New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

What length GS ski for J3 girl?

post #1 of 4
11/11/11 at 12:56pm
Thread Starter 

My daughter is a second year J3/K2, born 1997 and 14 years old. She is 158cm/62inches/5ft1 tall and weights 99 pounds. She has only been ski racing a year and is not very experienced on GS skis(we live in London so GS training is limited to school holiday camps.) Following a bad recommendation we brought her 176 elan GS skis which she has skiied on for about 2 weeks in total. They have not worked for her at all, she finds them very hard to ski on, doesnt like the skis and cant really carve them even on easy slopes (she can carve her slaloms perfectly on most pistes.) Her slalom skis are 144cm atom junior SL RD Race 12 and work very well for her. She is not very aggressive and is not very experienced. She doesnt win races but doesnt come last either.Her coach has said the brand doesnt work for her and they are far to big. Would she be better off on atomic as her slalom skis work for her or another brand? Her coach also said fischer and head could work as well as atomic. What lenght do you think she would be best on 158, 165 or 171? Or any other lengths or brands?Thanks for the help.

Reply
post #2 of 4
11/12/11 at 4:35am

176 doesn't sound long for a 158cm 14 y.o.in race training, irrespective of brand. But then I'm coming from a standpoint where kids will have been training GS since they were 8 and SL only really comes later. Most of our 11-12 y.o.s will be skiing 175-180-ish SGs for some of this year's training & races.

 

A 176cm jr. GS race ski will have a radius > 17m and probably closer to 20m, compared to a jr. SL at around 11m. If pretty much all your skiing is on the super-carvy SLs then the GSs will feel like beasts to turn at first. And they'll want to go much faster than the SLs - GS just skis don't come around at pedestrian speed.

 

I see no reason why she shouldn't ski a 160-165 GS until it all starts coming together. That'll be 15-20cm longer than the SLs and just over her head height. Keep the long skis around and freeski them when she gets the chance. Don't bother with the long skis in the gates unless she really improves by leaps and bounds. As far as brands go - if she's happy on Atomic SLs (that's what you said, right?) then why not try out an Atomic GS with the D2 deck.

Reply
post #3 of 4
11/12/11 at 5:05am

I think it works best when you ski on the same brand for both SL and GS. That way the binding delta angles are going to be the same in regards to you fore-aft balance. The end result is a feeling a similarity between your sets of skis as you jump from GS to SL and back.

 

As far as length goes Rossignol puts out a handy chart that seems to work well. We consult it all the time at the shop.

 

http://www.racingusa.rossignol.com/doc/2010-11_Sizing%20Chart_Rossignol.pdf

 

 

At 99lbs and a J3 she would be on a 160ish CM GS ski that would complement a  145ish SL ski.

Those 176 Elan RCG's have a lot of beef and are a few sizes to long at this time.

Reply
post #4 of 4
11/13/11 at 5:32pm

Looks like your thread is cross-posted. Anyway, here is my response on the other thread of yours...

http://www.epicski.com/t/106741/what-length-gs-ski-for-j3-girl#post_1386239

 

Sounds like what I'm commenting and recommending are in line with Skidmark.

Reply
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home