Skiing could be taken as an example of multitasking conception since we must control our balance on two boards that should be simultaneously dominated with our feet, as well as poles by our hands.
Concurrently, we must decide how to achieve our speed control. At the same time, our gaze is dedicated to orienting motion avoiding fixed and mobile obstacles (other people in motion). We must also predict and anticipate other person’s motion intentions, and all of this is done almost simultaneously.
Perceiving the intentions and actions of others in motion is one of the most important skills in skiing, which of course collaborates in safe self-motion. Moving in a securing manner requires attention orientation towards multiple sensory events to be able to make quick decisions in a complex environment that is rapidly changing. Some skiers may be able to ski well in simple and familiar circumstances, but incapable of safely doing so in a novel or complicated situations.
Distractions during Motion
We have mentioned that skiing is a complex activity requiring effective attention control to a multiplicity of motor, sensory, and emotional activities, which is not exempt from distractions.
Four categories of distractions can be determined while skiing: visual, auditory, manual, and cognitive. Each one has its own triggering of the elements causing our attention deviation from our current behavior towards a second simultaneous task, such as listening to music, self-filming, greeting someone, observing longer than appropriate time another person, slope signage or some particular situation; all of them considered as distraction generators.
Self-filming during skiing motion causes a significant visual distraction because of the allocation of the substantial amount of the sensory most important mechanism about detecting information on what is happening on the slope.
Listening to music in a soft sound level could result in a relaxed skiing which may not disturb our attention, but doing it loud confuses our brain making it difficult to focus on safe motion, preventing the correct functioning of our hearing sense by interfering in recognizing, through the skis’ noise, people approaching or other sounds related to the normal slope traffic.
Manual distractions, even though they may be the least common, also influence the safe control of our motions. Although not all skiers are capable of performing them simultaneously while skiing, the single intention to achieve them involves our distraction because it implicates some visual attention.
These manual distractions may include: glasses, goggles or helmet settings; poles strap adjusting; boots’ buckles fastening; hat or gloves removing/placing; putting on or removing ski poles; jacket or pocket zipping/unzipping, etc. Performing these actions imply that our brain must allocate cognitive, sensory, and motor resources for lower relevance tasks that should be made by stopping on the side of the slope.
Also, thinking about not related skiing issues is responsible for most cognitive distractions as they constrain our concentration.
Second Activities Hinder Safe Motion Consciousness
We talked about that moving on an inclined terrain over a sliding element requires more effort for our brain. Different brain areas are continuously working to keep us alert while responding to not anticipated situations. Accomplishing second activities while all these brain regions are functioning could lead to the overlapping of the information sent by the brain to our body, which would be confusing, generating a distracted or even reckless skiing.
While performing multiple tasks in daily life, our brain pays attention to one thing, giving it priority above all others. Returning to the example of listening to music, our brain is divided into two: the one processing our skis’ maneuvering and the one focusing on musical sounds, which could lead to, under certain conditions, that our brain might work with two separate streams processing (from Sasai et al. 2016).
In this case, the question would be: what happens to our motion consciousness while listening to music? Is there a single level of consciousness, music-oriented, and less to skiing motion since this activity would become automatic decreasing our attention, or our consciousness is divided into two separate streams: one for skiing and the other for listening?
On-Snow Examples of Multitasking Skiing Motion
| Concept Name | Academic Core | “On-Slope” Example |
| Multitasking Conception | The cognitive challenge of simultaneously managing bilateral foot pressure, manual pole timing, speed regulation, visual obstacle avoidance, and predictive tracking of others. | * Skiing a fast, crowded trail intersection where you must concurrently set your edge, time a pole plant, dodge a child, and watch an approaching snowboarder. |
| Visual Distraction | The allocation of the primary sensory information-gathering mechanism away from trail hazards toward a high-stress second task. | * Holding an action camera on a selfie-stick while skiing down a blue slope, staring at the camera lens instead of the approaching terrain rollers. |
| Auditory Distraction | High-volume acoustic inputs that over-activate the auditory cortex, jamming real-time environmental hazard tracking and ski-snow scraping awareness. | * Skiing with high-volume earbuds playing up-beat music, making it impossible to hear the unmistakable screech of a fast skier losing control behind you. |
| Manual Distraction | The diversion of cognitive, sensory, and motor resources toward lower-relevance equipment adjustments while remaining in motion on an inclined slope. | * Fumbling to zip up a jacket pocket or adjust fogged goggle foam with thick gloves while actively sliding down a narrow cat-track. |
| Cognitive Distraction | Internal mind-wandering or thinking about unrelated lifestyle issues, which restricts concentration and delays hazard response times. | * Analyzing a personal financial problem or stress at home while initiating a series of turns, resulting in an abrupt tip-cross. |
| Overlapping Brain Information | The collision and mixing of neural signals when a skier attempts a second activity while multiple brain networks are already over-taxed by sliding. | * Trying to shout a long conversation to a friend skiing next to you while executing high-speed, short-radius turns, leading to a sudden knee lock. |
| Separate Streams Processing | A divided neural state where the brain splits into two isolated networks: one managing basic motor maneuvers automatically and the other focusing on an external sensory stream. | * Skiing a familiar cruiser run completely on autopilot while your conscious focus is dedicated to listening to a compelling podcast in your helmet. |
