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What's your skiing level?

What's your Skiing Level?

  • 1 - What a ski?

    Votes: 1 1.4%
  • 2 - Beginner I

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 3 - Beginner II

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 4 - Beginner III

    Votes: 2 2.7%
  • 5 - Intermediate I

    Votes: 3 4.1%
  • 6 - Intermediate II

    Votes: 8 10.8%
  • 7 - Advanced

    Votes: 41 55.4%
  • 8 - Expert

    Votes: 11 14.9%
  • 9 - Over the top

    Votes: 8 10.8%

  • Total voters
    74

skibob

Skiing the powder
Skier
Joined
Jan 5, 2016
Posts
4,268
Location
Santa Rosa Fire Belt
Why is 7 average on a 9 scale? Wouldn't most skiers have to be 7 and above?
Its an ordinal scale. This means that the size of or interval between numbers is indeterminate. Think of it this way, on any given afternoon (not morning) there are almost no Level 1 skiers on the mountain. Many first time skiers are even level 3 or 4 within hours or days. But going from 4 to 6 takes most some time. From 6 to 7 is a lot of work. And 8 and 9 exponentially more. And I still contend that this scale doesn't cover all skiers, just all Ski School canddiates.

The rest of it is just because, well, we are not at all a vertical cross section here.
 
Thread Starter
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Mendieta

Mendieta

Master of Snowplow
SkiTalk Tester
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Posts
4,903
Location
SF Bay Area, CA, USA
Just to add to the fun: There are a large number of skiers on here that would be considered experts by the general population. Studies have shown that experts tend to rank themselves lower but for people who like math like me let's do some. I saw talk of 1%ers which includes a lot more people then most realize, math with big numbers is funny.

Last year SIA reported aprox 9.4 million ski participants in the US (maybe NA not sure) that means that 1% is 94K skiers. The Noram cup had about 180 participants, assuming they are all the best skiers in the US, probabyl not a true assumption, that would make them the top .0001%. Do I think that a good number of skiers on this forum are in the top 94,000 in the US you bet.

I think you completely hit the nail on the head, @lonewolf210 . We are producing conditional statistics here. What kind of a freak spends time on a skiing website? Well, thank you for asking. A ski freak. So, among this crowd, being a level 7 or 8 is standard. But most of our forum members have a keen interest in skiing. Very many are instructors, for Pete's sake. And very many ski 50+ days a season, while many find way to ski year around. So, among that population, it's actually surprising that the average isn't higher.

An unconditional poll (where ski participants are polled at random, no matter whether they ski 100 days a season or just on a long weekend, once a year), would be tremendously biased towards the front.
 

crgildart

Gravity Slave
Skier
Joined
Nov 12, 2015
Posts
16,324
Location
The Bull City
I said it earlier in the thread but it didn't resonate.. "one louder". Let me say my level one more time...


ONE LOUDER!!!!!!!!!!!
 

Josh Matta

Skiing the powder
Pass Pulled
Joined
Dec 21, 2015
Posts
4,123
I think you completely hit the nail on the head, @lonewolf210 . We are producing conditional statistics here. What kind of a freak spends time on a skiing website? Well, thank you for asking. A ski freak. So, among this crowd, being a level 7 or 8 is standard. But most of our forum members have a keen interest in skiing. Very many are instructors, for Pete's sake. And very many ski 50+ days a season, while many find way to ski year around. So, among that population, it's actually surprising that the average isn't higher.

An unconditional poll (where ski participants are polled at random, no matter whether they ski 100 days a season or just on a long weekend, once a year), would be tremendously biased towards the front.

the average skier is not a L7 or L8, they are a L4 or L5.
 

Monique

bounceswoosh
Skier
Joined
Nov 12, 2015
Posts
10,561
Location
Colorado
Are you kidding? Aristotle loved circle jerk, pedantic, never-ending discussions :)
 

nay

dirt heel pusher
Skier
Joined
Dec 1, 2015
Posts
6,476
Location
Colorado
Are you kidding? Aristotle loved circle jerk, pedantic, never-ending discussions :)

I am kidding. Except for averaging to the end of a bell curve. That's not kidding.

Aristotle liked bells, but not curves. So he didn't know what Pugski knows.
 

DanoT

RVer-Skier
Skier
SkiTalk Supporter
Joined
Nov 12, 2015
Posts
4,788
Location
Sun Peaks B.C. in winter, Victoria B.C. in summer
I guess we are not the only dreamers around.

A Nation of Dreamers

I can sum up the writer's article in one sentence: Most people buy skis that are best suited for the conditions that they most like to ski when they should be buying a ski for conditions that they most often ski.
 

Don in Morrison

I Ski Better on Retro Day
Skier
Joined
Nov 13, 2015
Posts
1,418
Location
Morrison, Colorado
Of the first six pairs of skis I bought way back in the day, if I had it to do over again, I would have bought only one of them, and it would have been 10 cm shorter than the one I did buy. The other five would have been probably just three, and totally different than what I actually got.
 

Monique

bounceswoosh
Skier
Joined
Nov 12, 2015
Posts
10,561
Location
Colorado
I can sum up the writer's article in one sentence: Most people buy skis that are best suited for the conditions that they most like to ski when they should be buying a ski for conditions that they most often ski.

"Should" is such a silly word. People "should" do what makes them happy.

I actually had someone give me the opposite advice: "Why optimize for the snow you don't like rather than for the snow you love? Nothing's going to make the snow you don't like amazing." Now ... I know ... no bad snow, only bad skiers, etc. But it stuck with me. Also, the snow I like is a pretty regular occurrence for me.
 

DanoT

RVer-Skier
Skier
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Joined
Nov 12, 2015
Posts
4,788
Location
Sun Peaks B.C. in winter, Victoria B.C. in summer
"Should" is such a silly word. People "should" do what makes them happy.

I actually had someone give me the opposite advice: "Why optimize for the snow you don't like rather than for the snow you love? Nothing's going to make the snow you don't like amazing." Now ... I know ... no bad snow, only bad skiers, etc. But it stuck with me. Also, the snow I like is a pretty regular occurrence for me.

Then I guess that you have rarely been in a lift line and observed a teenager or 20 something who obviously can only afford 1 pair of skis and he/she is riding some super wider banana shaped ski...and it hasn't snowed in a week or more.
 

Monique

bounceswoosh
Skier
Joined
Nov 12, 2015
Posts
10,561
Location
Colorado
Then I guess that you have rarely been in a lift line and observed a teenager or 20 something who obviously can only afford 1 pair of skis and he/she is riding some super wider banana shaped ski...and it hasn't snowed in a week or more.

Did the teen look miserable?
 
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Mendieta

Mendieta

Master of Snowplow
SkiTalk Tester
Contributor
Joined
Aug 17, 2016
Posts
4,903
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SF Bay Area, CA, USA
If he didn't he was clearly ignorant of all the fun he could have been having if he only had the right skis! And that makes us all sad.

Yeah, well, isn't that the purpose, and the reason for the proliferation, of all mountain skis?
 

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