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Thinking of picking up park skis...

#1
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11/2/09 at 8:05pm
  • Joined: July 2002
  • Location: Vancouver, BC
  • Post Count: 965
A bit regarding my background: 5'8" 170 lbs. 24 yrs old ex-racer, ex coach, used to live back East and moved to Vancouver about a year ago. My current quiver includes 165 Volkl SL, 185 Volkl GS, 188 Rossi S7, 190 Dynastar Legend Pro, 193 4FRNT EHP.

I picked up a 1 night a week pass for Grouse Mountain this season, a fairly lousy local mountain that is accessible by public transit. I'm thinking this would be a great opportunity to diversify my skills and learn to ski park.

I'm pretty fresh when it comes to skiing park. Coming from racing, I have no issues hucking myself off huge jumps but a tail grab is about the extent of my trick repertoire. I taught myself to spin a 360 on my slalom skis last winter on a very small jump but still need practice to feel comfortable. My goal with this is to translate park skills into elements I could throw in when skiing lines, like spinning off drops.

If I were to pick up a pair of park skis, what length should I be looking at? I'm pretty used to long skis so my instinct was to go with something 180ish. But I have no clue how sizing of park skis works. Am I way off on this one? I also want to be able to ride the rest of the mountain. I'm not looking for a race ski but good grip and energy are an asset for sure.

Also, what models should I be looking at? I'm thinking it doesn't matter too much but I want something with solid enough tails not to wash when I land badly. I'm thinking K2 Public Enemy/Extreme might be good as I have read good reviews both as a park ski and for all-mountain use.
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#2
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11/2/09 at 8:35pm
  • Joined: March 2009
  • Post Count: 129


Quote:
Originally Posted by D(C) View Post

A bit regarding my background: 5'8" 170 lbs. 24 yrs old ex-racer, ex coach, used to live back East and moved to Vancouver about a year ago. My current quiver includes 165 Volkl SL, 185 Volkl GS, 188 Rossi S7, 190 Dynastar Legend Pro, 193 4FRNT EHP.

I picked up a 1 night a week pass for Grouse Mountain this season, a fairly lousy local mountain that is accessible by public transit. I'm thinking this would be a great opportunity to diversify my skills and learn to ski park.

I'm pretty fresh when it comes to skiing park. Coming from racing, I have no issues hucking myself off huge jumps but a tail grab is about the extent of my trick repertoire. I taught myself to spin a 360 on my slalom skis last winter on a very small jump but still need practice to feel comfortable. My goal with this is to translate park skills into elements I could throw in when skiing lines, like spinning off drops.

If I were to pick up a pair of park skis, what length should I be looking at? I'm pretty used to long skis so my instinct was to go with something 180ish. But I have no clue how sizing of park skis works. Am I way off on this one? I also want to be able to ride the rest of the mountain. I'm not looking for a race ski but good grip and energy are an asset for sure.

Also, what models should I be looking at? I'm thinking it doesn't matter too much but I want something with solid enough tails not to wash when I land badly. I'm thinking K2 Public Enemy/Extreme might be good as I have read good reviews both as a park ski and for all-mountain use.

With twin tips they measure the tail so you need to subtract 5-10cm from the length. So a 180 twin tip might have a edge surface of maybe 170-175ish depending on how they measure it.

I'm don't know that much about park skis but you should confirm if you want a park specific ski or an all mountain park ski. Park specific skis are mounted in the middle so you have equal swing weight and have symmetric flex and shape (usually) so they are really easy to ski backwards. An all mountain twin tip you can pretty figure out for yourself, just in case, its an all mountain ski with twin tips. From what I know the PE's/Extreme's are a pretty good ski. Some other skis you might want to check out off the top of my head are: Volkl Wall, Armada T-Hall, Armada Pipe Cleaner, Line Anthem, Line Invader (now Afterbang), Salomon Suspect (have heard a lot of good things about these skis), Salomon Dumont, Rossignol S3,

hope that helps

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#3
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11/2/09 at 8:48pm
  • Joined: March 2009
  • Post Count: 129
O yea, and you might want to check out the Maker Schizo binding. If you haven't head of it, it's a binding where you can move your boot/binding forward or backward 3inches (a total of 6 inches!) easily with a turn of a screw, you don't even have to take off your ski! (if you don't understand my explanation of it, you might want to check out the Marker website). Maybe it would be something to try have it centered for when you're in the park and have it traditional when you're not. Sounds like a good deal to me.
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#4
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11/2/09 at 9:18pm
  • Joined: July 2002
  • Location: Vancouver, BC
  • Post Count: 965
 Thanks for the help. The Schizos look great but I won't be buying new bindings since I was going to mount a pair I had lying around.

Regarding park twintip vs. all-mountain twintip, how much park performance do you lose by going the all-mountain route? Are there any skis that minimize the tradeoff between park abilities and all-mountain performance?
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#5
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11/3/09 at 10:23am
  • Joined: November 2005
  • Location: Minden, NV
  • Post Count: 84

Check out the Line Chronic.  It is close to a symetrical ski, easy to ski switch, and performs great as an all mountain ski.  I don't know if they still have last years model on sierraski.com, but I picked up a pair for $196.00 last April.  Also, it's one of the stiffer parks skis out there, which means it's more of a medium flex within the whole spectrum of skis out there.  Other good skis, so I've heard, that I haven't been on: Armada Pipe cleaners, Armada AR6...
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