Skinny bump skis....worth it????

[bvibert]

Originally Posted by wa-loaf

Head Mogul skis for $149. Only 171s, but I figure some of you might be interested:

http://www.levelninesports.com/advan...eywords=317064

That's where I got mine (181) from. They were only $99 over the summer though, so the price may go down again. I think it was up a little higher than $149 during the peak of the winter.

[jack97]

Originally Posted by bvibert

That's where I got mine (181) from. They were only $99 over the summer though, so the price may go down again. I think it was up a little higher than $149 during the peak of the winter.

Yup, peaked at $169, it might go down again in mid summer. Sounds tempting at 99 but I spent my cash on boots and helmet....stuff long overdue and now is the time to get them. Anyhow, kind of interested in feeling out my other skis with the new boots.

[JimG.]

Originally Posted by ed-drum

Fat shovel carving skis stink in the bumps. The tip digs into the snow like a spoon. You have to keep your feet together in the bumps and swivel your skis. You have to learn how to do this technique on flat groomers before trying it in the bumps. Watch the experts on tv. Pay attention to what skis they use. It's not the ski anyway, it's the skier. What do I know, I still stink in moguls. Ed.

Alot of rotary. And you're right about the learning process. And about it not being the ski but the skier.

Which kind of contradicts what you said about carving skis. Which is kind of correct nonetheless.

Anyway, I think sometimes people talk about their equipment too much when it's just a matter of getting out there and turning whatever you have on your feet. Skis today are SO much more technically superior to what we had 15 years ago that I have to laugh when hairs get split.

[ed-drum]

It's not the ski, it's the skier. I have a friend who is a world champ who had a pair of K2s with large sections of the edges missing. He went through icy bumps like he was on train tracks. Yes, skis do help but a lot of people whine too much about their gear. You have to practice on the groomers first doing tight turns with knees and feet together. Experts lose points in mogul contests if their feet come apart. Besides, the National Ski Patrol website has an article on how to avoid knee injury, and one of the tips is to keep your feet together. I just don't understand this "new" concept of keeping feet a foot or so apart with shape skis. Then again, I have a lot of instructor friends who are great athletes and they call instructors that tell their student "nice wide stance now".......... destructors. SORRY! Ed.

[Greg]

Originally Posted by ed-drum

It's not the ski, it's the skier. I have a friend who is a world champ who had a pair of K2s with large sections of the edges missing. He went through icy bumps like he was on train tracks. Yes, skis do help but a lot of people whine too much about their gear. You have to practice on the groomers first doing tight turns with knees and feet together. Experts lose points in mogul contests if their feet come apart. Besides, the National Ski Patrol website has an article on how to avoid knee injury, and one of the tips is to keep your feet together. I just don't understand this "new" concept of keeping feet a foot or so apart with shape skis. Then again, I have a lot of instructor friends who are great athletes and they call instructors that tell their student "nice wide stance now".......... destructors. SORRY! Ed.

I do agree to an extent. You're not going to realize the benefit of a bump ski until you reach a certain level. I also agree on the narrower stance thing. That was one of the biggest limiting things in the bumps for me last season and I worked on it a lot. When I started with the Cabrawlers this year, I was able to lock that stance much easier and hold it through the run. I've been able to take that technique back over to the mid-fats too. So, while I do agree it is more the operator than the equipment, I do believe the right equipment can facilitate learning certain techniques quicker and easier.

[wa-loaf]

Originally Posted by ed-drum

It's not the ski, it's the skier. I have a friend who is a world champ who had a pair of K2s with large sections of the edges missing. He went through icy bumps like he was on train tracks. Yes, skis do help but a lot of people whine too much about their gear. You have to practice on the groomers first doing tight turns with knees and feet together. Experts lose points in mogul contests if their feet come apart. Besides, the National Ski Patrol website has an article on how to avoid knee injury, and one of the tips is to keep your feet together. I just don't understand this "new" concept of keeping feet a foot or so apart with shape skis. Then again, I have a lot of instructor friends who are great athletes and they call instructors that tell their student "nice wide stance now".......... destructors. SORRY! Ed.

You can't effectively carve a turn with your feet and knees locked together. I'm sure your Russian Ski Team buddy can tell you that. At tight stance is great for bumps, powder and trees; basically anything that requires a short radius turn. If you want to go out and rail groomers or run GS gates you need a wider stance. A well rounded skier can do it all and one size/stance does not fit all.

[ed-drum]

I thought we we talking about bumps and the skis that go with them. Of course you open up your stance when carving a turn. I don't keep my feet together all of the time. If I'm skiing powder and do a narrow stance, I would sink like an anchor. The trick to skiing bumps is to keep your back straight and bend the knees and ankles like a spring. I also ski on the tails of my skis SOMETIMES. There are no set rules. The only skiing rule is, DON' T FALL DOWN! Ed.

[wa-loaf]

Originally Posted by ed-drum

I thought we we talking about bumps and the skis that go with them. Of course you open up your stance when carving a turn. I don't keep my feet together all of the time. If I'm skiing powder and do a narrow stance, I would sink like an anchor. The trick to skiing bumps is to keep your back straight and bend the knees and ankles like a spring. I also ski on the tails of my skis SOMETIMES. There are no set rules. The only skiing rule is, DON' T FALL DOWN! Ed.

Sorry, you started talking about carving skis, so I thought you were making a general reference to skiing. Not just bumps.

[MR. evil]

I am by no means an expert in this subject as I just started to ski bumps this season. I still have a long way to go before I would even consider myself an average bump skier.

Up until this season I was skiing on a pair of first generation shaped skis. They had a side cut, but were not nearly as wide as today’s typical all mountain skis. With my old skis I generally skied most conditions with a really tight stance, (feet touching) and my tips were about ½” apart. At the beginning of the season I purchased a new pair of DynaStar’s. Off hand I cannot remember what the dimensions of the ski are, but they were about the same width on average as most of the other all mountain skis in the shop. But due to the width I have had to adjust my stance. I can no longer ski with my feet touching or my tips over lap by more than an inch. It was actually a big adjustment for me to change my stance.

A couple of weeks ago I picked up a pair of bump skis. Being much narrower than my all mountain skis I can once again ski with a tight stance, feet touching. I have only used them a couple of times so far, but for me they are much easier to use in the bumps simply because of the tighter stance. The funny thing is that my skinny bump skis are almost the same width as my old shaped skis. If my old shaped skis were not so heavy I would have considered using them as my bump skis.

This begs me to ask, do they make bumps skis simply because all mountain skis have gotten to fat? Did they even make bumps skis 10 years ago?

[ed-drum]

As far back as I can remember, they started making bumpers in the 1970's. They were softer than race or recreational skis. I don't like skis TOO wide in the shovel, they are (to me) carvers. The point I'm trying to make is that when I was younger, we had skis that were soft medium and hard. Now there is everything under the sun. When I was getting my boots fitted this month, I asked the ski tech when are the skis going to stop getting getting fatter in the shovel and he said that ski companies wouldn't have anything to sell if they didn't stop changing them every year. Remember "soft" boots? What happened to them? People should just "do it" rather than think about their equipment, style, clothes, etc.. It's like driving a car. If you stop analyzing everything so much, it becomes fluid. Our music teachers used to tell us, "get your heads out of those charts!" Ed.