Hacker News Reader

Comment by hintymad | Hacker News Reader

Does ski matter to beginners? Say, for a Ski beginner who can cruise light blue runs with ugly movement when carving? Should I just pick a pair in a certain price range, or pay close attention to all kinds of parameters.

View on HN

Skis matter, I'd say the best thing you can do is ask for advice at a good shop while being realistic about your skill level, how much you can ski, and how much you might improve. Try not to be too proud and say you are just going to ski powder, be realistic about the conditions you are likely to ski in. There are some decent sites to ask as well. You likely can find a used pair of good skis instead of buying new if you prefer.

Also don't forget about boots. They can be hard to fit and find a good pair but the effort is worth it. You might not care immediately and skis are more exciting to buy, but your boots are how you use the skis and bad boots can make it hard to get better.

It seems like after a decent period of experimentation many skis currently are just good, especially in the intermediate range. I don't know much about beginner skis but depending on what you learn on the next step up from rental skis will feel like a significant improvement.

After that, there is a lot of feel and style that determines the skis you might use. I have probably 10-15 pairs because I hold on to my worn out, broken skis instead of throwing them away. I figured out what characteristics I like for where I ski and a couple common conditions. Some people like long, straight skis, some are happy with shorter noodles, part of that is style and part of that is where the skis are used. Some people care a lot about weight.

The biggest thing that matters besides comfy boots is what type of skis (length and width).

I personally use all-mountain skis which are, well, good in most conditions because I typically ski in the Midwest with trips out west. If you frequently hit powder and/or live near a mountain a pair of powder skis may suit you well either alone or as a compliment - don’t over think it too much.

I highly highly highly highly recommend taking lessons next time you get to a real mountain. They are well worth the money. I usually do a tune up lesson to start the season the first time I get out west.

I’m not sure what your budget is and your ski frequency is but if you ski a lot I’d spend the most money you feel comfortable spending and buy a great pair of boots. Rent skis for a while if you need to. Then get a pair of skis. Don’t skimp on boots. Don’t buy cheap boots. Get them fitted at a ski store by a professional. Boots make/break your ski life.

Tl;dr

Buy an expensive pair of boots, it matters. Pay for lessons. They matter. Arcteryx jackets? Not so much.

Speaking of lessons, I envy the kids who can join teams in those ski resorts, and the team coaches are usually regional or national medalists, who know how to drill fundamentals into kids. Adults are not so lucky. I tried many coaches or lessons offered by either ski resorts or by some ski schools. The coaches somehow could not convey exactly how one can go from pizza to parallel ski then to carving and finally to short turns. Yeah, they would give instructions like big toe small toe, lean forward, keeping upper body angular and etc. What they failed to do, though, is pointing out exactly what a series of drills that one can do to make progress.

You can’t verbally describe body motion is not with. The reason you do the drill is to get the motion down. It could take 200 times or 2000 times before you get there it’s very variable. The same way I can’t really tell you how to balance in one leg, but I can offer tips to break down the motion into more practiceable chunks

Highly recommend "Breakthrough on the New Skis" by Lito Tejada-Flores for an explanation that makes sense of what to do on skis. It's not an easy concept to communicate and comprehend, and much more important than any equipment at an intermediate level. More or less any set of all mountain 80-95mm width skis with correctly fitting boots will work until you're skiing off-piste.

https://www.amazon.com/Breakthrough-New-Skis-Goodbye-Interme...

Ski equipment can be very specific. I was just looking at my brother in law's quiver the other day and he probably had 10 skis.

If you don't know/care, you should probably go to the local rental shop and buy a pair from them at the end of the season.

Absolutely. Choose a shorter narrower and well shaped ski it’s the right equipment for beginner speed and conditions. But price point not so much you won’t be able to squeeze the 10-20% performance improvement

Reply on news.ycombinator.com