 Poster: A snowHead
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I have decided to bite the bullet and buy my first set of ski's but would appreciate some advice from my fellow snowheads. I have been skiing for four years and have about ten ski weeks under my belt having been to Bansko (twice), La Tania, Meribel, Bardonecchia, St Johann in Tirol, Passo Tonale (twice), and EOSB (twice). I am 54 6'3'' and 115Kg (trying to get back to fighting weight of 101Kg) and have always hired skis but to my shame have never really noted the make and model of the skis having been pre-occupied with the length! I have skied 165 to 178 but prefer a shorter ski of 170 as I just can't get on with the longer ones. I would class myself as an intermediate skier able to tackle blues, reds and the odd black in fairly good style. I am at a loss whether to buy a pure piste ski or an all mountain carver to cope with less than perfect conditions I have sometimes encountered such as icy/hard packed snow, spring snow and deep powder en piste. There also seems to be quite a price differential between the various ski retailers such as Decathlon, Edge&Wax, Ellis Brigham, Glisshop, Ekosport, Snowinn etc although I realise some are British based companies and the rest EEC. Some of the skis I have considered have been Atomic Rivals (a fellow snowhead same age, height and weight has just bought some in 165cm length) Atomic Nomad S Tune and Salomon X Drive 80. Like I say I am not a ski aficionado so would appreciate any advice re ski choice, bindings, retailers and when to buy before I commit myself! Thanks in anticipation.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Sorry, forgot to mention I have my own boots and custom liners.
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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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IMO there's no point in having all mountain skis when all your skiing is on piste. I'm a good bit older than you, 5'10" and 80kg - expert skier but only on piste because of knee damage from racing motorcycles (don't ask  ). For me skis must be maneuverable, easy to turn, have a bit of float for less than perfect conditions, have fantastic edge grip even on ice so that I can do silly things on them, and not be too knackering to use. Basically what I guess you're looking for but not as stiff as I use.
Look for so-called advanced skis, length 175-178cm (ish), width 72-76cm (ish), radius 12-15m (ish). They've got to be fun with room to improve into without being completely outside your current ability envelope. Like Head Magnum or Head Titan for example. I use Volkl Code Speedwall S UVO in 166 but they need to be driven hard to get the best out of them. Before than I had Rossignol Pursuit 16 Ti 170 which are very nice and don't punish mistakes. Still got them but probably too short for you.
Only my opinion, others more knowledgeable than me will be along shortly I imagine ...
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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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Thanks for the advice irie, I will research your ski choices. When I mentioned all mountain carver it is not a pure all mountain ski but one that is a little wider in the shovel, waist and tail than a pure piste based ski which apparently helps with some difficult en piste conditions such as powder, slush etc by giving a little more float ? I think there is different terminology used by different ski retailers such as front carver, all mountain carver to describe this class of ski that fall between piste and all mountain. Also customer liners should read footbeds!
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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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custom! sorry for the typo!
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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They're "Frontside skis". Don't get hung up on having a wider piste ski than you need for the largest range of conditions you're most likely to meet and like the best. Going wider to cover those few days when a wider ski will work better merely compromises the majority of days when a narrower ski is more suitable and the most fun.
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@irie,
+1 put it perfectly.
Personally if you're going to be purely on piste then look for a piste ski. I know you said that you never took notice of your hire skis, but generally these are piste orientated and so long as you've had fun in all those conditions with them then I would stick with what you know best.
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It really depends how you like to ski - If you want to cruise around the pistes, admiring the scenery and doing a few short turns when it gets steep etc then a short, light ski will be fine, if you like to charge hard around the mountain racking up the miles on long, fast carves then you really ought to persevere with something a bit longer and heavier. You're a big lad and the received wisdom for someone your size would normally be something at least 175 in length - the waist/radius all depends on what you want to do with it - but at the end of the day what really matters is that you like skiing on what you buy and it suits your style! A word of caution though: If you go with something light and flimsy, someone your size will trash them quite quickly (I speak from experience, having topped the scales at over 120kg and ruined quite a few skis in my time  - currently 105 and trying to drop a bit more though!)
Anyway, Völkl make some great skis for the men-of-substance among us - Speedwall good for pistes and the RTM series are superb for more piste-oriented all mountain skis but they're typically teutonic in their construction - over-engineered, solid, heavy - great for the committed speed demon but they'll feel like lead weights by the end of the day if you just want to cruise around. Hopefully that's helpful, probably isn't though  Good luck!
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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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Thanks for the further advice, I get what you are saying about buying pure piste skis and to be honest it makes a lot of sense! My skiing style is to use pivot based skidded turns for the really steep stuff and pressure based long radius turns for the more mellow reds and blues when I can crack on (safety permitting). I think the last skis I used in Passo Tonale 11/1/15 were Atomic (maybe S Tune plus) in 168cm which I had changed from 176cm after the first day (very icy conditions!). These were perfectly fine but perhaps I should have persisted with the longer model! Anyway I never realised that Vokl were a particularly heavy robust ski for the bigger boy!
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