| Skiing holidays can be ruined with the wrong ski | | | | If you decide to hire or buy from a ski shop, make |
| equipment. To become a better skier, it does help to | | | | sure you go in a quiet time. If you go when the shop |
| know a little about the ski, how it works, and how to | | | | is busy, the guy in charge of the skis will look you up |
| get the best out of it. It has been around for four | | | | and down, and judging by the look on your face, ie: |
| thousand years, give or take a year or two, and has | | | | pure terror or cool omniscience, will thrust a pair of |
| come a long way since the one found in a | | | | skis at you without further ado. Ask him for advice. |
| Scandinavian bog. | | | | Tell him you are an aggressive skier, and want a pair |
| It is now a sophisticated machine, and you have | | | | of performance skis with a bit of welly in them. Hire |
| probably gathered that companies making skis and ski | | | | departments in ski shops have improved dramatically |
| equipment are intensely competitive. This means that | | | | over the years, so you will probably be better off |
| year on year there is always some interesting | | | | hiring them if you are only skiing for a week or two. |
| technical innovation, and quite often a quantum leap | | | | If you are lucky enough to be spending a season in |
| in actual performance. The major breakthrough in the | | | | the mountains, dig deep, splash out, and buy some - |
| past few years has been to produce a ski that | | | | after taking advice you can trust. |
| allows a recreational skier to turn like a racer, and we | | | | How do you know what to get? If you are hiring a |
| talk about that elsewhere. | | | | pair of skis out from the ski shop, or borrowing them |
| What kind of skis will you need to improve your ski | | | | from a friend, take a good look at them first. Look |
| technique and make that skiing holiday worth the | | | | at the bottoms. Are the plastic soles nice and |
| effort? Gone are the recreational skis that had to be | | | | smooth, and free from holes and gouges? The metal |
| as long as as your outstretched arm above your | | | | edges should form an unbroken curve all the way |
| head. The optimum length nowadays is anything from | | | | along their length. The edges should also be sharp |
| 5cm (2in) smaller than you are to 5cm taller than you | | | | and smooth with no pit marks in them. They could |
| are. So clever is the design that they will grip on ice, | | | | have been battered by countless previous hirers so |
| go relatively fast, and float through powder snow. If | | | | test them to see if they have any life left in them. |
| you have been stuck in a rut for years and have | | | | Do this by putting them together, sole to sole, and |
| moved onto these shorter narrower waisted skis, | | | | squeezing them with one hand at the mid point just |
| you should have noticed some improvement although | | | | behind the front binding. The metal edges should |
| they will not be suitable for really fast work. The | | | | touch all the way along their length, and there should |
| main thing is to try different pairs out and | | | | be a good gap of up to two inches between them |
| experiment. | | | | when you let go. |