215cm DH Skis???

A friend of mine is still riding his old (probably early 90s) K2 DH Racing skis. He wants to upgrade to newer tech, he justs doesn't know what to look for. I feel my knowledge of equipment is decent, but this one stumps me as anything current will be totally different for him.

He is in mid 30s, 5-10ish, probably 160# and likes long smooth arcing turns on the groomers (any steepness). His form is 80s skis-together long radius, but very smooth and good at it.

Any ideas???

well, I would say to stick with race stock. He would want a stiffer ski. Maybe a solid GS ski? thats what I use for groomers (Volk P40) and love it. But I am in the same boat you are as far as knowledge wise.

Tell him to do what I did.I screwed my 225 Atomic DH to the garage ceiling along with the rest of my old skis.I mostly ski high speed longish turns and the new skis do that just fine,actually in turny trails much faster.It's hard to make the mental switch from long skis,especially since he's doing it all at once.At least my progression was from 210's to 198's to 182's to....

If he wants newer DH boards, keep an eye out in the vicinity of ski academies. With FIS changing the minimum length and sidecut regs several times over the past several years (and probably again next year), it shouldn't be too hard to find some retired race skis.

Otherwise, I'd start by looking at real GS boards, which are probably the closest to an early-90s DH board you'll find on shop shelves.

Do a little google search for ski shops that cary race stock skis, or maybe just look through the mfg.'s websites. i know that Rossignol atleast used to tout a list of a few shops (generally near mtn's with ski academies that sold their race stock skis. That might be a place to look for DH boards. Also check through the links pages over at www.skiracing.com, that might turn up a lead or 2

Rushski said:

A friend of mine is still riding his old (probably early 90s) K2 DH Racing skis. ... He ... likes long smooth arcing turns on the groomers (any steepness)

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I gotta know -- when you say "long arcing turns" how big a turn are we talking here? I can't imagine the turn radius a DH skis must want to make.
SkiDepot has a huge selection of race skis, far bigger then any normal retail shop will have. You might want to give them a call and see what they have to say.