All skis are much the same

pavelski wrote:
Visit Realskiers site.
Just visit them.
Pavel

Thanks for sharing Pavelski.....

verbier_ski_bum wrote:Bushwackers? I remember you were thinking of gettting them. But really, check online sources for gear reviews and figure out what might suit you best.

Good memory! Yes I had a good look at them last season, and was going to get a pair but my length were out of stock at the reduced price.

I bought a pair myself just yesterday. Now waiting for delivery and musing which bindings to slap on them. My Auras have definitely seen better days so I passed them to a friend and went for something little bit narrower and softer as replacement, also less overlap with my other skis. Glad you liked them, reviews are rave and on paper they sound like exactly what I need after my injury last year.

A lot of the qualities talked about in recent post, may reflect more the state of tuning of the skis, than the skis themselves. The very same ski might feel locked in, or easy to pivot depending on how the tip and tail are detuned. Also ski bases can warp or wear to be edge high, or base high. Edge high bases would be very hard to pivot, and base high bases would feel squirmy.

Not all ski tunes are alike.

I'm heading out for my 8th ski holiday this coming season (therefore circa 7 weeks on the snow so far) and my skiing has improved a lot since I started in 2010. However, I'm still feeling fairly dimwitted when it comes to choosing a ski. Being brutally honest, I pretty much allow the shop to hand me whatever they like. I'm probably the perfect customer!

I think I can tell the difference each time (just) but it is certainly not obvious. The only time I've been disappointed was in Les Arcs when I was handed a crummy pair of battered skis. I think they were Dynastar but can't really remember. I was still very cautious at that stage though so maybe I wouldn't have been much better on another pair.

I was able to experiment a bit more this summer in Tignes. The hire shops were quiet and the skiset chappie was very happy for me to swap over part way through the week. I started on Salomon BBR's (165cm long) and thought they were decent. However, for the 2nd half of the week I was given Rossignol Pursuit 18's (163 long) and the difference was quite pronounced. they were much more stable at speed and in the turn and I think are the best skis I've tried so far.

I've pre booked Premium advanced skis with the ski shop for December and I think I will end up with same Rossignol skis which should be fine.

How much attention should I pay to the length? I'm 180cm tall. Was happy with the 163 skis last time round but have had 169, 171 and 176 in the past. I'm not that bothered about high speeds but like to turn nimbly and also want to be able to venture off piste a little bit.

** edit ** I'm happy to ski all groomed pistes up to and including black runs but not keen on moguls and very limited off piste so far

Personally I like a longer ski which seems to give me more stability I ski on 190s and am 192 cm tall (and not lightweight) ..but I am an old f***T and was brought up on them...I have 2 pairs one gs race which are great on piste and ice ..very stable and very heavy and give me lots of confidence and the softer wider (100mm ) I bought last year for trying soft crud and off-piste..so I would choose 170-176 and an all round ski try this site...they have been used by a member and he was very pleased...http://www.glisshop.co.uk/

The length depends on a skier's height obviously and a type of ski. Things like stiffness have to be considered too. 165 cm is a length of a slalom ski for a man who is 180 cm tall, and for all-around ski it's about 10 cm too short. But if you feel more comfortable on this length, then why not? The past trend was from long straight skis to short carving skis, but now technology has changed so much that you see all sorts. It's also important to learn to finish your turns first. Once you are finishing them properly going longer will be easy, the same is with off-piste. The better you ski on piste the easier it will be to take these skills off it. The key for off-piste is to keep both skis on the snow at all time, piste is forgiving, but even minimal lift will expose you quickly off piste. Longer skis are more stable at speed, but at 7 weeks I don't think speed should be a priority because it helps to mask many faults while not making any improvements to actual skiing.

I don't think ski reviews / tests should be taken too seriously. The testers usually only have a very short time to evaluate the skis, immediately after which they have to fill in a score card. They usually aren't allowed to make a comparison after they have finished testing all the skis in a category.



The skis provided are usually in the design length, most manufactures design and test their skis in one length and then stretch or shrink them to the other sizes, a 160 won't ski like a 180. The rental bindings fitted to the test skis will likely have a different ramp angle to those sold with the skis, this can have a dramatic effect on a skis performance. The test skis will have been tuned, whereas the ones sold in shops are usually straight off the production line. The state if the edges and bases varies according to what state the sanding belts and grinding wheels were in when they were ground.
We almost never get to see a tester actually skiing on the skis they are testing. During the summer I came across some YouTube videos showing one guy testing a number of skis; http://www.youtube.com/user/TheCinephil/videos he has several traits that intermediate skiers tend to have, very little ankle flex and his arms keep dropping back (ideally the elbows should always be in front of the body), which put him in the back seat. These skiers usually prefer a ski that has soft forebody and a stiff tail, he seemed to enjoy the Dynastar Chrome 74 Pro.



But he didn't get on so well with the Blizzard Bushwacker, skiers like him tend to struggle a bit on skis with a stiffer forebody and a soft and /or rockered tail as they can't pressurise the tip as easily and the tail doesn't provide a stable platform for them to stand on.