I saw a guy today with a pair of "Snow blades"... Now I haven't been skiing in MANY years, and well No idea what snow blades are.

Has anyone off here used em, how hard compared to Skiing? I sortta remember how to ski ... Its like riding a bike....

What would you do? Skis or Snow Blades (no I dont snow board, that just aint my thing)

 

Blades are fun. But they're more of a novelty. Unless that's what you only want to do, you'd probably use them once in a while. Most of the time you'd be on skis, especially if there's good powder. Gotta have good balance b/c they're very short. Plus no poles used with blades = less balance.

I'm a skier, so I recommend skis . Actually I used to instruct at Cypress - kinda miss it - and worked at Comor Sports way back when I was at UBC. Never owned skis b/c I product-tested for Comor, so spent my winters on the slopes testing a variety of skis in every kind of snow condition.

Incidentally, equipment has changed considerably. There's now purposeful categories that target varying skier levels and particular snow conditions. Back in the old days skis were either SL or GS and sidecuts varied minimally. If you were a strong skier, you wouldn't be caught on anything less than 200 cm. Nowadays, SL racers are on 163-171 cm skis with massive sidecuts.

If you get skis, what would you be looking at?

 

I have never skiied. I always picture the carnage as I smash head first into something. I would like to try someday though.

 

Ive never tried snow blades but I used to sell them from time to time when I used to work at a sports store.

I didnt think they would still be around now, they seemed to be a dying fade a few years ago.

 

back in the day, I had Rossignol GSx Competition series. 300cm (only gave them to Sally Ann about 5 years ago) I was pro class Extreme, until a sink hole blew out my right leg. I streched all the muscles, tore tendons, ligaments, and shifted my knee cap around twice. It took 3 years to learn to walk again, 10 years to walk without a limp, and another 7 for my Doc to give me the OK to go sking again. my knee cap still pops on occasion, and my hip cramps when I stand too long in one place.

I would probably go back to Rossignol, I always liked their skis.

 

300 cm? Omg, that's 9.8 feet! Really?

From your level of experience, it sounds like you're looking for a high performance recreational (unless you're skiing gates again, then you should get a race ski). Depending on your height, weight, and ski conditions, most manufacturers now offer excellent skis in the h.p.r. aka all-terrain category.

Rossignol's hpr skis nowadays are great in terms of all-around performance. Particularly, their Bandit series are solid on both groomers and powder. Nice sidecut for carving, plus a wider than average ski for powder make this ski very versatile in all types of conditions.

Skis that give more performance when you push them (meaning they will definitely push back, and are practically impossible to overpower), look into Atomic and Volkl as they are proven performers. If you go into a shop and specifically compare the flex between the Rossi's and the Atomics, you'll notice the shovels are about the same, but the tails are very different: Rossi's are softer, whereas Atomics are very stiff. NOTE that one isn't better than the other - the difference in performance is that the Rossi's will provide a more smooth carve like a Caddy (its overall tip-to-tail flex is fairly uniform) and the Atomics and Volkls will give better J-turn precision b/c the tails will snap your weight transfer to the next turn nearly effortlessly, very much like a spring-board effect.

However with a stiffer tail, note three things: 1. you have to be a fairly aggressive skier, 2. or heavier otherwise you won't get the performance out of them. 3. You need to be able to carve on edge throughout the WHOLE turn (not wash out at the end) or else you won't take advantage of the ski's performance. Only about 5% ski this way though, yet I see about 20% that own such hpr skis - too much ski for their given level of performance = money wasted.

As a guideline, I'm only 160 lb, so for me it takes a ton of energy to enjoy the full performance benefit of the Atomics and Volkls in the hpr line (Volkls are slightly softer, though). At the end of a day (if I can make it) I've just gone through a solid work-out. Otherwise I should be looking at something more forgiving e.g. Salomon, K2, Volant, which I can ski all day with less exertion. Usually the better experience for most people is one where they've enjoyed their day, yet are not completely exhausted.

The absolute best way to learn what will work for you is to test-drive a pair at a demo-day (or if you're friends with the tech staff they might set you up with demos out of their high-performance rentals). If possible, try the skis for a whole day or at least a half day - one or two runs won't do anything except get you confused. Also, b/c you're coming from long skis, remember to check the ego and accept that 180s are the new 200s. I know this b/c I didn't bother listening to the reps. I skied soo bad on a pair of 198s, and the reps were just laughing at me. Back in the day, Comor had all their high-performance skis for rent for $25/day, and they would also deduct the rental from your purchase. I think most stores do this, so you might also check this out as well.

Sorry that my opinion just became a full article. I loooove skiing, and in fact I was so addicted that I was on the slopes as much as I was at College! My parents would have killed me, except my dad's a huge snowboarder and still hardcore at 70!

 

Hardcore at 70, that truely is amazing.

I also cant believe it took you 20 years to ski again after your incident, that is a damn long time to heal. Must have been pretty hard too.

I always found rossi`s to be a great ski, with the exception that they were usually a tad more money. But hey you get what you pay for!

 

I haven't been up sking YET. Waiting to see what the weather on the hill is like. Last thing I need is to bugger my leg again. Yesterday vis was nil, to it is low vis...

GT66, yeah 9ft is about right. I liked a fast ski, although I probably wouldn't have done so much damage if I had been using my 200's. Now adays, I like slow and easy, my accident made me alot more cautious, I'm not into the extreme anymore.

I'm 6'1 255lb.

 

9 foot skis, that would ahve been interesting to carve with!!

 

Big skis like them, aint designed for carving. they're designed for straight out speed. The longer the ski, the faster you go (thats old school tho). Now adays with the new materials, you can get a great deal of speed from a shorter ski, plus you can make tighter turns.

when I was a teenager, I entered in the Powder 8 comp at Aspen one year, me and my best friend drove out there, and out of 200 skiers we placed 5th in the pre-race to determine start time. We finished 2nd over all. we were beat by the Local team by 9/100th of a second. They were scared that we were gonna kick their ***. But on that day we were only using 170's and making really tight 8's.... 3 years later is when I blew my leg out.

 

Yeah for sure the longer ya are, the less ya carve, I was just bugging ya Thats pretty good how you guys did in that competition!

 

Powder 8's competitions are awesome to watch. Can't believe you came in 2nd at Aspen - must have felt great to be Canadian that day! What ski team did you train with? You and I probably know a few of the same guys.

6'1" 255 lb - you're a pretty big kid. You'll like the Rossi's, but if you pressure them you probably won't get as much performance as you would from the stiffer Atomics and Volkls. Atomics and Volkls are also more torsionally stiff (especially the Atomics - good technology from racing heritage, but also many of the high-end Volkls will have a metal sheet sandwiched to the core to improve, among other things, torsional stiffness) so at 255 lb, plus added downward g-force during a hard carve they'll stand up and hold their edges much better - they'll really handle like you're on rails.

At 255 lb you may find the Rossi's edges may give when put under heavy pressure (but probably not, unless you REALLY push them), and so hard carves may wash out. Personally I've never liked Dynastar due to their historically mediocre offerings. Lately they've been producing excellent beginner/intermediate skis but their higher performance models seem to be getting better nowadays, and they are similar if not slightly stiffer than the Rossi's. So if you test and like the Rossi's, you might want to test the Dynastars for comparison. Plus they typically are a few dollars cheaper.

K2 still employs triaxial fibreglass braiding to address torsional stiffness, however tip-to-tail it's a fairly soft-flexing ski, softer than the Rossi's. Depending on how you ski, it may have slightly better edging performance than the Rossi's, but b/c they're softer-flexing you may overpower them if you push them (skied at strong advanced-expert).

Ditto for Salomon's, but they're even softer than the K2s- probably one of the softest-flexing of all brands - and if you ski as strongly as you did back then, the edges will definitely fold like wet spaghetti. Try not to buy into the Salomon X-Scream marketing hype. In reality it's a very good intermediate ski cleverly marketed as an advanced-expert ski. Intermediate skiers feel great b/c they perceive they're skiing just as well on an advanced-expert ski. Advanced skiers feel great b/c the skis feel effortless, and furthermore they will probably never know its shortcomings b/c they rarely push the ski's performance envelope into the expert level. The less-than 5% of expert skiers get screwed though, b/c unlike a true advanced-expert ski that will respond when you push it, this ski doesn't and I've routinely made the edges fold under pressure i.e. high-performance carves tend to wash out. But if you spend your day skiing the blues and occasional blacks, it's an outstanding ski.

In summary, as you've been out of the loop for 20 years I would recommend testing something softer like the K2 or Salomon, something in the middle like the Rossi's or Dynastars, and something stiffer like the Atomics or Volkls. From there, you'll find out what your preferences are, and then you can test-compare models within the preferred range to fine-tune your choice. ABOVE ALL, make sure you get yourself a good-fitting (preferrably excellent-fitting) pair of boots and use them for all tests. Spend the extra $100 and get the shell and/or footbed custom-fitted. You'll be so happy, both comfort and performance-wise. Boots are a whole other discussion.

Incidentally I don't have a preference for any particular ski, and I try to be as unbiased as possible. In fact when I was testing all I wanted to know was the manufacturer, and I rarely bothered/cared to know the model of the ski (e.g. X-screams, Bandits) due to the heavy marketing that might affect my ability to be objective. Therefore please note that the manufacturers I've identified are simply meant as arbitrary starting points to begin your search. Once you have tested a few I'll gladly recommend other comparable skis, or I can comment on any choices you may want to discuss.

Yet again, I apologize for the lengthy post - this should belong in a skiing forum or something - but I hope it gives you a start. I totally wanna go skiing now.

 

You guy's will have to check out the new ski hill here in Revelstoke.Only thirtytwo people have required search and rescue,and one death since opening day in December.I havn't been up there yet,but everyone say's it's really good.

 

66GT, I weigh 255 now, back then I was skinny as a rail, maybe 130lbs covered in Snow... I liked Rossis only cause I was given my first pair from Rossignal for a promo deal. I dont own anything right now, I think for now I'll stick with rentals. I aint gonna bother with the Snow Blades, I've head too many bad things about them.

I grew up skiing Mt. Washington, I didn't really train with anyone, I mostly solo'd til I moved to Vancouver in 1985.

But I spent a few years hanging out with Ben Griffin, Karl Johnson, Marty Harris, Kelsey Serwa, Sandy MacDonald, and most of the Vancouver Ski Team from the 80's & 90's.

Mike and I were scared sh**less when we found out that we had placed in the top 5 for the run. When we finished our run, We at the time were first, when Adams & McDonaldson did their run, at the first half we were still first, they gained on us on the bottom end, and crossed the finish line, it wasn't for about 5 mins while the judges were doing what ever to find out who actually won. They were "glaring at us" we were drinking "Canadian" and smiling at them. Mike & I really didnt care too much, it wasn't that big of a deal. we were the outsiders, and everyone for the week prior made sure we knew it. When they found out that they had beat us, their mood changed, Mike and I just did the typical Canuck thing, and tossed them a couple beer ... Stuff happens, we didn't win, but we proved that We weren't just your typical Skiers. We shrugged it all off, and just told people, we do 2 things in Canada, we ski & we play hockey.

Today, I got to "ski" down the free style venue at Cypress on my ***. we had to shovel it out (again), looking for the electrical wires the "sparkies" lost under 300 million pounds of snow. Anyways, getting down was either fall, or slide. I like sliding I hope I get to go back up there tomorrow

 

Hey sedly thats quite the track record for the new ski hill there.