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Demoing skis at indoor slope

 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
How effective is demoing skis on an indoor slope for a progressing intermediate who's still working on technique?

The snow is not the same as the real stuff on the mountains and the quality can deteriorate very quickly.

Is the performance you get out of a skis indoors a true refelction of how you'll get on with them on the mountain?

Thanks
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 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
pointless.
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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?
ed123, Kind of disagree with you here, not totally though.

It all depends on the type of ski. If you are looking for something short and carving, then indoor is ok, if you are looking for a powder ski then I think you know the answer!

We all know that demoing indoor / on dendex is not the best, but us brits have little choice a lot of the time. Ive been skiing for 26 years and only ever had the chance to demo indoors, and I have always found the right ski for me. I ski on SL skis mainly and have 2 all mountain skis - all tested indoors and more than happy with my choice.

Here comes the BIG BUT! I tested a set of Kastle 94's and Whitedot Preachers indoors recently and have to say its was a pretty pointless exercise!! OK so I got a little feel for the ski, but trying to test a ski designed for powder (more the whitedot than the kastle) on the wonderful ice of tamworth was not an experience I want to repeat. In the end, Spyderjon gave me the advice I needed to buy - the whitedots.

If you get the chance to test on a mountain then definitely take it! However demoing indoors is free (with the exception of your lift pass obviously(which does gets refunded if you buy the ski)) so why not give it a bash anyway - its better to try indoor as a minimum and on a mountain as well if you can. If you are planning to ski indoors during the summer, then its good to know your ski can do both!

Only other advice would be to find an EB or snow and rock that open as soon as the slope does in the morning. EB at tamworth open at 10am. by the time you have your skis to demo, the slope is heaving. At CFe (and correct me if I am wrong here) Snow and Rock usually open at 9, so you can get on the slope first thing when the slope if quieter. You will get a kind of idea how the ski is in both newly groomed, crud (ish) and icy conditions all within the first hour as it gets hammered!
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
Snow and Rock at CFe open at 10am as well so the snow conditions will have deteriorated by then.
ski holidays
 Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
I'd say it's well worth testing at the indoor snow slopes however Tamworth is basically ice all the time making it only good for piste specific skis. For all mountain skis I'd deliberately avoid the 'fully groomed slope immediately after opening time' & go later in the day when the central section of the slope will be nicely scraped off (to replicate hard snow performance) leaving the chopped up outer strips as a great place to get a feel for variable snow performance. Plus most of the slopes have certain days every week or two when they've built bumps.

When testing skis I'd recommend having a series of drills/exercises to go through to give you a meaning comparison between different skis. I also do a few braquage turns/pivot slips to start with to ensure I'm properly centred on the ski as it's likely that the fore/aft position & delta angle of the binding on the test is likely to be different to what you're used to. And bear in mind that if the tune of the ski is poor (which tends to be the case on many demo skis) then they're likely to ski poorly.
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