skis

Yep, I have three pairs of skis now. I came to Japan with only my ski boots, and within 6 months I have acquired three pairs of skis. Here is the run down

Atomic ETL 168cm with Atomic s310 bindings:

I purchased these skis used from a friend that I met in Hakuba. It was coming to the end of Sept., and I needed to get a pair of skis before the ski season started. Luckily, I found a guy that was moving back home and needed to sell a pair of skis, so I bought them. These are pretty good skis, for carvers (see below). They turn pretty well on the groomed track. They were a good choice for my FIRST pair of skis.

Volkl P40 178cm with Rossginol bindings:

These skis were free; zip, zero, nada dinero. I went to a bar one night with friends from Toyoshina, about 25 mins from my house. At the bar there was a live band playing, and my friends was friends with one of the guys in the bad. After the show, my friend and I went to the musicians house to because my friend was going to get a snowboard. When we got there, his house was like a ski shop. At first he brought out two snowboards, and then he said, "wait, I think I have another one." In total, there were three snowboards and a new pair of bindings; my friend was given 2 snowboards (one of the brand new) and a pair of new bindings. However, in addition to the 3 snowboards, he also had 2 or 3 pairs of skis. One pair was too short (brand new Atomic 156cm), but the other were the 2 or 3 year old Volkl P40s. He ended up giving me the P40s; pretty cool if you ask me.

These skis are quite fun, and fast on the groomed stuff. They are a little too thin to go off piece. Also, these skis are designed for the moguls, something that I have yet to really get good at. I guess having these skis will give me a good excuse to get good at moguls.

Volkl Karma 177cm with Marker 12.0 Free Ride bindings:

These are the skis that I bought new from a great shop in Hakuba called Rappi. As I started skiing more and more this season, I realized that I wanted to do more than just ski down the groomed track; I wanted to go off-piste and into the powered. The carving skis would just not allow me to do this. When I would try, I would just sink in the powered. Also, I wanted to start doing some easy tricks, like switches and 360s. Once again, carving skis are not designed for this.

So in come Fat Twin Tips. Fat refers to the fact that the waist (center) of the ski measures 87mm; most carving skis measure between 67mm and 70mm in the waist. Since the waist is wider, that means that the tip and the tail of the ski are wider. The wider or fatter skis allows one to "float" on top of the powder, which is amazing. Now, I would mention that my skis are classified as freeride/all mountain skis: skis that are able to do the park (half pipe, kickers, etc) as well as the powder. Some powder only fat skis can measure up to 125mm in the waist; that is huge!

The second difference in these skis is that they are twin-tips. Twin-tips refer to the fact that the tip of the ski and the back of the ski are similar; both ends are rounded and flair up. As I was thinking about it, it is almost like a smaller version of a snowboard. A snowboarder can "switch" (pull a 180 degree turn on the ground) between goofy and regular stance with ease because of the snowboards flared up ends; now I can do the same on my skis.

In total, with the fatness and twin-tips of my new skis, I don't think I will ever go back to skiing on carvers anymore. I just don't see the point. I can do everything I can on my new skis that I could do on my older skis and more. So, I think I will see the pair of Atomic skis, but I just might keep my Volkl P40s so that I can practice my moguls. Oh yeah, these marker bindings I got for my new skis are amazing; they are made out of titanium, so they are light. When I start doing some serious back country skiing this spring, this will be nice when I have to climb up the mountain with my skis because there is no ski lifts to take me up!!

slater