SIGforum.com    Main Page  Hop To Forum Categories  The Lounge    Question About Skis
Go
New
Find
Notify
Tools
Reply
  
Question About Skis Login/Join 
Get my pies
outta the oven!

Picture of PASig
posted
I used to love skiing when I was younger but just have not gone in a very long time, in fact so long ago that it was before helmets became a thing.

I'm seeing posts on FB and other places from friends out skiing and it looks like the skis themselves have changed quite a bit?

I recall my skis being pretty long, and narrower than what I'm seeing now. They all look significantly shorter and quite wider now with different shaped tips?

When did this change and why? I'm just curious, it's probably been 20 years now since I've put on skis.


 
Posts: 33608 | Location: Pennsylvania | Registered: November 12, 2007Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
posted Hide Post
In general short and wide would be better for moguls, fast turning, and tricks. Longer for speed.




“People have to really suffer before they can risk doing what they love.” –Chuck Palahnuik

Be harder to kill: https://preparefit.ck.page
 
Posts: 5043 | Location: Oregon | Registered: October 02, 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
posted Hide Post
Funny, as a former very active skier (from New England) I was thinking about this the other day.

Back when I skied I had 195cm slalom skis and 204 GS skis and that was the norm but compared to the old skis from my parents era they we tiny. I think my dad mentioned once that in his day the measured by your height and an arms length over your head.

I have not skied in years but from what I am told the newer designs have made skiing easier and more fun which would have been welcomed a time or two in my youth as I distinctly recall my K2 KVC Comps being a ski that, if you backed of and relaxed, would fuck your day up in short order
 
Posts: 3987 | Location: Peoria, AZ | Registered: November 07, 2002Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
Picture of rtquig
posted Hide Post
The last time I bought new skis was around 10 years ago. I think helmets are a must. I saw my father in law almost get killed when hit by a snowboarder. Skis are shorter and wider. Real short skis are more for people that like tricks and moguls. When I first began to ski, the rule of thumb was to hold your hand over your head and the ski would reach the height of your wrist. Now IIRC I think my skis are 188's? Easily a foot or more shorter.


Living the Dream
 
Posts: 4011 | Location: New Jersey | Registered: December 06, 2010Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
Picture of slyguy
posted Hide Post
Yes the shape has changed, but also the profile, materials used, and technique for manufacture.

New skis are much more forgiving for less experienced and still allow more experienced skiers to carve at will.

Same types of advances for snowboards.

All of the hardware advances while my abilities diminish. But hot damn is it great to get out.

Cheers~
 
Posts: 904 | Location: Valley Oregon | Registered: May 23, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Edge seeking
Sharp blade!
posted Hide Post
I hear a lot about how easy to turn and forgiving modern "shape" skis are. Binding safety improvements may be the real story.
 
Posts: 7437 | Location: Over the hills and far away | Registered: January 20, 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Ammoholic
posted Hide Post
Yeah, this is a funny one before we took the kids skiing a year or two ago it had probably been closer to thirty years than twenty. I remember way back the the rental skis were all straight sided and I only saw one or two folks with fancy new expensive skis they had personally bought that were not straight sided and instead were “parabolics”. When we took the kids to Big Bear (in Yosemite) all the rental skis were parabolics. They are much easier to turn, a lot more fun, and a lot easier. Either that or I got way better after getting ~30 years older, more out of shape, and having no practice. Yeah, I don’t think so either. Big Grin
 
Posts: 6872 | Location: Lost, but making time. | Registered: February 23, 2011Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Lost
Picture of kkina
posted Hide Post
They were just starting the new parabolics about the time I quit skiing (fun and competitive). Everyone was always about getting on edge and carving turns, and being an engineer-type I wondered why they didn't just make the edges parabolic? And they did. But now my skiing days are long over.



ACCU-STRUT FOR MINI-14
"First, Eyes."
 
Posts: 16266 | Location: SF Bay Area | Registered: December 11, 2003Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by PASig:
When did this change and why? I'm just curious, it's probably been 20 years now since I've put on skis.

I suspect the changes started more than 20 years ago. The concept of shaped skis came from snowboards. When ski manufacturers realized what their snowboards could do, they began applying the construction concepts to skis.

At first we racers felt that parabolic skis made intermediate skiers out of both beginners and experts. As adults we were racing turny GS courses on 200-205cm skis for guys, and 190-195cm for the petite gals. We thought these were short skis, as most of us guys raced GS with 205-210s in college.

Then....I attended an early season race clinic at Keystone with the Mahre brothers. Yep, as in Steve and Phil. I think I used 205 Atomics at the time. Got on a pair of 170cm all-mountain skis, took a few free runs on a groomer slope, then jumped into a full-on GS course and beat every student's best time. Huh.

I don't know how many generations of shaped skis I've cycled through over the following years. My race skis are now all Fischers -- 180s for regular GS, 183cm for high-speed GS or turny super-G, 150cm for slalom. Furthermore, my skis are now women's World Cup models, because the men's race stock skis were just getting to stiff for me. Getting older sucks. My all-mountain skis are 174cm Atomics and they are pretty wide from tip to tail.

I don't know if you're looking to get back into skiing again, but if so, definitely use new equipment. New skis, new bindings, new boots. And wear a helmet. I've have a few minor concussions -- the first dating back to college, when I fell in a GS course, wearing ski straps, and the ski came off and bonked me in the back of the head.

One concussion blacked out some 5 minutes of my life. Fell forward in a GS training course, caused by a binding pre-release. Took an upper cut to the chin from the hard packed snow. Somehow I eventually got up on my own, collected the yard sale of equipment, and slowly finished the course. I began to recall WTF just occurred as I passed the last gate. My coach had a few concerned words, with ski patrol arriving shortly for a full evaluation. Had a headache for 3 days. Events from that day changed the concussion protocol at Copper Mountain.
 
Posts: 7853 | Location: Colorado | Registered: January 26, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by PASig:
When did this change and why? I'm just curious, it's probably been 20 years now since I've put on skis.

Around the late 80's, into the 90's, carbon fiber and various plastic fiber materials were introduced, along with new compression and lamination technologies allowed for a host innovative designs and shapes. Costs for these materials and methods used to be exclusive to the aerospace industry, by the 90's these costs came down which made commercial availability a reality.

As these new material technologies emerged, snowboarding started to gain in popularity, to the point that ski-areas were 50:50 split amongst skiers and snowboarders. All the skiers were over the age of 35, meanwhile all the snowboarders were under the age of 35. This kicked the ski industry in the pants to get innovating and make the sport 'fun' and accessible, they were at-risk of loosing entire generations of customers. Shaped skis or, parabolics were introduced and the beginner learning curve shrank dramatically while, the infrequent skiers could easily get back on their skis after years away; a handful of runs they could be doing black diamonds. On the advanced side, skis became available with variety of cambers and rockers, thus giving the season pass holder an excuse to buy different skis for a variety of conditions and terrain..backcountry, side country, power, heavy, crusty, big mountain, etc.

The entire 20th Century, skiing was the domain of the mountain lifer, who religiously skied every weekend or, lived in a ski community; broken leg/knee at some point was the official badge of a serious skier. Now, broken bones are rare. Today, technology in construction, safety and variety have allowed skiing to become accessible to a wide variety of skill types and economic backgrounds. Shaped skis have reintroduced older skiers back to the sport, meanwhile, like me who grew up learning to snowboard, have also taken-up skiing. Skis today are usually sold with bindings as a package so no more picking/choosing/hunting for which binding, you can of course still get skis w/o a binding package if you have a favorite. Boot technology continues to evolve, as more brands develop their own custom fit systems. Helmets have become mandatory at certain lift-areas, insurance has mandated as-such, if anything, it's good insurance against the idiots who don't know how to slow-down.
 
Posts: 14573 | Location: Wine Country | Registered: September 20, 2000Reply With QuoteReport This Post
  Powered by Social Strata  
 

SIGforum.com    Main Page  Hop To Forum Categories  The Lounge    Question About Skis

© SIGforum 2024