 Poster: A snowHead
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Not sure if this belongs on this forum as, sadly, there's not much snow involved. Anyway, it looks like I'll be teaching on plastic this year. Does anyone know if there are any skis that would stand up to the heat generated on dry slopes?
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Any with little wheels on the bottom should be fine.
Any more sensible advice, Alan?
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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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Martin - why not use the hire skis the slope has ?
That way, you'll wreck theirs, not yours 
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Alan mentioned before that one manufacturer used to make a special ski just for plastic but I can't remember who made them, Alan also teaches on Plastic at Cardiff
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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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| austin7 wrote: |
Martin - why not use the hire skis the slope has ?
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I do. At the last session I wore through all the black plastic on my inside edges. Not so much fun as it gets smelly and very sticky. If there was an alternative material (at reasonable cost) I would be happy to invest.
The main problem was that sprinklers were out of action, and Cheshire weather wasn't up to its usual tricks.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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As a stopgap have you considered spraying the bottom of the skis with a silicone spray (as used for wateproofing) this would act as a lubricant and should slow down the damage, of course it will also mean your skis run like a greyhound on speed, the best bit is that it should only take 2 secs per ski so you can redo them several times a day if necessary
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Bit slow catching up with this one. I recall that the "special" skis were made by Atomic, but they're probably not the sort(shape) of ski that we'd be happy on these days! Not a lot you can do about overheating bases if you are doing flat ski stuff I'm afraid. I use "Mr Sheen" if I'm looking for a little speed but it wears off about 2/3 of the way down. Only thing you can do is let the skis pick up their own edge and "be light on them". Some people seem to be able to wear/melt large grooves in the bases (on the sides, about 1/2 inch in from each edge) in the space of an hour! Scary.
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| Alan Craggs wrote: |
| I recall that the "special" skis were made by Atomic |
I looked up Atomic site and they have one new model (c:11 plus ti) with ceramic base. Is this the sort of thing you were talking about? They mention hard, groomed snow but not artificial slopes.
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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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Some skis stand up to the heat of plastic slopes better than others. Basically the softer the base material the more likely it is to "burn out". Also foam cored skis don't like the heat generated and very quickly lose stiffness and camber.
The big problem is carving skis tend to cause a great deal more heat than the old traditional skinny skis.
A temporary cure is to hot wax your skis with ultra hard (cold weather) wax which takes a while longer to melt out (the theory is that the wax melts not the base).
I would not worry too much about the damage caused by skiing on dry slopes as a pair of skis used to last me almost a year, that was doing 4 hours a week teaching, four hours a week race training, and racing nearly every weekend from april to october. Any body who know's me knows that i'm definately not little.
Please don't be scared to use your skis on dry slopes. The damage can be retified by servicing your skis, that is unless you have soft based, foam cored carving skis (then you have no hope).
Remember if you are teaching on a dry slope you tend not to be demonstrating carved turns all the time and skidding creates less heat on your bases.
Matt Woods
Alpine Performance Coach
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Thanks for the reassurance. I've only started teaching, 4 hours of kids groups at weekends, not going fast enough to do any damage.
I did wear the base through during a class with Alan Ashfield, doing carved turns on a dry night with no sprinklers, hiring out soft skis that were probably far too short for me.
Would I be right to assume that longer skis would have a better chance of survival? I'm not very little either, 6'1'' and 13st. What do you race on?
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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I stopped racing last year but up until then i was using head slalom's and before that i was on the cyber space and cyber space XT. The slope i teach and raced for doesn't even have sprinklers and nowdays i have to make sure that i wax my skis to stop burn out it the slope isn't naturally wet.
If you are teaching snowploughs at lot, then skis about 180 in length will be good as the shorter carvers tend to be a little bit twitchy in the plough. I currently ski on a 170 Head SL, 177 head XP100 for cruising on the mountain, and a pair of head Monster i85 186 for the off piste. Although i have to admit the monster have recently become telemark skis as well as another pair of xp100's.
At 13st your a mear lightweight! so don't worry about it too much. just hot wax if you know that you are going to be skiing hard.
Also as previously stated silcone based sprays eg back2black are a good way of allowing your skis to run. just make sure you don't let it dry on your bases. otherwise it dries the base out and makes it difficult to hot wax again. To use it do a quick spray down each ski and then go. Contrary to popular racer beleif you don't actually need a lot of it on your skis to give you the protection for a run.
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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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I have to agree with Karve, He definitely isn't little. 
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Curious: how do the highly-fluorinated hard waxes take to dryslope?
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You know it makes sense.
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Mr Sheen works well.
Martin - It would be worth looking at what type of skis Alan Ashfield and the other coaches use. Alan certainly seems to do a lot of work with the kids and spends a lot of time on the slopes. Also look at what skis the older junior racers use, and how they wax them for dry slope races.
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