can you currently mind ski that run already, if you know what I mean?

Like visualize it?

Yeah.

Yeah, I can for sure. I've been doing it since I went on that trip to Chile. I started realizing that like that could be an actual goal because both of those tricks were like pretty— were like they had a pretty good start to them. Yeah, doable. Exactly. And so I've been able to visualize it more just coming off that top jump and grabbing that truck, pulling it apart, and hitting a huge cork on the bottom there.

Yeah, awesome. Well, I hopefully get to watch that on your Instagram or YouTube. Speaking of that, where can people follow you?

Uh, Instagram, it's Ava.Keenan, super simple.

Ava.Keenan.

And then I have my website, avakeenan.com, sell and stuff like this, like my sweatshirts, my hats. And I have a whole bunch of other stuff, so you guys—

yeah, yeah. And all that helps you get towards that goal, right? That's why you're setting all that stuff up.

Yes, exactly.

Yeah, fantastic. People should check it out. I've gone and looked at it. I'm following you now, so I'm gonna be— thank you— uh, really keen and interested in tracking your progress. Best of luck. Thank you for your time. Yeah. Yeah, no problems, Ava. And we'll, we'll, uh, hopefully I'll, I'll be, I'll be commenting on that video. Maybe it's in March or something with like, you did it!

Thank you, thank you.

Thanks a lot.

All right, bye.

This episode is brought to you by Carv, the digital ski coach. Now, one of the features I've had the most fun with all time is simply the fact that Carv tracks every single turn you make. I treat it a bit like Strava, so at the end of the day, it tells me exactly how many turns I've done and those numbers keep adding up across the season. So last season in Australia, I had a few days where I was doing nearly 2,500 turns and my legs were tired, but it was really cool to try and have that number there motivating me, and I'm quietly working my way towards my 1 millionth turn with Carv. So the other metrics I've been diving into lately, and these are new for this season, are very unique, and these are turn corridor and turn radius. And I don't see many skiers using them, but they tell you a lot about the shape and flow of your skiing. So the turn corridor shows you how far you're traveling across the hill, or the time almost between apex to apex, and how long you're taking to transition. While the turn radius measures the actual arc you create once you start the turn. So these can be different, you can have like a very wide corridor, say 18 meters, but a lower turn radius, or the other way around. So when you compare the two, it opens up a whole world of experimentation, and it would be a bit like a race coach will set different types of race courses to influence a racer or skier to change the timing and mix it up. So I encourage you to look into this if you've got Carv and play with it and see if you can manipulate it, because it's only going to improve your versatility. So I keep my Carv on my boots every single day because you never know quite know when like a change in tech technique, or a new ski resort, or skis will show up in the numbers. And it's great at the end of the day being able to check that, or even after the fact. And I'm really looking forward to the day I open the app and I see turn number 1 million. So if you want to explore your skiing in a completely different way, check out Carv, the digital ski coach. And thank you team for sponsoring this episode.