• For more information on how to avoid pop-up ads and still support SkiTalk click HERE.

crgildart

Gravity Slave
Skier
Joined
Nov 12, 2015
Posts
16,329
Location
The Bull City
Best Fat Skis Suck troll I've seen in at least a year.. 6 pages LOL..
 

markojp

mtn rep for the gear on my feet
Industry Insider
Instructor
Joined
Nov 12, 2015
Posts
6,605
Location
PNW aka SEA
Of course this is about professionals taking exams. Many of we laymen skied straight and/or narrow skis for 20 or 30 years so we took our medicine and punishment without even knowing it. Whether a narrow ski without regular instruction is better for mechanics is a separate but associated subject. I would guess that narrow skis with an occasional lesson would be better.

And then of course a 78 mm ski is just about perfect for a 6.3 220 lb man with size 13 boot and
a 5.4.120 lb woman with size size 5 boot I assume.

Not to get too into it, but today's narrow skis are SOOOOOOOOO much better in every regard than what we skied on back in the day. Other than the superficial waist measurement, they're not even comparable.
 

markojp

mtn rep for the gear on my feet
Industry Insider
Instructor
Joined
Nov 12, 2015
Posts
6,605
Location
PNW aka SEA
Best Fat Skis Suck troll I've seen in at least a year.. 6 pages LOL..

Fat skis don't suck. They're just not the best choice for L3 exam success. Lest we forget, this thread is about chosing a ski for the specific task.
 
Last edited:

Tony S

I have a confusion to make ...
Skier
Team Gathermeister
SkiTalk Supporter
Joined
Nov 14, 2015
Posts
12,633
Location
Maine
I’ve never met anyone remotely keen on skiing who wasn’t interested in getting better

I’ve never met anyone remotely keen on skiing who didn't pay lip service to getting better.

Fixed it for you.

Also, as a couple people have pointed out, most know what terrain they can't ski comfortably (let alone with flow and power), but fewer have a useful or accurate vision of what skiing that terrain well actually involves or even looks like. Lacking that, they are also not good at assessing the size of the gap between where they are and where they want to be.
 

markojp

mtn rep for the gear on my feet
Industry Insider
Instructor
Joined
Nov 12, 2015
Posts
6,605
Location
PNW aka SEA
..... Lacking that, they are also not good at assessing the size of the gap between where they are and where they want to be.

"Truth? You can't handle the truth!!!" Says Jack.
 
Thread Starter
TS
geepers

geepers

Skiing the powder
Skier
Joined
May 12, 2018
Posts
4,256
Location
Wanaka, New Zealand
Best Fat Skis Suck troll I've seen in at least a year.. 6 pages LOL..

This thread hasn't really been a fat skis suck troll.

But maybe this is...

Some pretty good soft snow skiing here. At 0:23-0:34, 1:14-1:19, 1:22-1:37, 6:34-7:44, 8:17-8:47. Guess their ski widths!


Wide skis may rule elsewhere.
 

IceChick

Booting up
Skier
Joined
Jun 27, 2019
Posts
17
Location
Colorado/Maine
It only matters if the ski choice is an obvious handicap to the candidate's ability to peform the drill well.. and if they suck on fat skis they'll also suck ion skinny skis and vice versa.
Doesn't mean that kids who grew up on a race team aren't now rocking stuff in the 100s under foot for everyday drivers.. it just means they are probably going to to thinner for an instructor Lx exam... because they know thinner are little better for the hard snow drills.

I've drilled exam skills on my 105s underfoot and my 75mm SL skis. I don't think I'd ever drag my Volkl Auras to an exam, but because of my technical foundation from racing I can still drive them, just gets hard with shorter radius turns, which are what most of the higher level exams focus on anyway. Definitely taught a few lessons on the Auras, and coached a few days on them by mistake. Wouldn't recommend but it's doable with stiff boots and sheer determination (and technique...). I think the exam results are more a reflection of the kind of skills we're asked to demonstrate during the exam process and less a reflection of potential correlation between skier ability and ski width.

Bottom line: if you really know how to ski, you can make it work. Meaning the graph overall could be a better representation of the sheer range of abilities and experience you get in exam settings, rather than a direct correlation between score and underfoot width.
 

Skitechniek

Getting off the lift
Skier
Joined
Jun 10, 2019
Posts
280
Location
Europe
Hi,

I'm from Europe and I'm wondering why Americans like fat ski's so much? I find the difference in skiing culture between America and Europe fascinating.
If I would ski terrain/powder my ski of choice would probably be a 30/35M GS ski. And if you want to become an instructor it is manditory to take the exams on (cheater/masters) GS ski's (at least with the higher level qualifications). In Austria they expect you to be able to ski the whole mountain with only one ski. We (Europeans) perceive fat ski's as ski's for people who are: either not very good at skiing (because it is easy to ski the whole mountain on fat ski's and not so easy to do it on GS ski's), or are backcountry skiers/pro freeriders. What is the take of the American/Canadian skiers on this subject matter? And do you guys also think the difference in culture is why Europe is so dominant in ski racing and why America is so dominant in freestyle/freeride at a world class level?

2ut2t8n.jpg

2cxcas6.jpg


This is me skiing terrain, all on GS 30M, which is not very uncommon here. Look at Andreas Spettel for example on YT.
 
Last edited:

Josh Matta

Skiing the powder
Pass Pulled
Joined
Dec 21, 2015
Posts
4,123
Hi,

I'm from Europe and I'm wondering why Americans like fat ski's so much? I find the difference in skiing culture between America and Europe fascinating.
If I would ski terrain/powder my ski of choice would probably be a 30/35M GS ski. And if you want to become an instructor it is manditory to take the exams on (cheater/masters) GS ski's (at least with the higher level qualifications). In Austria they expect you to be able to ski the whole mountain with only one ski. We (Europeans) perceive fat ski's as ski's for people who are: either not very good at skiing (because it is easy to ski the whole mountain on fat ski's and not so easy to do it on GS ski's), or are backcountry skiers/pro freeriders. What is the take of the American/Canadian skiers on this subject matter? And do you guys also think the difference in culture is why Europe is so dominant in ski racing and why America is so dominant in freestyle/freeride at a world class level?

2ut2t8n.jpg

2cxcas6.jpg


This is me skiing terrain, all on GS 30M, which is not very uncommon here. Look at Andreas Spettel for example on YT.

Open terrain is VERY easy to ski on basically anything in any condition except for breakable crust. How much would it take to get you to come to Vermont and ski some woods on your 30m skis?
 

Skitechniek

Getting off the lift
Skier
Joined
Jun 10, 2019
Posts
280
Location
Europe
Open terrain is VERY easy to ski on basically anything in any condition except for breakable crust. How much would it take to get you to come to Vermont and ski some woods on your 30m skis?

Not sure how this is relevant/helps answering my questions?

No. Not at all. But this is not an unfamiliar topic here. ogwink

Where can I read the conclusions on this subject?
 
Last edited:

Tony S

I have a confusion to make ...
Skier
Team Gathermeister
SkiTalk Supporter
Joined
Nov 14, 2015
Posts
12,633
Location
Maine
I do feel the desire to point out that the posted clips were in ungroomed snow, yes. But it was very shallow ungroomed snow - only a couple cm, give or take. Definitely not the conditions where I would miss being on fatties. Just saying.
 

fatbob

Not responding
Skier
Joined
Nov 12, 2015
Posts
6,288
Hi,

I'm from Europe and I'm wondering why Americans like fat ski's so much? I find the difference in skiing culture between America and Europe fascinating.
If I would ski terrain/powder my ski of choice would probably be a 30/35M GS ski. And if you want to become an instructor it is manditory to take the exams on (cheater/masters) GS ski's (at least with the higher level qualifications). In Austria they expect you to be able to ski the whole mountain with only one ski. We (Europeans) perceive fat ski's as ski's for people who are: either not very good at skiing

Hmm well may be true for ski instructors but there are plenty of Euros who rip on fatter skis e.g. local + college kids around Innsbruck and many visitors in the Arlberg, Chamonix Valley, Verbier etc.

AND Scandis love bigger skis.
 

fatbob

Not responding
Skier
Joined
Nov 12, 2015
Posts
6,288
And to answer the difference in ski racing. Austrian mountain kids can join great clubs in their home towns/villages and pretty much have access to a great coaching culture from birth. In the US it is pretty much a rich kids game ( or a lot of family sacrifice). Which do you think delivers a bigger pipeline of potential top athletes?
 

Sponsor

Staff online

  • Wendy
    Resurrecting the Oxford comma
  • Andy Mink
    Everyone loves spring skiing but not in January
Top