Should park skis be above head

P

pandolfo

Member
Is it better to have longer park skis that sit above the head or is it better to have them under the forehead. Thanks
 
Really preference. Longer skis are more stable while shorter skis are more maneuverable. Don't get too short though, then you'll have two broken skis and an empty pocket
 
My skis are like 2cm taller than me; it's personal preference. I like longer skis because I always feel more stable, but I think as long as they're somewhere around your mid/upper face you should be fine.
 
Depends on what you like. For ease on rails id say the best size is about eye level or around there. But if you hit big jumps, ski all mountain, and love going fast go for a bigger size. Skill level and strength also have a lot to do with performance on bigger skis.
 
My skis are 159 and I'm 163 cm tall. My old skis were 165s(Or something like that) and they where harder to get rotations around but I found with longer skis they made me feel more stable in the air. It's all personal preference. In my opinion eye level is a pretty good length.
 
I ride 181 filthy riches, and they are about as tall a me. They are rockered so they technically ride shorter, but I have always felt like they are very stable outside the park, and they have been perfect length for the park.
 
General rule of thumb is that ski sizes should be right at your forehead, however, after a certain point in your skiing ability it becomes entirely personal preference.
 
Go big or go home! But seriously, when you center mount skis they ski smaller so I like a little longer in length. I always get park skis that are around 180 cm and I'm 5'9".
 
I've always gone shorter for park and taller for off piste. I'm 185cm tall and my park skis are 181cm, touring skis at 186cm and inbounds/slack skis are 190cm. I used to ski on 176cm park skis, but that was before 'we' centre mounted skis, so the extra few cms helps.
 
12950929:SickStickz said:
when you center mount skis they ski smaller so I like a little longer in length.
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True. If you take a regular ski and a twin tip (with a center mount) of the same size the twin tip would feel a little shorter because of the mount so that's something to consider when you're going from regular skis to park skis
 
Your skis don't know or care how tall you are. They know and care how much you weigh. The height/length guidelines are based on weight vs height of average skiers. Are you fat? go bigger. Are you a stick? go smaller.
 
12950950:cannonballer said:
Your skis don't know or care how tall you are. They know and care how much you weigh. The height/length guidelines are based on weight vs height of average skiers. Are you fat? go bigger. Are you a stick? go smaller.
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unless you are a stick who can throw the fuck down like most freeskiers are
 
i think about your height is perfect. im 5'10 (like 178 cm) and ride rockered park skis that are 181, which is perfect. i would not go shorter but thats just me
 
12951040:PULL said:
unless you are a stick who can throw the fuck down like most freeskiers are
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I'm kind of assuming that if the OP is asking this question he's not quite at the "throw the fuck down" stage yet.
 
im gettin ther, just asking cuz I'm looking into new skis. I've been riding all my life but started park maybe 3 years ago i wanna say.
 
12951353:pandolfo said:
yea the park skis i have now are at my eyebrows. Just debating on whether to go bigger
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I think you'll be stoked on what you get out of a longer ski -- mine have always been just a bit taller than me barefoot, but last season I tried out some old 190 straights and was blown away by how fun/stable they felt. Granted, there was a big change in terms of shape, too, but the length gave a lot more stability & I was still able to daffy super hard.
 
Should they be above your head with ski boots or with out though? and if it's with out should they be above your head with shoes on? my ski boots make me quite a bit taller, and i wear basketball shoes that make me quite bit taller too.
 
i'm 5'3 and ride Dente 178 and BDog 176, my skis are way over my head, i like skiing bigger skis cause they feel way more stable on rails and jumps, shorter skis feel to unstable to me on jumps and rails
 
I like my skis above my head but smaller skis are way easier to spin with and maneuver. Tall skis are more stable and ski faster though which his why I like them. Once you go to a tall ski it's not bad to get used to. I'm around 5'8 and ski a K2 174 so it's really like a 179(ish) hahaha damn K2! When I bought the ski I didn't know about K2s weird measuring and wanted a true 174 but I'm super glad they're bigger! I'll only use skis taller than me now it's great. Going around forehead length isn't bad though just don't be one of those fools who look like they're on ski blades
 
12953455:maxaum99 said:
Should they be above your head with ski boots or with out though? and if it's with out should they be above your head with shoes on? my ski boots make me quite a bit taller, and i wear basketball shoes that make me quite bit taller too.
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As long as the ski is relatively close to your height it's gonna be fine. I wouldn't worry about the height your shoes/boots add. Keep it in range from mid forehead to just taller than you and the ski will fit good.
 
There is no standard in terms of length. As has been mentioned, rider weight and skill are much bigger factors then height. The flex of the ski will be a factor too. I can ski some park skis in 176 but some I need in 181 and the al dente for example I need a 188. So that is a range of 12cm just for park skis.

Once you get into powder skis with crazy rocker profiles it changes even more.

So overall, if you want to know what size will work best for you, demo the skis. There really is no other way of knowing if a certain size of a ski will work for you or not.
 
how heavy are the 188cm al dente? they say theyre light in their video but i think their 136-99-126 and something normally heavy would be considered light because of the dimensions.
 
12954435:m00se said:
I like my skis above my head but smaller skis are way easier to spin with and maneuver. Tall skis are more stable and ski faster though which his why I like them. Once you go to a tall ski it's not bad to get used to. I'm around 5'8 and ski a K2 174 so it's really like a 179(ish) hahaha damn K2! When I bought the ski I didn't know about K2s weird measuring and wanted a true 174 but I'm super glad they're bigger! I'll only use skis taller than me now it's great. Going around forehead length isn't bad though just don't be one of those fools who look like they're on ski blades
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Yeah i had the same problem with my volkls but they came up shorter. I wish they would just do them true to length?!
 
12950857:Wizerd said:
Really preference. Longer skis are more stable while shorter skis are more maneuverable. Don't get too short though, then you'll have two broken skis and an empty pocket
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this
 
As someone said above, it depends how much you weight. Im 6'4, and dont have any problems skiing 185-190s in the park, but they're made for people much heavier than me, so i'm having a hard time flexing them out. They are more stable yes, but for my type of skiing, butters, ollies etc, i usually get a bit shorter ones because they are meant for people my weight, even tough the length is a bit off.
 
12950899:_MEDSKI said:
I ride 181 filthy riches, and they are about as tall a me. They are rockered so they technically ride shorter, but I have always felt like they are very stable outside the park, and they have been perfect length for the park.
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How tall are you because i want those exact same skis and im 5'9
 
12950899:_MEDSKI said:
I ride 181 filthy riches, and they are about as tall a me. They are rockered so they technically ride shorter, but I have always felt like they are very stable outside the park, and they have been perfect length for the park.
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How tall are you because i want those exact same skis and im 5'9
 
Honestly depends on your skill level. If your beginner you should probably go a bit shorter and if your a bit more experienced go longer. It's alot about preference too
 
Its all preference. Like stated before, longer will be more stable, but if you get skis with light enough swing weights, theyll still be maneuverable. Not to mention that the longer your skis are, you have more to press with, more to butter/flex with, and in my opinion, the longer the skis, the cleaner your tricks will look
 
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