Looking for new ski suggestions

[Tomkat1962]

Hello guys. I am 58 yrs 5’10 and 190 lbs. my current skis are k2 xplorer 177cm and Rossignol s3 186 cm. I would be intermediate to advanced and looking for a hard snow carving ski. I think this season will be mostly spent at Blue mountain in Ontario and I want to improve carving technique. Thinking about Supershapes or maybe hero elite plus or if there is something that might be good short radius carver that I would like in moguls. I like mogul skiing but there is lots of room for improvement. I also thought Head v8 might be a possibility. I as thinking for length 170ish? Thx for any suggestions

 

[Jilly]

Good choices for Ontario ice.

 

[graham418]

Head iRally would be another choice. Dynastar Speed Zone is a nice carving ski

 

[Viking9]

I don’t think the Hero series is that versatile anymore.
The guys on ski essentials talk about this and it really hits home with me, they know that the reguloids are going to want to take that series into bumps and other adventurous terrain but they are very frontside bias now.
Go to Rossignol.com and click on “ on piste skis “ and take a look at the react 10 , with its build it should be fine on the groomed and fun every where else.
75 under foot and in a 176.

 

[GregK]

Dynastar Speed Zone 12Ti and Fisher RC4 The Curv come to mind as front side skis that aren’t too hard to manage in bumps like many carving skis.

Depending on where you live in Ontario, you might want to also check out Mount St Louis Moonstone especially early season. Always much better conditions with double the snowfall, better grooming, less traffic and they always do seeded mogul runs that are re-sculptured daily.

 

[mister moose]

For the hard snow carving ski, you are going to get the most from a tortionally stiff frontside design ski. The two you've mentioned are good choices, I've skied them all. Of the Supershapes I'd steer you away form the Titan, but that's me. You can look at the Blizzard, Fischer, Atomic and Volkyl also. Others here have better resources to fine tune ski selection. Regardless of the ski you choose, assuming you don't go too soft, tune is very very important. DO NOT DO NOT DO NOT let the ski shop detune your ski "because that's how most people like it" The usual zip and dip tune also isn't going to do it. Let me put it this way: I'd rather have a race tune on a decent ski than a bad tune on a white hot ski. On hard snow, and we're saying "hard" in the East, you know it's hard... you want grip and you want the entire edge.

Then the bumps. That's going to depend on how you ski the bumps. On a stiff frontside ski, my .02 is you're going to want to ski the shoulders in a rounded track and stay out of the troughs completely. If you don't have that skillset, you likely aren't going to like a stiff carver in the bumps. Consider 2 pairs, one for each style of skiing. A real performer on hard snow, aka a beer league race ski, is going to be a handful in the bumps. You can relax the frontside ski, but you will lose grip and snap.

If you really want to improve your carving, find a ski that will not hold you back and will show you a good time on a so-so day.

 

[Tomkat1962]

Thx for all the input. Been reading about skis till I’ve gone full circle now. My k2s are nice skis 84 under the boot but I always felt the hard snow grip could be better and not much energy in them. Very damp and stable but I want something with more pop.