Ski for petite intermediate

[AngryAnalyst]

I was asked to consult on the purchase of a ski for a short and light woman who is a lower level intermediate (looks comfortable on easier blues and all greens when I've skied with her). Neither I nor my wife know much about what to suggest given we are both larger people and more advanced skiers.

Any ideas? My initial inclination was a Head Absolute Joy, but the foam core construction made me think it wasn't likely to be useful for more than a year. I also think that a more heavily rockered design might be an advantage.

Location is mostly Southern VT with a dash of west coast sprinkled in.

Length wise I think the ski needs to come in a size around 150 to be a viable option. That may be on the short side of reasonable for her height (just asked her, will edit when I know) so perhaps the foam core is fine because she'll want something longer when she's better anyway? Not sure.

 

[Plai]

@AngryAnalyst your search sounds a lot like this thread. Hopefully this will give you some ideas.
Our result was to go with the Head Absolut Joy in 148cm. So far so good for us.

HTH

 

[Wilhelmson]

In VT busy groomers = icy groomers, so she wouldn't want anything too floppy for hard snow.

 

[AngryAnalyst]

@AngryAnalyst your search sounds a lot like this thread. Hopefully this will give you some ideas.
Our result was to go with the Head Absolut Joy in 148cm. So far so good for us.

HTH

Thanks! I swear I tried search, somehow that did not show up.

 

[Tricia]

Thanks! I swear I tried search, somehow that did not show up.

We like users to use the search engine, but we also know that its not always successful, so we are not search nazis.
That being said, you're on the right track with the Abosolute Joy,
Let me add a few more to consider:
Dynastar Legend 84
K2 Endless Luv (2019)
or Luv Struck (2018)
Elan Delight
Fischer KOA
These are just a few that come to me at the moment. I'm sure I'll think of more.
Meanwhile, @AmyPJ may have some good suggestions as well.

 

[AmyPJ]

Rossi Temptation 84, 2018/19 OR the prior year's version. Either would work well.

 

[Pequenita]

When gauging ski length, I recommend using her face/head as a reference, unless you already have and have concluded that 150 is appropriate. My experience as a short, light person is that people who are bigger than me are always wrong about my height and think I am taller than I am, by as much as 4 inches (10cm).

 

[AngryAnalyst]

The 150 thing is from skiing with her when she got a seemingly slightly longer than her typical rental length. That rental got returned pretty quickly and she was uncomfortable on it but it was towards the beginning of the season.

I asked how tall she is for the exact reason you note (I can’t tell how tall anyone much more than 6 inches shorter than me is with any precision). Turns out she’s 160 cm (5 ft 3) so I would tend to think that assuming she wants to keep it around 150 the ski will be short enough I’m not that worried about her ability to grow into it. Am I wrong about that?

I know anything 10 cm shorter than I am would feel tiny (unless it was race stock or something), but maybe it’s not proportional? I’m not saying this to suggest she go longer than is comfortable by the way, it’s more that I wonder whether the length is so inherently limiting it removes the advantage of an “upper intermediate” friendly ski.

For whatever it’s worth I think current plan from this thread is to go with her to the local shop I like to see if they can help on sizing and zeroing in on which of the Absolute Joy/Rossi Temptation/other mentioned models might be the closest match because they all seem like they’d fit the purpose to me.

 

[Pequenita]

150 sounds reasonable for her.

For skis that don't have too much of an early rise, a starting point guessimate of lengths that work are ~chin height for beginners, somewhere on the face for intermediates, and forehead and higher for advanced. There's a bit of preference involved, too.

I could probably ski a 10cm shorter version of my current ski and it'd probably be beneficial, but I'm too stubborn to try.

 

[Jilly]

The Temptations are rockered tip and tail. So go a little longer. I think the Dynastars are too.

 

[Tricia]

The Temptations are rockered tip and tail. So go a little longer. I think the Dynastars are too.

I would go longer with the Dynastars, but not the Temptations, mostly because they are not "that" rocketed.
If you go with the new Experience W, (replaced the Temptation) then I'd consider going a little longer.

 

[Wendy]

150 sounds reasonable for her.

For skis that don't have too much of an early rise, a starting point guessimate of lengths that work are ~chin height for beginners, somewhere on the face for intermediates, and forehead and higher for advanced. There's a bit of preference involved, too.

I could probably ski a 10cm shorter version of my current ski and it'd probably be beneficial, but I'm too stubborn to try.