 Poster: A snowHead
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Has anyone here any experience of the Very Wed'ze snowblade-type skis?
I see they are 132cm and have a waist of 80cms. My wee girl needs something that will help her - she is 13 but is very small for her age (5'2"), has low muscle-tone and finds it hard to keep control of a wedge-shape when tired or anxious. I think I've dismissed tip-connectors as a plan so need to think about a ski that she'll find easier. These blades are more like skis and are a good length for her. She is currently on ex-hire salomons but her boot size is about to go up and her bindings will no-longer work.
I wonder if guiding her towards a more bladey-type of ski will help her in the future?
Many thanks, SnowBrains xx
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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My daughter is a little older (14 nearly 15) and a little taller but I don't think she was much bigger than that at that age. Even now she's pretty slight. She's always skied on full sized skis, I remember at about your daughter's age we hired her some freestyle skis for a couple of days and they seemed huge (155cm x 90mm). Because she has good technique though she had no problem skiing them (she'd probably skied nearly 10 weeks by then). How long has your daughter skied and does she have regular lessons?
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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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My daughter is doing snowlimits lessons at Cairngorm right now (so she's had one lesson so far but has skied with me on a number of days last year and the year before.) She has mild learning issues - mainly just development delay. As I am a skier and her younger brother is a keen skier, she will end up regularly on the mountain.
I want her to have equipment that will help her as her issues will be with her (to her frustration!) for quite a while. Snowblades, I feel, may be the way to go?
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| Sofia wrote: |
| I wonder if guiding her towards a more bladey-type of ski will help her in the future? |
If anything I would have thought it would lead to the opposite. Short term gains = long term loss. Depending on how close she is to just wanting to never ski again, I'd keep her on skis so she can work on building up her technique and strength. Blades ruin your technique unless being used for specific exercises. Also don't forget, blades are massively gay 
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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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| el nombre wrote: |
| Short term gains = long term loss. |
I agree with that. If your daughter is struggling a bit I'd say that dropping down a ski size might help, but don't drop down to 1m or less skis. Then plan on getting her regular size skis as she makes progress.
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Sofia, No, I wouldn't recommend Very Wedze skis (and unlike many of the people who will dismiss the idea, I have skied on both the Wedze skis and snow blades....). Very Wedze skis are actually quite heavy - they are recommended by Decathlon for advanced/expert skiers. The smaller version - just called Wedze - are recommended for beginners/intermediate skiers.
They would be better, but still heavy. I have a 15 stone friend who skis on Wedzes, at high speed. They are nothing like snowblades - they're much more like skis. On the Very Wedze version it's possible to do some fairly respectable bits of off piste (because of the width).
Just forget the statements like "snowblades are massively gay".  I understand where you are coming from - you want to make the skiing easier for her.
I think that proper snowblades (NOT Very Wedzes) might be worth a go, to see if she has fun and enjoys them. But she must have snowblades with proper step in bindings - especially as she is so small. But overall I would think she'd be best on something like the Head "Big Easy" skis. Blades are not that forgiving - and unless they are skied quite well they chatter in a very disconcerting manner (they are designed to carve, and if you ski them flat they're horrific). You wouldn't ever snowplough on blades, I think. I find blades much harder on the legs than skis - I could ski for far longer on proper skis (mine are 163) than on blades.
This link is to an epicski discussion on Big Easy skis http://www.epicski.com/forum/thread/79400/head-big-easy-seriously
I have no idea where you'd get a pair - they are rental skis here, and very nervous beginnerish friends have hired them very happily. Don't know if they'd go small enough for your daughter.
Otherwise I would think one of the "entry level" skis made for women would do OK - some of them are made extra light (I had a pair of very nice Volkl skis like that, some years ago).
Most ski shops could probably find someone to give you some good advice - my own feeling, from what you say, is that she oughtn't to have skis higher than chin level.
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Ok, thanks guys! Will stay away from the Very Wedze. That's great advice about blades as she is still at snowplow stage - I think maybe I'll just try and keep with the 130s she's got then and go to the Dalfaber ski sale at the end of the season and spend some extra money on her. She deserves it as she's a wee trooper.
I do know people who use blades and often they have specific reasons to do so (ie, they're skiing with small kids and like to keep their speed down and their hands free). They can look a bit weird of a big hulking guy though!
If anyone else has a child with physical issues, it would be good to know what they've chosen as solutions - I want my daughter to feel included in this sport (even though she is borderline in her assessment of it.) She is the sort of person who, wants she does not like something, she will never ever change her opinion!
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FAQ
There may be some people who will come here and tell you that you can snowplough perfectly well on blades - it's a few years since I used them (we ditched ours because of having the non-release bindings on them 
) and more up to date, higher performance, blades might be quite different. But generally, bladers do hockey stops (though at any kind of speed it's far easier to do a hockey stop on proper skis).