FOR SALE, 175cm ARMADA ARV

Does your height really not affect your ideal ski length? I thought it did, as well as your weight. Otherwise, why do they go on about how beginners should have shoulder height skis (or whatever it is they say) and more experienced skiers should have skis eyebrow height, or whatever.

And if you have your own skis, does that mean you have to buy more when you get fatter, or thinner, or possibly keep a whole range of skis - like with clothes - according to your weight?

My weight regularly fluctuates by about a stone, or by around 10% of my total body weight. I tend to put on weight in the autumn, with the shorter evenings I'm out working less, and over Christmas, and then try and lose weight to get my ski trousers on in Feb, then put some more back on, and then lose it again with the long days because I'm outside working.

So, I'd need long skis at Christmas, shorter skis in Feb, and then even shorter skis if I was ever lucky enough to get to ski during the summer :lol:.

Ally

A ski does not know how tall you are, but can feel how heavy you are. Different skis have differing characteristics. I have skis ranging from 158cm to 172cm currently, all are perfectly useable because they do different things. The shortest pair are the fastest. The fattest,86mm waist, longest pair have the tightest turn radius, but are quite soft to ski.

Beginners get handed skis that are shorter because manufacturers "average out" ski performance and characteristics in certain sectors of the market, not just for beginners. This means that if you are a good skier, but say, short and heavy, it can be a tough job finding a ski to support your weight that's not really long, as mfrs think you should be a foot taller :roll:

bandit wrote:A ski does not know how tall you are......

actually it does, it's all related to movement, pendulums and levers. It may not matter much though, within certain constraints there's not so much variation between weight and height for people, those constraints typically being imposed by the fact most skiers are going to be reasonably fit and not be carrying excessive weight just by nature of the physical activity.

Ise,
I'm not too sure what you're saying (I'm exceptionally thick, as my daughters will tell you).

Do you mean that generally speaking a skiers weight is proportional to their height, and that therefore height is indirectly related to ski length, or that height is actually directly related to ideal ski length?

Thanks,

Ally

AllyG wrote:Ise,
I'm not too sure what you're saying (I'm exceptionally thick, as my daughters will tell you).

Do you mean that generally speaking a skiers weight is proportional to their height,

pretty much, that's pretty true of everyone but the upper and lower limits vary from the stick-like super model to the overweight person, as a subset skiers are self limiting to an extent, you'll not get the very thin or very overweight

that means a hire shop dishing skis out based on height will be more or less right most of the time

Thanks Ise,
But sometimes the ski hire shops will be come unstuck, selecting ski length on height like that. I have a female friend who also skis, and she's about 2 inches shorter than me, and weighs about 3 stone more.

Another thing I would like to know, is this. Do men and women really need different skis, and if so, why?

Thanks again,

Ally

AllyG wrote:Thanks Ise,
But sometimes the ski hire shops will be come unstuck, selecting ski length on height like that. I have a female friend who also skis, and she's about 2 inches shorter than me, and weighs about 3 stone more.

Another thing I would like to know, is this. Do men and women really need different skis, and if so, why?

Thanks again,

Ally

Of course Ise will answer the final part of your question in more detail but ideally EVERYONE needs different skis because no body is really the same.

I would suggest that whilst there are many factors there are too many to sell a ski on one factor, it is a complicated mix of facts and preferences. Of course what the top sheet looks like is very important.

AllyG wrote:Thanks Ise,
But sometimes the ski hire shops will be come unstuck, selecting ski length on height like that. I have a female friend who also skis, and she's about 2 inches shorter than me, and weighs about 3 stone more.

sometimes, but I only said most of the time they'd be mostly right and this isn't precise anyway, most skis only come in graduations of 5cm anyway so it's never going to be that precise.

AllyG wrote:Another thing I would like to know, is this. Do men and women really need different skis, and if so, why?

they're pinker :lol:

there's a mechanical difference in movement though, a lower centre of gravity and women have a different weight profile as they typically have lower muscle mass. This can map to having the binding further forward which is trivial but probably means that the centre point of the curve, or the thinnest bit of the ski, needs to be more forward as well. That's also related to having smaller foot sizes as well.