Lower DIN for park progression?

S

sueddaht

New member
What up y'all, tried a search and didn't find too much on this, so I'm starting a new thread. I just bought my first pair of park skis (center mount woohoo!) and am stoked to get spinny (and hopefully flippy) this winter! I'm a pretty aggressive skier outside the park, and am decent at hitting straight jumps with some shiftys here or there and had a 50% stomp rate on 10-15' drops last year. Thus I set my DINs at 10.5 (which is III+ on the chart for my BSL and weight etc). This has been excellent for me as I had many yard sales last year but didn't feel like they ever prereleased :)

Since I'm total shit at skiing switch and doing tricks I'm wondering if I should bump the DIN on my park skis down to like 8 or something as I expect to fall quite a lot whereas in my all mountain skiing I almost never fall unless it's a pow day so I know I (probably) won't get hurt. I'm also 29 and have broken my tibia and kneecap a few times so I'm not keen to tear anything cause my DINs are too high. I'm thinking maybe start with lower DINs and just slowly increase them as I feel they prerelease, but also prereleasing sucks cause falling hurts at my age. Anyone else here get into park skiing long after they learned to ski well? Or anyone have any thoughts on learning to ski park with high vs low DINs?

FYI I've already got the bindings set up for my boots and tested by a reputable shop so all the forward pressure and toe plate height and stuff will be correct. Not gonna mess with anything myself except MAYBE the DIN setting itself. Also I live in Boulder and have an ikon pass, so if anyone wants to screw around at eldora, WP, or copper sometime lmk.
 
I think your din being lower than what you know works already will only potentially create a situation where you pop out when you shouldn't and fall in a dangerous way because of it. I am 6ft, 220lbs and 12 din is perfect for me. I am not riding within the specification of what I "should be", but I know this works and I stick to it.
 
I think 8 will be perfect for you, start with 8. Bring a screw driver with you and throw it in your backpack. If you pop out more than you want, tighten them. But it’s better to play it safe and not bust your knees up trying something low risk. You don’t wanna land awkward and fuck a knee cuz your boot didn’t pop out. Better safe than sorry

**This post was edited on Nov 29th 2021 at 12:07:49pm
 
I found that the din is right for me if I can nose butter hard and not come out, but just a bit more than that seems good. Bring a screw driver and hike park until you get it right
 
14355020:goatmaster said:
I found that the din is right for me if I can nose butter hard and not come out, but just a bit more than that seems good. Bring a screw driver and hike park until you get it right
Click to expand...

Only problem is, a nosebutter isn't measuring all of the adjustment points. I don't think it in and of itself is enough to say for certain you're in the correct place. It can get you in the ballpark most likely though
 
Thats a tough one. I’d be worried about kicking out when you don’t want to. I’m also 29 and on a 9.5 din. The only time I can think for turning din down is if you’re doing a lot of technical, low speed rail tricks

Also seems like everyone has ikon pass in Colorado now. Back in 2018 I was the only one with ikon, everyone else had epic

**This post was edited on Nov 29th 2021 at 12:52:07pm
 
If you lower them too much and you hit jumps learning you could get prereleases.

But if you are learning rail tricks lower dins are good so you don't get tangled in a rail. I've found lower din really useful for rails but annoying because I prerelease all the time on jumps since their so low.

If you are strictly hitting rails lower them a lot.

If you are hitting jumps, I would suggest lowering them a bit but not a large amount.
 
14355020:goatmaster said:
I found that the din is right for me if I can nose butter hard and not come out, but just a bit more than that seems good. Bring a screw driver and hike park until you get it right
Click to expand...

A solid nose bud 3 is my favourite way to test my dins
 
Better to drop a ski than lose a knee.

Your skis should stay on unless you catch an edge.

Sure, huge high angle "butters" or nose stands are going to call for a tight DIN setting, but be cautious.
 
14355279:arv116jj69420 said:
A solid nose bud 3 is my favourite way to test my dins
Click to expand...

Always so funny when the shop put your din to low and you try a little nose butter in the lift line only to pop out and smack your face on the ground in front of everyone
 
14355342:goatmaster said:
Always so funny when the shop put your din to low and you try a little nose butter in the lift line only to pop out and smack your face on the ground in front of everyone
Click to expand...

Ha ha! That's how I run my skis!
 
Y'all have come through big! Thanks a bunch for all the advice!! Seems like lowering it to 8 or 8.5 is a good call until I progress to the huge kickers. I don't plan on skiing many rails cause I've got a few buddies get pretty messed up from smacking their ribs and face on em, but if I do maybe I'll lower it even further. Also the poll suggests more safety meetings is critical, which is obvious in retrospect, so I'll definitely abide by that result as well.
 
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