The effects of skis marketed as expert to advanced for a begginer

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Vincent_Diesel

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Backstory: I am going on my 8th day of skiing. I've been making good strides with the help of fine folks on this forum and some proper ski instruction. This weekend I had tried a different hill and the greens/blues were much steeper than my home hill. I had found an awesome deal on my first set of skis, this is where it gets controversial. I am 5'9", over 220 lbs and settled on Blizzard Brahma 173 long / 88 at the waist. I ski in New England, the ice coast and I knew I would have a ski that I could grow into, skis that did well on frontside groomers and icy conditions, also a ski with a stiffer flex to handle my weight.

Problem: On gradual slopes I feel good, skis parallel, can change direction when I want, maintain speed, and able to stop confidently when I have to, no real problems there. Now when slopes get steeper I apply the same technique, but my inside ski seems to get stuck and I lose confidence FAST, especially when turning left the problem is much worse for some reason. My technique gets sloppy immediately and I feel the only way to gracefully slow down is to go back to the old snowplow, pizza. Now my mind is telling me that it has to be the equipment right? Joking but little bit of seriousness here.

Question: Is there a possibility that my skis are too much for me right now? Are they too long? (at my forehead now). Is it too wide which affects rotation of the inside ski? Too stiff to throw around? Are skis marketed as having excellent edge hold too much to rotate for a noob like myself? I have no problems shelfing this ski until I am ready to confidently use them all mountain, but could the equipment be playing a role here? Do I give it more time?
 
It's not too big or too wide. With your size I think you should easily be able to flex that ski.

Have you looked into detuning at all?
 
I know very little about de-tuning a ski. How will de-tuning help in my case? I assume it will help the inner ski edge less on ice...

**This post was edited on Feb 22nd 2019 at 12:48:11pm
 
They may be a bit overkill for learning but with your size I think they could be manageable. I think you should just really keep focusing on your technique, learning, and making minor adjustments. It takes a long time to perfect this stuff so try not to get frustrated
 
I will keep at it, this shit is really fun. I am def eager to learn.

I remember the first rentals I had, shorter and skinnier skis and going down my first big hill they just felt so wobbly and squirrely under speed. My new skis definitely feel more planted but now experience the opposite, they just seem to love going straight.

14002778:hootsquad said:
They may be a bit overkill for learning but with your size I think they could be manageable. I think you should just really keep focusing on your technique, learning, and making minor adjustments. It takes a long time to perfect this stuff so try not to get frustrated
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That's good stuff right there. I wonder if once you detune an edge is it tough to put an edge back on.

14002808:mystery3 said:
https://blisterreview.com/gear-reviews/ski-reviews/2018-2019-blizzard-brahma

You've probably read this already but there is brief discussion in the comments about detuning and the factory tune being edgy.

Detuning the contact points should help the ski release from a turn more easily and not feel like it's locking in.
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14002825:Vincent_Diesel said:
That's good stuff right there. I wonder if once you detune an edge is it tough to put an edge back on.
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Not hard. Maybe if you did a big detune like park skiers do underfoot, actually rounding the edge significantly with a file, but just taking the edge off a touch with a file/gummie stone isn't taking off that much material.
 
It's the wizard not the wand! Sounds like you need to learn to be on the front of the skis. Try lifting your toes to the roof of your boot, it will force you to be on the balls of your feet and get forward. Also try lifting up your inside ski at the top of the new turn right when you transition your weight, this is will put the majority of your weight on the downhill ski and keep you from falling.
 
Size: not too long/wide, if anything, might be too short 3 yrs down the line when you are a better skier.

Cause: it's more of a technique and sounds like you are in the back seat. Just keep crushing the easier runs and get comfortable with speed.

To improve: when turning, lift the tail of the uphill ski (if you turn left, lift the left ski & vise versa) to learn how to un-weight/center on a turn...just do a quick google/youtube to see what I mean on the above.
 
Definitely good advice and I've been trying to feel more comfortable with this. Trying to trust that the ski will hold all of me and 200+ lbs it. On the steeps, looking straight down it feels like I am going to go OTB (BMX slang for over the bars).

14002837:decX said:
It's the wizard not the wand! Sounds like you need to learn to be on the front of the skis. Try lifting your toes to the roof of your boot, it will force you to be on the balls of your feet and get forward. Also try lifting up your inside ski at the top of the new turn right when you transition your weight, this is will put the majority of your weight on the downhill ski and keep you from falling.
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Ok so first of all, those skis do not seem at all like skis exclusively for advanced skiers, and they are in no way too big for you or too wide. 88 is pretty damn narrow nowadays. The problem is probably just the stiffness and full camber of the ski, which again should not be that hard to deal with at intermediate level or above. Your choice of ski was not wrong. It sounds like you just need to work on the fundamentals; 8 days of skiing is nothing. Most people here ski easily 20+ days a season.

**This post was edited on Feb 22nd 2019 at 7:01:08pm
 
bro you're vin diesel I saw "XXX: Return of Xander Cage" and u fuckin kill it on skis what are you worried about
 
Thanks for the reassurance gang. Glad to know I can pull the “equipment” out of the equation and just concentrate on getting my shit together fundamentally.
 
Definitely think it’s a tuning issue on the skis as those skis are fine for someone your size.

Think the issue is the base edge bevel or the fact that the skis don’t have flat bases/edges and the edges are actually higher than the bases or “edge high” as it’s usually called. If the edges are high, the ski wants to track straight and not enter/exit a turn easily. You check this with a true bar and every shop will be able to quickly check this. $20 stone grind to fix this.

If the base is flat the other thing to check is the base level. Should be 1 degree on that ski but might be less than that which would also cause a ski to “catch an edge too easily” for a newbie. Race skis and some skis from the factory come at .5 degrees or so and they barely need to be tilted before the edge grabs, which is great for an expert racer but it might react too quick for you. Rental skis are usually put at a very high 2 degree base bevel so beginners won’t catch edges. 1 degree base and 2 degree side angle is the norm so just have someone check what your edges are at. You can also mention your catching issues and they can also check to make sure the tip/tails on the skis aren’t too sharp and have them hit with a gummy stone to tame them a bit.

So basically a base level check and edge level check and you should be golden. Then practice, practice, practice!
 
14002954:TheVictator said:
Ok so first of all, those skis do not seem at all like skis exclusively for advanced skiers, and they are in no way too big for you or too wide. 88 is pretty damn narrow nowadays. The problem is probably just the stiffness and full camber of the ski, which again should not be that hard to deal with at intermediate level or above. Your choice of ski was not wrong. It sounds like you just need to work on the fundamentals;

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88mm is solid all-mountain territory on the east coast, it's a nice width for a do-it-all kind of ski.

It shouldn't be too stiff for OP and the brahma has a fair bit of rocker in the tips and tails, I looked at that first before suggesting detuning above.

OP get the ski checked out/worked on a bit and keep skiing, that ski should serve you well for a few years.
 
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