 Poster: A snowHead
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I'm off to Val Thorens in a couple of weeks and thought it might be a good idea to prepare myself for 'accidentally' buying some skis 
I tried out the ski selector at www.forskiers.com and it suggested these:
Atomic Tweak, 172cm
Rossignol Scratch Mogul, 178cm
Atomic c:9 puls, 170cm
Rossignol Zenith Z5 TP, 170cm
Atomic m:8, 175cm
Rossignol Bandit B1, 170cm
These are a bit longer than the skis I've rented recently (all 160cm), so I'll probably start off by renting some 170cm skis. I'm about 170cm tall and weight 87kg, I'll be ski-ing mainly on piste. I'm happy on blues and fairly happy on reds.
Any suggestions or advice?
Last edited by Poster: A snowHead on Wed 23-03-05 9:31; edited 1 time in total
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Wait for next season's models unless these are going cheap as end of season deals?
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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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forget that site ?  looks like nonsense to me, I thought that seemed an odd list, I just tried and it produced nonsense for me.
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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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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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I've just checked that site as well, and I think that the recommendations that it came out with for me were not very good.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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no good for me either
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B1s for me? - nope - just plain wrong.
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Well, well, well... B1s or Atomic M:8s for me. Both in a 182. Ah... nope! Ian Hopkinson, time to tell us what you're really seeking!
What terrain and conditions do you favor?
What speed and turn shape do you prefer?
What kind of feel do you like from the skis?
And, for my sake, if you post again, can you post your height and weight in English measurements so I don't have to go find that blasted conversion site, again? (I love it when folks post their weight in stone!)
I've got some thoughts, but I'd like the answers to those questions, first.
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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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I think it lists the skis THEY have for sale, not the ones you need.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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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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ise, It stumbled all over itself when I tried. At least I didn't get B1s?
Aha, nothing from 2005. At least it got the Head Mad Trix Mojo (181cm) right.
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I got the same list as you.Ian Hopkinson, B1 s at 180+? no way. I think my 170s are a bit long! I do like B1s though, but I think they are a bit on the pricey side. 
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You know it makes sense.
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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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DB, you're absolutely right, the ski selector does only say Trix.
Well.
Thanks for pointing that out.
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Poster: A snowHead
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It's the classic Internet tool isn't it? No matter what question you ask you get one of the same two or three answers, it could replace 95% of posts really ....
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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anyone who DOES want B1s can find them going cheap at Snow and Rock - £164 when I last looked, without bindings.
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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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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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comprex, you seem to have missed the pocket rocket there
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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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In a word, No!
You would be better off getting the views of people on this board.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Complete ballox.
Purely as an example I entered -
Skill level - 9
Aggressive rating - 3
expected terrain - hard pack
And one of the options was the Stockli Coredo TT in a 140. (My 6 year old godson skis on a 140 fer pete's sake) Catch the description, "Coredo TT is an all mountain free carve ski, designed for the beginner through intermediate who wants to improve and have fun doing it."
So how does that reconcile to an ability level of "blah blah expert, blah fastest on hill, etc". Complete nonsense.
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David Murdoch, One of my better friends skis a 2002 Stockli Coredo TT on Maine ice and in Nastar gates. In the longer lengths (175cm for his 180lbs) it is quite a reasonable ski for hard pack terrain and absolutely brilliant for a direct line on completely frozen bumps. He only had trouble with them attempting to float in Utah powder- that was _not_ going to happen. I would still pick that ski over any Streetracer at all.
I think the ski selector outfit is actually writing their own descriptions based on factory marketingspeak and then drawing up the correspondence to their stock based on their description. 2 levels of circular erroneous argument, that would be, not counting errors in mapping real humans to ready answers.
Ian Hopkinson, the gentleman reviewing gear on www.ts2003.com has the most of my trust for ski type evaluation. It is not an online selector, but he will (for a membership fee) work with you individually in addition to the reviews he provides for everyone. Notice that the reviews have expected ability and terrain marked, independently of factory marketing niches.
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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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Ian Hopkinson, do you have a demo list? I think you're far more likely to find cogent relevant advice if you ask specific questions. Has ssh been able to help you already?
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comprex, I don't think I've reached demo list stage yet! I think I'll start another thread...
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Ian Hopkinson, When you do start your new thread I'll be delighted to see what people reply as apart from H/W ( I'm 180/82 Kg) , the way you describe your abilities sounds how I SHOULD describe mine. I also would like to buy skis in end-of - season sale .BTW - not sure how this fits in but both the Good Lady and I tried Atomic SX-10s last week and they were magic --- not seen any comments on here but give you amazing feel and bite (and pace) on those frosty mornings, also carve like the devil (IMHO)....
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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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| Ian Hopkinson wrote: |
Okay, so we've established that I shouldn't trust that online ski selector  , any you would trust?
ssh, at the moment I'm an on piste skier - favourite terrain / conditions: I don't think I have a strong preference here - I like some steep stuff for a bit of challenge, but I'm also happy gliding down broad gentle blues. I don't like piles of soft snow towards the end of the day, I don't head towards patches of ice with enthusiasm but not particularly phased if they should appear.
I generally take a broad zigzaggy path down the slope, although as I'm getting more experience my amplitude is getting smaller and I'm starting to go a bit faster without panicing. Tend to leave tighter turns for tricky situations.
Ski feel - that's an interesting questions - I ski intermittently (1-2 weeks a year) and I'm not confident about what is ski feel and what is condition feel. I've had skis flap around a bit and I didn't like that. My impression of the Streetracers I was using a couple of weeks ago was that they were easy to roll over onto their edges - and that was nice.
Now you've done the conversion I won't need to tell you again unless I lose weight or put on a very late growth spurt... |
Been out skiing the past couple of days, so haven't gotten back to the forums to see this until now. Sorry for the delay...
By "feel" I mean largely the amount of energy that the ski returns to you and the feel for the snow that it offers. The extremes of these, from my perspective, are:
energy: extremely energetic skis (usually a result of a stiff tail, but there can be other design parameters to accomplish it, certainly) tend to "rebound" at the end of the turn, especially. As a result, one can feel like the ski is tossing one around. An extreme lack of energy in a ski can make the ski feel "dead" under foot.
feel: skis with high "feel" transmit the snow's texture through the ski to the foot, allowing the skier full tactile experience and response. The downside is that the skis may seem to "throw one around" due to the feel.
Personally, I prefer high energy and reasonably high feel, and I find that the Fischers and Atomics that I've bought this year offer this. At the other end of the spectrum are skis like the Rossis that so many enjoy: they tend to offer less feel and less energy, but as a result tend to ski more smoothly for many.
Does this help? Let me know your thoughts on feel, but I'll offer my thoughts once I go find that conversion site, again...
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The semi-colons separate the groupings (lower skill demands on the left):
Higher feel, high energy (Fischer highest): Fischer RX6, Elan S8; Fischer RX8, Elan S12
Higher feel, mid-energy: Atomic M:10; M:11
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FAQ
I hadn't actually checked the site. Came up with B1's at 176 for me 
I don't think so... maybe if I mate them with these B3's that I can't get rid of, I'll end up with B2's 
But I did learn something.