Is Your Gear Limiting Your Development?

Interesting article

can't say I disagree with him

http://www.realskiers.com/NEWSLETTERS/limiting.html

I have to agree. Its crazy seeing the number of people riding around on 100+mm skis daily on the East Coast.

Im 29 and grew up with the twin tip and fat ski wave. Its been great to have this massive amount of choice in ski types, but often, like the article states ,to many people buy a ski based on a trend without getting comfortable with a solid skill set. A ski thats capability will only be used maybe 10% of the time for the entire ski season.

Certainly there are lot of us who can push around a fat ski regardless of the snow surface without much effect on our skiing, but I see so many people who are advancing intermediates that struggle to effectively ski a wide ski on groomed surfaces and hinders their growth.

Its like buying a full size pickup truck while living in Manhattan simply because you like the idea of owning a pickup truck.

We all know you can't carve on a fat ski. No way, no how.

Volkl Mantra (especially camber/rocker versions) carve pretty damn good considering they are wide-ish.  Pretty good as a EC wide ski...can handle it all and still be good on a pow day...

I<3ADK wrote

Volkl Mantra (especially camber/rocker versions) carve pretty damn good considering they are wide-ish.  Pretty good as a EC wide ski...can handle it all and still be good on a pow day...

Wicked fun ski.

This is my current non-hard pack day ski..... ski the 177s

YUKON CORNELIUS wrote

We all know you can't carve on a fat ski. No way, no how.

LOL

I think there's an entire generation of skiers out there who can carve on phat skis, but give them a straight ski where you have to weight the ski to initiate the start, middle, and end of the turn and NOPE - NADDA - NUTTIN

Staying low and rolling ones ankles won't get you anywhere on a "real" ski

Mentally I'm a one ski guy. I just hate making that decision every ski day. It's a limitation I have to live with.

My Daily Breads are 98mm and have some tip rocker.  I could use a little more side cut most of the time, or sidecut that starts sooner/nearer the tip.

But that straight shape is really nice in soft snow.

Compromises are unavoidable, for me. When there is new snow, I'm often skiing pow in the morning, cutup after lunch and soft bumps at the end of the day.  I'd rather ski what I got then head to the car for a ski change.  And I'd rather ski my 98mm in bumps than be on a skinny ski when I find some late day pow at Plattekill or Snow Ridge or where ever.

One thing I've found is that I am crashing WAY less this season.  Maybe 5 crashes all season vs dozens last year.

I'm no expert but I'm sticking with my fat skis. If 98mm is considered fat.

What are the Mantra's under foot?

My Nordica HRPro Helldivers (yes, a couple years old) are 90mm under foot, and make for a good all mountain ski.

Mantras are 100 under foot. I will admit that they were less fun in certain super hard pack/ wind polished conditions yesterday, but that was the way it was all around on a lot of different skis.

Harvey wrote

I'm no expert but I'm sticking with my fat skis. If 98mm is considered fat.

I'm no expert either and fer sure I'm sticking with my Nordica NRGY 90's, rockered tip and tapered tail, lightweight and very fun to ski. They hold just fine on the firm stuff and absolutely plow thru anything that gets in the way....I totally dig em. Truth is they're just easier to ski. That said, it took me a few days on them to figure them out. At first I found myself pushing thru the front part of the turn, or in other words, I couldn't "feel" the beginning of the turn due to the rocker. Once I figured out I didn't have to initiate the turn, and just let the ski do the work I began to smile.

Guess I'm just old school, or maybe it's just jealousy that I see kids doing crap on skis that took me years to lean how to do  

I totally agree with this article.  Most people are skiing in too big boots with no custom footbed.  Fixing that by seeing a good boot fitter like Rich at inside edge should be thier first priority to skiing better.

I also think matching where you ski to your skis is a no brainer.  If you ski at Whiteface like I do your every day ski should be less than 90mm under foot.  Mine is 82mm.  I also am a big believer in a ski quiver.  You don't use your driver on every shot on the golf course so why only use one ski in every condition.  

I went from 82 to 98 under foot this year. Besides better float in powder I don't notice much of a diff.  I'm with Harv one ski a day.

I dress for the job I want, not the job i have.