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First Skis for an Intermediate

Matt Merritt

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An intermediate skiing friend of mine asked me for advice on the purchase of his first non-rental skis. Would love opinions from our resident experts on what makes a good intermediate skier's ski for enjoyment and improvement.

If it helps formulating opinions, my friend is a male, 60 but very athletic, with a lifetime of club-level hockey playing. He's only an occasional skier with a rather firmly ingrained tendency to make Z-shaped, hockey stop turns.

The idea of saving money by buying in the off-season greatly appeals to him, too.

Thanks in advance for any input.
 

slow-line-fast

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Ideally: a shop that offers season-long rentals, with the possibility to change equipment during the season, and the option to purchase the equipment you like at the end of the season, using the rental fee as a credit. The advantage is you can really try/adjust as needed, and a good shop can really help steer you the right way.
 

Philpug

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How big of a guy is he? How athletic? What terrain does he like and how often will he be skiing?
 
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Matt Merritt

Matt Merritt

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About 150 lbs, I'd guess. Still looks good with his shirt off at 60... Very athletic. Hockey, cycling and Hawaiian canoe racing in SoCal. So far he's been staying on groomers and probably will be making three four-day trips per season.
 

Philpug

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About 150 lbs, I'd guess. Still looks good with his shirt off at 60... Very athletic. Hockey, cycling and Hawaiian canoe racing in SoCal. So far he's been staying on groomers and probably will be making three four-day trips per season.
150lb at 5'4" is a fireplug, at 5'11" is a stick. Is he happy being a terminal intermediate or is he looking to progress?
 
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Matt Merritt

Matt Merritt

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He's stick-y at about 5'9"-ish.

Over the many years we've hung out together my friend deservedly earned the nickname "Dabbler Dave" .

Based on his reluctance to commit I'm confident Dave could happily spend the rest of his days on rental or demo skis so if I'm being honest I'd probably say that my question to the forum was really for me. Back in my day (hey kid, get off my lawn) all the cool guys had racing skis; now you hardly ever see a pair in the resort lift lines. My question was to help me get educated on that particular segment of skiers that includes my good friend Dabbler Dave. I suspect the answer is that most any modern all-mountain skis would be just as appropriate for Dave as they'd be for me but am interested in your take.
 
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Philpug

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Go to our ski reviews (tab at the top), start clicking on previous year(s) skis with waist range of 75-85mm, click on intermediate -expert skis and because of his ability and size err to the finesse side of the slider.
 

RoninSkier

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He's stick-y at about 5'9"-ish.

Over the many years we've hung out together my friend deservedly earned the nickname "Dabbler Dave" .

Based on his reluctance to commit I'm confident Dave could happily spend the rest of his days on rental or demo skis so if I'm being honest I'd probably say that my question to the forum was really for me. Back in my day (hey kid, get off my lawn) all the cool guys had racing skis; now you hardly ever see a pair in the resort lift lines. My question was to help me get educated on that particular segment of skiers that includes my good friend Dabbler Dave. I suspect the answer is that most any modern all-mountain skis would be just as appropriate for Dave as they'd be for me but am interested in your take.
Considering his athletic background and physical dimensions I suggest
165-170 cm length
75-80mm waist with a 14-16m turn radius - this should help him or force him to hook up and start carving vs just doing forced spivot turns and encourage development of ski technique.
Avoid fat skis as they will hamper rather than help ski technique development imho.
If you ski mostly icy conditions, consider getting a ski with some titanal.
Any brand intermediate (maybe advanced) skis should do.

GL
 

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