Skiers who own and use more than one pair of skis usually refer to their multiple skis as a quiver. Even skiers who only own one pair of skis sometimes use the phrase "one ski quiver." The term quiver originally referred to the case which held an archer's arrows. Metonymy, the close association of one thing with another, took hold and the group of arrows in the case became thought of as a quiver. Thus quiver as a metaphor for a collection of skis.
However, an archer needed all of his arrows to behave, or function, as closely as possible in the same way. It wouldn't do for an arrow to exhibit idiosyncrasies during either the mayhem of battle or the urgency of hunting.
But a skier purposely chooses skis which have a variety of performance characteristics. Much like a golfer wants his/her set of clubs to cover a wide range of needs, so does the skier who owns more than a single pair of skis. So, for this poor mind, the term quiver referring to a collection of skis is a little dissonant. The metaphor lacks depth.
Can anyone come up with a better word? Set is too mundane for us skiers, isn't it? Collection is too generic, isn't it? How about fleet? Yes, a tactical group of, not ships in our case, but skis. Fleet comes from an old English word meaning to float. We do want our skis to float don't we? And the adjectival and verbal meanings denoting swiftness applies to our skis as well.
However, an archer needed all of his arrows to behave, or function, as closely as possible in the same way. It wouldn't do for an arrow to exhibit idiosyncrasies during either the mayhem of battle or the urgency of hunting.
But a skier purposely chooses skis which have a variety of performance characteristics. Much like a golfer wants his/her set of clubs to cover a wide range of needs, so does the skier who owns more than a single pair of skis. So, for this poor mind, the term quiver referring to a collection of skis is a little dissonant. The metaphor lacks depth.
Can anyone come up with a better word? Set is too mundane for us skiers, isn't it? Collection is too generic, isn't it? How about fleet? Yes, a tactical group of, not ships in our case, but skis. Fleet comes from an old English word meaning to float. We do want our skis to float don't we? And the adjectival and verbal meanings denoting swiftness applies to our skis as well.