Dudes on Women's Ski's!!!

I'm looking at a set of Head Lightning ski's, they're 154's, they are in the size range suited for me. I'm 5'6 and about 165 pounds, intermediate groomed runs type skier who doesn't ski fast. Lightning are marketed as a women's ski, they don't really look girly (they're basically white). Would it be weird for a guy to ski on women's skis. I'm thinking most rec skiers wouldn't even know the difference visually.

What makes for a woman's ski ?

The bindings may be mounted a little further forward. If you just ski groomers, and like to carve, this would work for guy.

The flex may be softer, and flex patern may be different. At 165 lbs, you might be on the heavy end of the weight range, but not excessively so. It depends on how aggressive you are.

bottom line - you won't know until you try them

You would like to think a lot of engineering is going into womens skis, but aside from mounting the bindings forward, softer flex, and girly colours, I don't think there is anything special going on. Things like flex patterns, and clothoid sidecuts, that would better suit the way women shift weight, etc, but I don't think it goes that deep. Good female skiers seem to like men's skis, with the bindings shifted forward a little.


Trencher

Scott Maya always get a good write up, and they are usually tested by blokes as well as women. Unless they have pictures of naked men on them, I'd see no reason why a bloke could not ski on them.

If you look at the skis used on the world cup circuit men & women used the same equipment. IMO women's specific skis is just marketing, the construction of men & women's skis is going to be the exactly the same.

Finn

Finn wrote:If you look at the skis used on the world cup circuit men & women used the same equipment. IMO women's specific skis is just marketing, the construction of men & women's skis is going to be the exactly the same.

Finn

Yes there are differences in the components and manufacture of women specific skis. It may be marketing, however when a mfr uses lighter material in a core, different flex patterns in structure and uses a different binding point because the sweet spot is in a different place, because of women's CoM differences, it does make a difference to usage.

I don't currently own any women specific skis. The only pair I owned (briefly) were no good for me, and I sold them on. I think if I buy any more unisex skis, I might have the binding mounted forward of boot centre to see what difference it makes.
There are a few women specific skis that I currently lust after. These for example......

http://www.citizenski.com/skis/movement-black-rose-skis-2009.html

It's a while to my Birthday )

Thanks for the replies, in the end I went with a Head Monster im70 ski, a 163 length. I'm looking forward to trying it out.

jturgeon wrote:Thanks for the replies, in the end I went with a Head Monster im70 ski, a 163 length. I'm looking forward to trying it out.

Nice skis, I nearly bought some this season but opted for Scott Neo instead.

I've just acquired some Head Monster iM70 Lightening Skis 163cm with a Fischer binding and poles. Anyone have any if there are worth anything... I was going to put them on Ebay.... they have good edges...