Monique Y. Mudama wrote:
On 2004-12-20, MattB penned:

Not to say it's can't be done, but I'd say that a GS race ski wouldn't be
all that great in the bumps. Now I know some people like them in all
conditions, but I really prefer a slightly softer ski in the bumps.


This is key for me. I'm working on bumps, and my husband adores bumps (at
least as compared to groomers, which he hates), so I probably spend most of my
ski day in the bumps.


In the end it's primarily personal preference. You like a race GS ski
the best, I like a more recreational (used to be a bad word to me BTW)
high performance all mountain, tradeoffs and all.


Hey, Matt, could you enumerate some of those tradeoffs?


Well, it's like your bike. You could have a faster race bike if you went
with a hardtail, but instead you have a nice FS that does other things
pretty well too, including being comfortable and easy to handle in a
variety of conditions. The all mountain ski is the ski equivalent of the
"trail bike".

So your all mountain skis won't be the best race skis. It sounds like
your racing career is pretty low key, so that may not matter all that
much. It is good to know.

A ski with a wider waist won't rail those arcs as easily as a ski with
a smaller waist. It can still be done, and I wouldn't call it difficult
(IMO), but that not their specialty. They will also be slower on the
lead change (switching from one edge to another).

They will often be more stable than a race ski, which also equals
"doesn't turn as quickly". I've found as I've grown a little older I've
become less of a bump/steep hound and more of an all mountain skier
myself. I don't turn as quickly as I once did either. I'm ok with that.

The pair I love are not huge and fat like some trendier skis. I see them
as a more sensible evolution of the ski rather than a revolution. Snow
and mountains haven't changed (as long as you ignore terrain parks,
which I usually do), but skiing styles have. I remember once seeing
someone not making the maximum possible number of turns and thinking
"they're wasting that run - I could do twice as many turns". But that's
the wiggly bump skier mentality. Now I'm more into fewer quality turns
and enjoying the run that making it "the best" by some arbitrary measure.

Matt