EpicSki › First Run Articles › Five Key Questions When Buying New Skis

Five Key Questions When Buying New Skis

nolo
By: nolo
Posted 09/07/12 • Last updated 09/07/12 • 6224 views • 3 comments

 

1000What skis should I buy?

EpicSki is a great place to ask this question because we have plenty of experts and peers ready to help you make the right decision. If you come to them with the answers to the following Five Key Questions, your chances of getting a spot-on recommendation (and maybe even scoring a great deal) are increased exponentially.

 

  1. Where in the world are you skiing? 

  2. What kinds of terrain do you prefer (groomed runs, moguls, race course, park'n'pipe, trees, steeps, backcountry/sidecountry)

  3. How many days a year do you ski?

  4. How advanced are you as a skier?

  5. What's your height and weight? 

 

Secondly: Are you looking for one ski to serve all purposes or are you adding a ski to your collection to fit a specific purpose? 

If you are looking for one all-purpose ski, you will probably not be happy with a specialty ski, such as one designed specifically for powder or for the terrain park. As the name implies, the best all-purpose ride is the all-mountain ski, because, as EpicSki Gear Guru SierraJim explains, "stance and sidecut is set back from center to improve weight and pressure distribution toward the aft 75% of the ski. Sidecut involves 'taper' from the tip to tail to improve hookup in the front and release at the back. [They also have a] firmer flex (especially in torsion) to improve the grip and stability on hard or other detrimental conditions." 

Skidmarks photo

Skidmarks photo

These factors enhance normal skiing performance but run counter to park performance. SierraJim continues, "Park skis have the stance and sidecut set forward to balance the skier's weight in the physical center of the ski. These skis employ a symmetrical sidecut (or close to it) to balance pressure evenly when skiing normal or switch. Their typically softer flex (especially in torsion) in the fore and aft butter zones make the ski less catchy in wall transitions. These factors all serve to improve the performance in the park but they are invariably a detriment outside the park and especially on very hard or very heavy snow."

 

Unless you only ski on powder days, SierraJim advises staying away from anything wider than 110mm. "Think about it: in 10 days each in the west and in the mid-Atlantic how many days of greater than 12" do you expect you'll see? True powder skis or skis well over 110mm will certainly do a better job on those days but will of necessity not do as well on days when there is no recent snow. So.you might do a priority check to see if a powder-biased ski is what you want."                                                          

 

Regarding the width of a prospective ski and the conditions you ski, EpicSki Pro SkiDude72 has this advice: "The harder the snow and the wider the skis, the harder they are on the knees due to lateral torque created by the width. Furthermore, you will have less edge hold. On soft snow, you won't notice the extra torque as bad. To find your ideal width, you need to think about the conditions you DO ski, not what you WANT to ski.  We all want bottomless powder all the time but very few people actually get that. 

 

Regarding Ski Length Sizing

Skis with any kind of early tip rise will ski "shorter," so take that into account when sizing skis. Please see these specific articles on ski sizing:

 

Comments (3)

Skidmarks 9/26/12 at 7:52pm
I like the picture!
wallyk 1/31/13 at 10:35am
Great primer for new skiers, intermediate skiers looking to purchase new gear and for skiers returning to the sport. Not as detailed or a substitute for going to a reputable shop and working with a qualified sales professional, but certainly setting the right foundation for what type of questions to consider. Good job.
Fred928 5/15/13 at 10:43am
Reputable ski shops are pushing rocker skis with propaganda like, "they are already flexed the way you would when you turn". It took me 15 minutes to get a ski shop seller to admit that rocker skis are a disaster on anything but 6+ inches of new snow. They also dumb down the powder experience. Who needs 20 cm of ski flapping around in the air most of the time? Yet like short skis in the '70s the ski shops love them since everyone has got to have a pair now. This article says zero about ski camber.
EpicSki › First Run Articles › Five Key Questions When Buying New Skis