Adahi

I'm 45 yo male, 6'2, 245, using rental 160 K2 skis, beginning (green slopes) trying to progress to intermediate (blue slopes). I've had a few lessons. I chose the shorter ski to help me get back into the sport. Yesterday I tried a blue slope and was very discouraged by how difficult it was for me to get down the hill without injuring myself. Is it safe to say that for my size these 160 skis are never going to work? The problem I was having was I couldn't maintain a comfortable speed and I had to stop after each S turn. I was using a lot of leg strength by doing skiding/sliding turns. I'm trying to figure out if a longer ski would help or possibly add more difficulty (harder to manuever and increase my speed) or should I just focus on technique and get more lessons? Its getting near the end of the season so I'll probably only go a few more times.

jforrest

Well it looks like you really just need to work on carving and consistantly scrubbing off speed the whole way down the hill. Keep in mind as you are carving if the back end of your skis slides out you will lose speed, keep doing this through all your turns and your speed stay the same if you want it to. If your having problems with your leg muscles then in the off season you should do lots of bike riding and other excercizes that work on your thies. Stay with it and keep working on it. If it was easy everyone could do it.

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SteveM

Well, I think 160s are a bit short for someone 6'2", 245, first. I'm 6'5", 225 and my skis are 195s. I don't recommend that you jump to 195s (I've been skiing a long time) but don't think 160s will give you enough ski. Try 170 - 180.

But I think this is more a matter of learning to be comfortable with speed and developing technique. You are probably feeling that burn on the tops of your thighs. That's a build up of lactic acid in your muscles, and it basically comes from muscle tension. The muscles in your leg are tensed up and expending energy far in excess of what you need to control your speed.

Once you become comfortable with your ability to stop in a short distance from any speed (and you will), you will find that you are more relaxed and you will feel a lot less of that burn, or none at all.

A couple of things to think about.

If you are mostly skiing on packed, groomed runs, longer skis will help a lot - then keep the weight on the front end (tips) of the skis. This is a little counter intuitive (you basically are leaning forward while going down a hill) but you will find that you have much better control.

If you are in wet, heavy, ungroomed snow or powder, you will want to keep your weight more balanced, front to back, or even put your weight more on the back end (tails) of the skis.

Adahi

Thanks for the good responses. Next season I plan to try the 170s, lose some weight and do some leg work before the season starts. The lessons taught me to keep my weight forward but it is hard getting used to. Can't wait until next year.

Snowolf

Yep, a little longer ski will help. As mentioned, use a more skidded turn to be constantly scrubbing speed as you go down the run. Another thing to think about is working the top of your turns more. We loose speed both from skidding and also from traversing. Many people do not "complete their turns" and go into the next turn before they cross the fall line. This is a missed opportunity to slow down. By allow the skis to cross the fall line, you have a chance to really get a good turn established at the top of the new turn.