Just saying......you guys are very typical of the crew that seems to wistfully recall their straight ski race days. I'm not a kid. I skied in my first ski race in 1960, at age six. I have friends who have had the exact same thoughts: "Hell, I skied a 212cm GS ski back in the day. I bet they had a bigger radius than 35M? These are only 195cm. Can't be that different. Why not? "
Sure. One key admission is that nobody "carved" a ski in those days. They stomped on the downhill ski, crushed it, and bent it. And the energy of the ski pushed you through transition to do it again. Sidecut? Radius? Skiing "two footed"? Huh? What was a turn radius? Some of us actually had DH skis that had a reverse side cut for a short while. Widest part of the ski was under the boot. That experiment was short lived, but it shows that in those days radius was not normally being discussed.
So, NO, these will not ski like your old best in class straight GS skis. Or your treasured SL skis, be they 204cm, or 207cm.
Actually it's pretty funny to watch a really great younger racer jump on an old straight ski and try to ski it with some success. The sport has evolved, so much. They have to go "old school" to make them work. And to make the new skis work, you really have to be on top of your current school game. Just being honest.
These might be a lot of fun for you. Maybe. They are absolutely nothing like a straight race ski from the old days, and they really can't be skied that way. If your skiing sort of has a bias that way {still have a lot of weight on the DH ski, a lot of steering, some up and down weighting, a bit of counter rotation, not a ton of upper and lower body separation}, these are NOT going to be a whole lot of fun. Many of my ex race friends are a bit lazy with how they typically initiate a turn and drive the tip. That's not so good on these, at all. Skiing with friends or family? I would say not.
Don't get all fired up because they are available cheap. Just trying to be helpful.
"Faerie Magic".....that's a classic. Great. And stivoting? Guys who ski on the WC spent probably on average 30 days on snow adapting their previously dialed in stivot moves to these skis, then refining it in training most days for four seasons. The preferred way to ski them is to ignore that, an ski turns that are larger than the sets they had to race them in. I recall a friend bitching about his first run at Soelden a few years ago. He told me "well that sucked. I think I actually snapped off two decent turns on the pitch. No, actually one, a right footer." So any fun is in really carving them, in what feel like huge turns, on ideally prepared surfaces, LONG wide runs that are moderately steep, and pretty darn empty. No sliding, not stivots. Working the ski, up on edge, out from under you.
Not sure if you could get 5 turns in at Blue. They need a head of steam to turn, at all.
But sure, if this all sounds good, go for it. You can buy hand build WC stock race skis for a song. Mainly because there is zero market for them. We have a family friend, who does ski on the WC, who gave his GS skis away. His ski company had no interest in them. I kidded him and said he should at least have given a couple pairs to his dad {who is a great skier, skis about 100 days a season, and is about 6'3".....long time race background.} He chuckled and said he would just not do that to his dad. He keeps dad fully supplied with a GS cheater or two every season. Which he rips on in similar conditions.
As
@ScotsSkier has said, there is a big difference between these and even 27M skis the past....even the 191's and 193's. The most recent ones are pretty much longer and beefier skis than the women 30M skis, obvioulsy with the bigger radius.
@razie is spot on that the earlier skis were not good. I would go as far as to say that LIgety's Heads were great.......once they had pressed a couple of hundred different shapes and layups to find the best ones for him. The basic "race stock" Head ski that season was a lot like the others. The skis did keep getting better, year to year.
Just saw
@François Pugh's post ^^^^^^^. Yep.
Just think it through......and be safe.
Over and out on this.