 Poster: A snowHead
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The time has come that I need to man up and replace my old skis - I'm 117kg/6ft and the K2 Motos I bought (probably wrongly in hindsight) 7 years ago really have to go. One thing I know for sure that a major reason I struggle off piste and on blacks is that they are 167s with sixty-something waists. They do turn in about an 8 metre radius tho! I couldn't be bothered to pay to fly with them last year and hired an appalling quality pair of old twin tips, but they were a load better than my skis.
I've got 25-30 weeks experience and am happy to take most blacks if pushed. My mates mostly stay on the reds and blues so I dont get pushed but I want something that I can play off piste and on piste with easily and maybe a bit of park stuff, and that are big enough for me. I'm not good enough to do couloirs, thats for sure!
I'm currently looking at all mountain skis (sub 100mm) - the Rossi 88s , Blizzard Bonafide (9 or Blizzard Bushwackers (I think its those are the 88 ones), all at lengths of 180+
Any recommendations? Should I be going for 98s if I'm on piste so much, or is that better at my weight? SHould I go for 180, or longer (188?) or will they just become like rails on piste?
Thx!
--Chris
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Interestingly I'm just about to sell a pair of Line Prophet 100s in a 185 that I bought as a 1 ski does everything ski, precisely because I'm too light for them. Bought something much floppier to replace them.
I'm 6 foot 3 and sub 70kg. They'd probably suit you down to the ground. I certainly didn't find the width anything of a handicap, it was the stiffness that troubled me.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Bonafides are nice skis and at your size go for the longest length in whatever you buy - the short ski fashion was always overdone. Yes 165cm makes sense for tight slalom courses but for a grown man doing real world skiing not so much.
Modern mid fat skis have sidecuts and rocker profiles that enable them to be skied quite effectively on hardpack and then come into their own when conditions soften up or are variable (remember a piste definitely isn't always perfect corduroy particularly in spring). Certain designs of which the Blizzard is one in my experience are also very chuckable (i.e you can turn them rotationally in much more confined spaces than the length might suggest). I don't know why everyone (once they've got the appropriate skill set) isn't on them.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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Zuzzy, looks like Dot didn't want to pimp his own product so I will for him: Whitedot Preacher 189.
Bit wider underfoot than you requested but you'll need that with your build in soft stuff. Great on piste on everything excluding true ice.
If you want to stay sub 100mm then a long length Volkl Mantra pretty much does it all.
Last edited by You'll need to Register first of course. on Thu 3-10-13 11:56; edited 1 time in total
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Thanks all
Pam_w - you get a surprising amount of intertia at my weight and when it gets steep there is a point that I just get understeer! 
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spyderjon, 
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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| spyderjon wrote: |
Zuzzy, looks like Dot didn't want to pimp his own product so I will for him: Whitedot Preacher 189.
Bit wider underfoot than you requested but you'll need that with your build in soft stuff. Great on piste on everything excluding true ice. |
This. Although I am biased, as we have three pairs in our house.
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Reading reviews on here about the Preachers (like the one by skier from Argentina) Thy make Dot sound like the messiah - very impressed. Very tempted!
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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zuzzy, I am probably heavier than you and have been using the Rossi 88's (186) for a couple of seasons now. I really enjoy them especially when skiing hard as they are much more responsive. I do not really ski off piste but they cope well with knee deep, crud and slush. They are bloody heavy to carry and mine are fitted with NEOX bindings so that probably does not help but when I'm clipped in they do not feel it. I too worry about understeer and control due to my momentum but find these ski's give me what I want/need. I do wonder how they would be for me properly off piste and suspect that I would go for a wider ski as recommended above if that was my thing. I had tried these skis before buying and did try the 83's, the deciding factor was the price as I got them for just over £300 (flat), but that was two season ago as I said.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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Understeer is a technique problem surely? Unless you're on something like a kid's ski which clearly isn't built to take an adult.
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| spyderjon wrote: |
Zuzzy, looks like Dot didn't want to pimp his own product so I will for him: Whitedot Preacher 189.
Bit wider underfoot than you requested but you'll need that with your build in soft stuff. Great on piste on everything excluding true ice.
If you want to stay sub 100mm then a long length Volkl Mantra pretty much does it all. |
+1, I'm similar height to Pam W but 66 kg and love my Preacher 169s; brilliant on and off piste. Go for the 189s
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You know it makes sense.
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| fatbob wrote: |
| Understeer is a technique problem surely? Unless you're on something like a kid's ski which clearly isn't built to take an adult. |
I think the Moto was made in longer lengths than 167cm so the OP may be a bit too heavy for them.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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| Quote: |
Understeer is a technique problem surely?
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That's what I thought too. The OP is certainly a bit heavy for his skis but they shouldn't be running away with him down steep slopes, even so. Plenty of heavy people can control snowblades down black slopes, after all!
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Poster: A snowHead
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Wow! So a 112mm waisted ski is the most suitable one ski quiver for an advanced intermediate who spends 90% of his time on red and blue pistes and has to be pushed to ski a black. Who'd have thought?
Makes you wonder why they make anything else 
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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zuzzy, preference is to try before you buy. With careful research you can take a punt. But accept that you could end up on a ski that simply doesn't suit.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Is it not not so much how long or wide but how stiff?.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Yeah I can manage the 167s, I'm exaggerating a bit that they run away from me, I think I'm persuading myself how much I don't like them to justify spending money.
Would love to try before I buy but the only place even faintly near to me is Hemel snowdome and for a 30 second long slope I can't be bothered to queue up the M25 (no disrespect to Hemel, I'm just too far away)
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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zuzzy, I'm a similar size to yourself. The Preacher is a great ski BUT is is biased toward the back country so I'd only head towards it if you think you'd be spending 40-50% of your time in the back/side country
Ignore widths. Modern ski designs allow for fatter skis to feel like they are narrower and rocker allows narrower skis to float better. Remember all-mountain is not a set width but rather means skis that should ski "all" the mountain. All "all mountain" skis have a bias towards something. The Preacher is an All Mountain ski with a BC bias. See http://freeskier.com/gear/products/whitedot-preacher-ski-2014
Best advice is to demo. Get your self onto a Snowheads bash and try skis. There are normally ski tests at the bash's or most retailers have demo skis or access to demo skis.
Movement are also at many bashes and have some stiffer AM skis in their range.
Good luck and remember, buy what makes you happy and not what others tell you what to ski.
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| Dot. wrote: |
Good luck and remember, buy what makes you happy and not what others tell you what to ski. |
Best advice.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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zuzzy,
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| If you want to stay sub 100mm then a long length Volkl Mantra pretty much does it all |
Wot he said. Great ski.
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Thanks all - so currently the Rossi 88s, Preacher, Mantra or Bonafides are on the table. I'd like to think that in the time I have these ill be fitter, out more often and with friends who will do more bc (who doesn't hope that!) and it sounds like all of these would do what I want, from the 88s if majority on piste to the Preachers if majority BC
I'd love to come up to MK but I have a feeling I'm abroad on business 
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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I would stay under 90mm underfoot for your described skiing, So maybe Bushwackers over Bonafides and Kendos over Mantras
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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Completely agree with lynseyf re dimensions underfoot if the majority of your skiing is on the piste.
Tested the Kendo last year and was massively impressed with the performance on and off piste for a ski that goes anywhere and does anything.
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+1 for the Volkl Kendo, it's a sweet go anywhere ski.
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You know it makes sense.
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Line Prophet 98
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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Poster: A snowHead
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zuzzy, ever thought of some Scott Stunt skis in 196cms? 2012 graphics.
These bad boys are long, wide, and made for the XXL skier.
Don't worry about the length................ Rocker-Venturi tip takes 15 cms off effective lenth!! These crud-killers ski sooooo much shorter.
I got a demo pair with Sally Speed 14's used for less than a day for a photo-shoot.
£250 delivered.
Alternatively a pair of Storm Devastators 184 cms (2011/12) comes with Vist 614's, again used for a photo-shoot, less than a day's actual ski-use.
Another bargain at £250 delivered.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Thanks everyone - in the end I went for the Bushwackers at 88 - partly because I'm now spending most of my time on snow in '14 with people who won't be off piste much (which wasnt the case when I started this thread - group bookings are a nightmare!) and thus I can now justify to myself some >100s in '15 and partly because rocnoir had some '13 season Bushwackers left which were cheaper than buying new '14 graphics. And partly because Steven at rocnoir was a half hour drive away and offered to mount bindings onto them for me.
That said, dropping by may have been a mistake as he has a room of very nice skis and I found myself looking at a pair of preachers...
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FAQ
Can't recommend any skis, though I am 5'4 and 62 kgs and ski on 163 length skis, so they do sound pretty small for you.
