My friend and I are going skiing for the first time ever and we have a question *(no sniggering about skiing in Manitoba, we know it’s flat, but like I said, we’re inexperienced!!) *
The resorts offer straight skis and shaped skis. What difference does it make? What do you suggest??
Also, any advice for us beginners??
Shaped skis make it easier to turn. Let me try an explanation…
Think of a yardstick sitting on something soft. If I push down in the middle of the yardstick it will bend so that it’s lower in the middle than on the ends. If I look at this from the side I would see that the yardstick is curved.
Now, imagine I turn the yardstick on its side but keep the same curve in it. If I slide the yardstick, it will try to move in a curve.
This is similar to how skis turn. When you lift your inside leg this puts more weight on the outside ski which causes it to bend like the yardstick. This also causes the ski to tilt inward (since your weight isn’t centered over the ski). The edge of the ski now presents a curve which bites into the snow and makes you turn.
“Shaped” skis are skis in which the sides of the ski are not parallel. They have a slight concave curve built into them. Thus, the curve created by the ski is more pronounced which lets you turn sharper and with less effort.
Did that make sense?
Shaped skis make turning easier, especially as you go faster, but I doubt that it would make a huge difference in your first day or two of skiing. I’m a once-a-year skier, though, so get the opinion of somebody who actually knows what they’re talking about.
As far as learning how, DO NOT try to teach yourself. Get lessons. I can’t stress this enough.
Make sure you’re at a place with a rope tow or some other way of getting up the learner’s hill before you can ski the tiny bit that it takes to get off of a lift. (The place I learned didn’t, and we had to sidestep, wearing skis, up the hill over and over. This is very frustrating and should be avoided.)
Don’t be embarrassed that the little kids will get it faster than you will.
A)They have no fear.
B)Their center of gravity is much closer to the ground.
C)Does Opal ski?
Persevere through the first morning, which is a bit frustrating.
Make sure that you know how to stop before taking your first run. On many learner’s hills, there’s a long flat stretch at the bottom that you can coast on until you stop, so you may never realize that you don’t know how to stop. (Hint: It’s like a really big turn.) I didn’t know how when I took my first run, and ended up having to fall down before I hit a fence.
Don’t use your poles much. They teach the kids without them (that’s how I learned), and I think that they give adults bad habits, like using them to stop.
Good luck, and have fun!
You found a resort that still offers straight skiis?
I’ll second Gila’s suggestions. I’m a once-a-year skier, too, so I am a beginner over and over and over…
It’s worth it to rent the best equipment you can–get the shaped skis.
i have skied for about 25 years and taught many people how to ski. i confess i have never skied on the new shaped skis (love my old, wood core skis to much to part with them). i can see the benefits they offer for beginner skier. i would get them for your first time.
here are my suggestions: (i can ski better than i type or spell, so bear with me!)
i agree with who ever said learn to get off the chair and stop first thing!
get poles, but they will try to give you ones that will be too long! they always do. you will be using these to pick your ass up off the ground with. i would suggest a length about mid/high thigh. if you get them waist high, they will be worthless to pull yourself up with.
YOU MUST BE MOVING TO SKI!! i know it is scary, but you need to be going down hill to make the skis turn or stop. so many times i have taught people to ski after the “insturctors” take thier cash after an afternoon of basicly standing on a level surface. im not talking about any black diamond runs, but you have to have gravity to ski.
thigh power! thigh power! thigh power! if you are not in good shape, be prepared to be very sore!
dont forget sunscreen and chapstick
the lesson idea is a good one, but the best lessons are from people you know, and you know they ski well. i hate to generalize, but most insturctors i have met don’t know squat, and take the job for the free skiing and are really busboys and waiters during the night…(but i hate to generalize)
be prepared to fall alot, and get exhausted and sore. keep in mind that this is supposed to be fun and keep a good attitude. when you get better, you will really enjoy skiing (i hope!) its still just about my favorite activity
someone gave a pretty damn good discription of the working of the ski with the yardstick example. i always start with a “ground school” when i teach people and show them how the ski flexs and what it does on the snow. i cant really do that typing, so i kinda gotta let you go from here—
hope you have fun! one more thing- if its snowing like a bastard- abandon ship as a beginer, you will only be wet and cold and miserable. we dont want that! head to the bar, and drink like a fish!
For your first times skiing get shorter skis!
My sister swore by this method. Longer skis are better for control and for negotiating moguls, but if you’re just learning how to ski your priorities are moving the skis easily and not falling down, and you won’t be going near moguls. You can get surprisingly short skis that won’t even fit on a ski rack, but they’re great for your first time out.
I’ve been skiing 35 years. Last year I broke down and bought a pair of shaped skis. I’ve gotta say, I am very impressed with them.
To use them properly, you don’t ski in the traditional way. On traditional skis, turns are made, as explained above, by weighting and unweighting. Weighting and unweighting is essentially bouncing up and down - when you push down on the ski it bends, and you turn; when you pull up the turn stops and you can reweight and turn the other way.
With shaped skis, all you are supposed to do is turn by tilting your ankles in the direction you want to turn. The curve in the ski takes care of the rest. It actually works very well, and takes alot of strain off your knees and thighs. The only price you pay is that curved skis, by their nature, want to turn all the time, which makes them less stable (more squirrelly) when you want to ski in a straight line. These problems really only matter at speed, so it shouldn’t bother a beginner too much.
My advice is to go with the shaped skis to learn. If you decide that skiing is for you, you may want to invest in traditional skis later, and learn to ski the “real” way. Learning the “proper” traditional way to ski is alot more work, but it will make you a much stronger, safer, and versatile skiier.
BTW, if I can impart one little bit of wisdom on learning to ski, it is this: The one thing that most beginners fear, but that is absolutely essential in skiing, is “leaning out” over the skis. To control your skis, you have to be perpendicular to them. So if the hill has a ten-degree pitch, your body has to have a ten-degree pitch, too. If you keep standing like you were on level ground, you are “in the back seat”, and your skis want to slip out from under you. It feels weird for a while - like you are leaning way more than you actually are - but concentrate on it and you will be skiing well much faster.
Also, as you improve, you will learn that speed is your friend. It’s counterintuitive to a beginner, but the faster you go, the easier the physics of skiing get.
Good luck. Don’t get discouraged - skiing definitely takes a while to get the hang of. Stick with it and you’ll learn how to fly without leaving the ground.
Don’t be afraid to fall on your ass. Because you will anyway, and you might as well be in charge of when.
–Cliffy
I gave up my sticks for a real board long ago, but I still ride with guys who need four edges. They all swear by their shaped skis. However, this question made me wonder about using them for first-timers. Shaped skis are great for carving turns, but before you can carve, everyone learns to snowplow through turns.
Will the shaped edge interfere with the snowplow? The skis generally stay flat on the snow or lean slightly to the inside edge when you snowplow, so maybe the shaped cut is inconsequential. However, if you really got up on that inside edge, you’d either take a lot of the ski out of contact with the surface (not a factor in powder, but could be bad on hard pack) or flex the ski, which might tend to cross the tips when you catch an edge. I see all the resorts renting them to beginners, so maybe this is a non-issue. Anyone have any experience teaching a first-timer on shaped skis?
FWIW, I’ll second gatopescado’s advice about speed. It’s just painful to watch new skiers creep along and then teeter over at every little hitch. A little extra speed will help you ride through changing circumstances and give you a lot more control because your skis can actually do their job.
barney dead on with the lean advise! well done!
i would stay away from the “tiny shorty” skis that are not much longer than the boot and binding-- they don’t have enough edge to learn properly.
unless you are very short, i would not get less than 150cm, and if you are near 6 feet and in good shape, try 170’s
The skis that you are talking about are called ‘carving’ skis. I would recommend that you get them for two reasons, but not because you will be able to use them for what they are designed for.
the straight skis that you can hire are probably quite old and crappy by now as they only seem to make carving skis nowadays
you will find it much easier to turn with these skis, not as much because of the edge being curved, but because they are shorter, and therefore you get less resistance from the ground while turning. Carving skis really come into their own when going fast. The skier essentially goes straight down the hill, leaning to turn, and therefore control his speed. Some of what Barney says is right (though I disagree about control - these are completely different skiing styles, and it is easy to switch between the two in dangerous situations as you don’t need ‘normal’ skis to ski ‘normally’. Also, you still use ‘weighting and unweighting’ on carving skis), but you certainly won’t be able to do this on your first try. Get some lessons first.
I much prefer skiing myself, but have you considered snowboarding? it is much easier to learn. The other thing that I would recommend is that you make sure that the boots you hire are comfortable, as it can be a real bitch if they hurt your feet.
micco, the skis don’t have any affect on the snowplow, as the skier’s weight forces the edges onto the snow. Certainly, they have less grip on packed down snow or ice, but this is because they are shorter.
One last thing, don’t expect to have much fun with the skiing itself on the first few days. Youll probably have more fun laughing at each other falling over.
CalMeacham - I would be wary about getting those ‘little’ skis to start off, as you can easily do a cartwheel if the tips dig in on those.
gatopescado - they give you those poles for a good reason, as you use them to push yourself along, amongst other things (ie ‘planting’) if you are using your sticks to push yourself up, you are doing it wrong. (The way to get up properly is to put yourself parralell with the slope and push yourself up with your arm, and you should find this easy. It’s just like getting up normally except that you can’t move your feet as much.)
Also I think you are being a little harsh to instructors. Though I don’t know about American instructors, in Europe these guys are real professionals. Of course you start beginners off on an easy slope! Anyone who skis knows that slopes look much more daunting (especially to beginners) from above than below, and the instructor needs to build up people’s confidence. You can’t just let someone off down a slope without showing them the basics first. I know people who are afraid of skiing because they were started off on too hard a slope and hurt themselves because they did not know what to do.
Green-Bean - the solution to that is to get some really good one-on-one instruction - I know this is what caused a really big jump in my skiing ability.
I would second everything GilaB has said, especially the bit about poles.
Sorry this was such a long and rambling post
Factually nukeman I believe the skis your talking about the carving skis are just that, they carve very nicely, but I believe the actual name for them is parabolic skis. I think they were invented by ELAN 6 or 7 years ago to make it easier for beginners to keep their knee’s together and turn easier. 
thanks, but my problem is my pocketbook, not my ability!
nukeman-- i was refering mainly to american instructors, specifically around the areas i ski. i acknowledge the europeans take a much more professional attitude about these kinds of things. my main ski buddy is an englishman who lived in germany and skied all over europe. he lets me know it is VERY different around these parts…he assures me i would never come home if i ever got over there to ski!
By shaped, I hope you mean parasbolic (or my typing is useless)
You wouldn’t get to know the difference as this is your first time skiing, but go with everyone elses vote and get shaped. They REALLY make a difference when turning.
I don’t know if it counts for anything but I’ve got the hint that the straight skis might be older and more prone to breakage?
Have fun, and don’t get hurt!
Stuzy