As you start to get a rhythm and clock up the miles, you will not need to be so definitive with the pole plant, and eventually you will be able to dispense with it. Remember that the pole plant is intended as aid to the learning technique.

Accept the inevitable while skiing in the bumps, and that is they will get you in the end! You will find, psychologically, that if you are feeling on top of the world, you will also find you are on top of the bumps, and if by chance you are down in the dumps, you will be down in the bumps as well. Go for them on a nice sunny day and ski them for just a short time so that the experience sinks into your memory bank and is allowed to settle before giving it another go.

Minimize the bumps' murderous intent by choosing nicely arranged ones wherever possible, and a nice sunny day with a bit of fresh snow on the top to soften the falls. Don't go up onto the black run where those aforementioned brutes lurk, with their bottoms sheered into cliffs, just waiting to gobble you up.

If you get the chance, go and watch a bumps competition either for real or on a video. From the front the skiers' upper bodies will sometimes appear to be motionless except for their progress down the mountain. Their legs will be going like pistons underneath them. As each bump unweights the skier and tries to catapult him into space, he absorbs it with rapid angulation of his knees, which are thrown from one side of the fall line to the other. He is therefore edging slightly to brake him, but as he is skiing so close to the fall line, this braking is minimal.

The technique of absorbing the bumps in this way is known as 'avalment' from the French 'avaler', to swallow. This, in essence, is what you have been practising, and probably what you will be doing while watching him.

Points to remember while you are learning:

Keep as low as possible.

Maintain the driving position all the time.

Use the top of the bump to unweight the skis.

Anticipate the continual changes in gradient.

Well, that's about it as far as the bumps are concerned. Remember, just ten minutes serious practice every day will soon turn you into a good bumps skier an get you into da rhythm!

Simon Dewhurst has taught downhill skiing in North America, Scandinavia and the European Alps for 35 years. He currently runs a ski chalet agency in the French Alps. His book "Secrets of Better Skiing" can be found at http://www.ski-jungle.com If you have any comments about the above article, he will be happy to answer them.