Are tall Skiers disadvantaged?

P

pj21

Member
I'm 6'1' and reasonably tall for my age (15), got moderate park skills (backflip, most rails) and feel as if I am disadvantaged being tall. My shorter friends have it easier spinning and flipping, Is it because they are better than me or have a lower centre of gravity making it easier to do tricks?

So do tall skiers have a disadvantage skiing?
 
I'm 16 and I'm 5'8" so I'm kinda short, I have the same tricks as you (backflips,most rails) but I don't really feel that being short makes anything easier. Being tall may help to throw faster flips but being short might help to get it around. I don't really know though, since I don't do big enough tricks it would really matter yet.
 
Yeah it's definitely easier to be shorter because your center of gravity is lower. Doesn't mean you can't be as good/ better than them though.
 
I'm 6'1'' 200lbs and its all about strength for me. Before I did any physical activity whatsoever I was really really bad but now that I can lift my own fat ass I'm only kinda really bad
 
The lank can sometimes get in the way ascetically speaking, but if you can rip you can rip.

Jordan Monk a lanky dude over 6'3 won the world ski invitational 1/2pipe ages ago now when he outperformed the Pros stomping an early cork 10 into his run.

Philou Poirier looked like he was better suited to throw down in the NHL than on skis but he got it done with style.

You just got to own it.
 
13116894:Mingg said:
Yeah it's definitely easier to be shorter because your center of gravity is lower. Doesn't mean you can't be as good/ better than them though.
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silly ming it dosent work that way.

it's like if you have a big wood board and balance it, the center of gravity stays the same, if you balance it right. So most likely OP's center of gravity is almost the same as yours.
 
13116954:Railersailer said:
silly ming it dosent work that way.

it's like if you have a big wood board and balance it, the center of gravity stays the same, if you balance it right. So most likely OP's center of gravity is almost the same as yours.
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Um no... Shorter people have a lower center of gravity. It is probably around the same part on a persons body, but that part will be closer to the ground in a shorter person. That probably didn't make sense, but the shorter the person the lower the center of gravity.
 
harder to not look like a donk in the air when you are really tall. I am 6'3". Look at bobby brown do the same trick next to henrik.
 
John Spriggs is fucking huge and he still slaying it hard. and a lil ways back around Leval 1s movie High Five, that era etc. emil coty was a beast and slayed some sick handrails , and Liam Downy had some sick seggys and he is a beast and he is still killing it. just depends on the person i think and there skiing ability .
 
Its not a coincidence that 90% of tops skiers in the game at any moment are Short AF

Anyone who doesn't understand the value of having a lower center of gravity just isn't looking at the physics of skiing.

Some big guys kill it. Bobby Brown, John Spriggs, etc

But the fact is that they are killing it despite a physical frame that makes tricks that much harder to throw.
 
or Wallisch, or Carlson, or Hall, or Candide, or Dumont, or the Wells brothers or, Torin Yater-Wallace...

all of them are like 5'6" or 5'7"

You can still be tall and crush it but the taller guys fall into the trap of looking mechanical.(Goepper and Brown for instance)
 
It's all relative & proportional. A low centre of gravity doesn't matter. Engineers, feel free to refute this. I'm 6ft4 by the way.

In gear though, we are disadvantaged. Not enough long skis out there.
 
13117254:reedwj said:
or Wallisch, or Carlson, or Hall, or Candide, or Dumont, or the Wells brothers or, Torin Yater-Wallace...

all of them are like 5'6" or 5'7"

You can still be tall and crush it but the taller guys fall into the trap of looking mechanical.(Goepper and Brown for instance)
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That's what he's trying to say man. All of those allstars are average sized where the mechanical lanky kids like BB and Goepper are mechanical.

Will Wesson is a pretty big dude though and he has mad steeeez.
 
I've noticed this too, considering I'm 6'1", it's taking me longer than I feel it should to get tricks down but it's not hard, I mean take Brown for example, he's 6'1" and fucking kills it.
 
You're tall relative to other people, but you've also been familiar with your size for your entire life. You might have a higher center of gravity relative to the short dudes, but you're also not used to having the lower center of gravity. I guess the point that I'm trying to make is that people say that it's easier for people with lower centers of gravity to do tricks, which might be true, but it shouldn't be THAT much more difficult for taller guys because they are familiar with their own centers of gravity. It's all relative.
 
If you're under 16 and over 6ft tall you should be playing a real sport like football/basketball.
 
13117337:pussyfooter said:
If you're under 16 and over 6ft tall you should be playing a real sport like football/basketball.
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Sorry, I didn't realize skiing wasn't a real sport.
 
13117389:Mingg said:
Sorry, I didn't realize skiing wasn't a real sport.
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Sorry. *A sport you can turn into a successful career.

Lets be honest here, 99% of skiers who want to be a "pro skier" will not succeed and maybe 25% of them will get sponsored, get good, etc but won't make a career out of it.

The only way you can make a career out of skiing is to be like tom, or simon, tanner etc which is .1% of freestyle/newschool skiers. Its very unlikely, especially being over 6ft tall (name a very successful tall professional skier) for anyone to be a professional skier and actually be very successful.

Being over 6ft tall and being young is a huge physical advantage and look at football/baseball/basketball players that are successful, they started out very athletic as they were young (usually bigger/taller than their classmates) and now they play a sport they love and are practically set for life. Of course the odds are low here as well but I'm just saying, every kid who skis thinks they should be a pro skier, when being a pro skier isn't even that legit compared to a "real sport".

Of course not everything in life is about money, but if some kid tells me he 13 and 6ft tall, hes probably going to get taller and should try out a sport like basketball or football and not worry about skiing. If you do well enough in high school you can go to college for free, thousands of student athletes get free college educations and thats 1000 times better than anything skiing can offer (unless you're a ski racer, but thats decently rare compared to football/basketball/baseball/tennis/golf etc)

This is a skiing website but I feel like at times we should explore other sports, we can ski the rest of our lives.
 
Its all relitivity. If you have the muscle to make up for your height then you are not disadvantaged. Just work out and you'll feel the difference.

I'm a little tall (5' 11") bit I'm lanky as fuck. I used to be lankier but when I started going to the gym everything started feeling a whole lot better.
 
Yo I'm 5'3'' and 15. The thing about being tall is that you get more airtime being tall, but you can't spin as fast. Being small you can spin fast, but can't get that much air. So it evens out in the end.
 
I have a friend hes 6.3 but hes still steeziest skier on hill and almost europe.Offcourse 5.8 feet tall skier looks way better on handrail in street thats why taller guys have to hit bigger rails/drops/wallrides but on jumps it's almost the same.
 
no and don't make excuses. bobby brown, andreas hatveit, will wesson, and john spriggs are all super tall and they rip. don't think about why something is impossible or more difficult, think about how to make it possible. i'm 6'3 and never felt held back by my height
 
Ive wondered about this as I am 5'9, but I don't see myself as being super short like my 17 year old friend who is 5'3. I think once you reach pro level (especially guys who compete in x games, stuff like that) it does not really matter, because they have work outs and ways to use there bodies that let them do the same stuff as shorter guys.
 
well im 6ft 3 (14yrs old) and the thing that disadvantages me is finding boots that fit me (im size 15 in australian sizes)
 
not sure if it makes you better or worse than skiing but i know for sure it makes crashes worse and whiplash more severe.
 
john spriggs, nick mcnutt, ryan halverson, nick martini to name a few I've stood besides seem to ski fine being over 6 feet. there are plenty other examples too.
 
i'm 13 and my penis is measured at 7 inches. soft. I do not find myself disadvantaged in any way shape or form. I have most tricks dialed.
 
Im "6.4 15yrs and one disadvantage about becoming tall is having to buy new boots and sometimes pants every year other than that you can't blame a high center of gravity on being a bad skier
 
13117736:PowGnarShred said:
i'm 13 and my penis is measured at 7 inches. soft. I do not find myself disadvantaged in any way shape or form. I have most tricks dialed.
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General rule for dudes who feel the need to post their dick size, subtract 3 inches.
 
being short and having a low center of gravity certainly doesnt hurt, and yeah, it's probably no coincidence that most pro skiers are sorta small guys, but let's be real here, is a difference of like 5 inches max and a few dozen pounds really a make or break difference?

the scale of everything in skiing is big, i have a hard time imagining physics-wise that a 6'2" 180 lb dude is really that much more challenged than a 5'9" 160 lb dude when theyre hitting a 50 foot jump. what's the supposed key difference, a 5 inch difference in center of gravity? the weight? momentum? this isn't gymnastics, the difference between successful and non successful skiers isn't the ability to cram an extra 180 into a small time/size frame

i'd love for a scientist who is knowledgeable on the subject to chime in but ive actually never met someone who could apply their education to skiing in a useful way re: physics of jumping and spinning
 
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