Why do a bunch of the Olympic slopestyle skiers ride ski blades?

bigcat.

bigcat.

Member
Andri has skis that barely go to his mouth and he's like 6' tall.

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Jesper Tjader, probably the most famous snowblader of all. Rumor has it he used to ride Head junior skis and had a 175 topsheet printed on a pair of 160 somethings haha

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Even Nick Goepdawg rides short whips. His skis are almost the same size as Maggies lmao

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Then you got Dollo and Woodsy who are both pretty small (5'6 and 5'7 respectively) skiing whips far above their head.

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I get why, they want to be able to huck triples off a handrail lip but come on. If Dollo can ski 178s or something like that in comps and still chuck trips, why can't Jesper and the rest of the bladers?
 
They’re professionals. They will do whatever it takes to perform at their best. If that means Lil skis it means Lil skis.
 
Henrik's skis are rockered so they ride a bit shorter but honestly its probably personal preference
 
Anyone else get distracted when watching edits of people with really short skis? For instance that squid skiing kid. The tricks he does are dope especially for his age but I always find myself distracted by how tiny his skis are
 
All about that swing weight. There's a reason why aerials uses skis around 160. Unfortunately actual skiing skill (skis on snow skill) isn't being judged in slopestyle, it's all about what you can do in the air and on rails. You could be a fairly mediocre skier and still be amazing at slopestyle, so long as you can take off and land properly at speed on hardpack. You could not even know how to ski powder.
 
13891413:ManesPhoney said:
Have you ever skied a camber ski with hard flex above body hight? It sucks.
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Not sure why this got so many downvotes...I wouldnt say it sucks necessarily, but it is a tonnnn of ski if you are riding like 185 volkl walls or salomon NFX...fully cambered competitive slopestyle skis are no joke, and a 177 will do the trick for someone goeppers size easily
 
13891468:flowmobb said:
let me guess you live on the east coast and ski only park
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Nah ... not really. I'm actually from Germany and I figured we were talking 'park only', since this thread refers to slopestyle comps. Personally I prefere body size +5cm rockered skis. I tried to ski park with camber skis that had the same size as my rockered skis and I hated them, that's all.
 
Smaller skis= lower swing weight and easier to swap. Longer skis are better for carving, plus with rockered skis like the dollo you should always go big because the contract point gets pushed down toward the bindings. I would much rather see swaps done on longer skis, it's harder.
 
topic:bigcat. said:
Andri has skis that barely go to his mouth and he's like 6' tall.

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Jesper Tjader, probably the most famous snowblader of all. Rumor has it he used to ride Head junior skis and had a 175 topsheet printed on a pair of 160 somethings haha

View attachment 893741

Even Nick Goepdawg rides short whips. His skis are almost the same size as Maggies lmao

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Then you got Dollo and Woodsy who are both pretty small (5'6 and 5'7 respectively) skiing whips far above their head.

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I get why, they want to be able to huck triples off a handrail lip but come on. If Dollo can ski 178s or something like that in comps and still chuck trips, why can't Jesper and the rest of the bladers?
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Well Jesper is practically a midget so of course his skis are tiny
 
13891507:mystery3 said:
Sort of like those little guys with really big trucks?
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Hahahaha you got me there, trolling but everyone here can agree that longer skis not only look better when a skilled skier throws down on them but they just get more respect as they're just tougher to move, disregarding the whole camber/rocker argument.
 
Lol why on earth would you ever pick to ride a specific ski if it has no benefit for you, especially at that level? I'm a bit taller than my 166cm full camber park skis and a bit shorter than my Magnus at 171. Literally no reason for me to go an bigger, even on the magnus which have so much rocker. Learn to land centered if you need super long skis to not wash out, or get something with less rocker.
 
Obviously you have never entered in a high level slopestyle competition. At morning registration they check to make sure your dick to ski size ratio is up to FIS standards.
 
Why is this such a big deal? I get that skiing is 90 percent image, but if a rider can throw down and produce interesting content who cares how long of skis they like. This is the fucking Olympics, if you can ski better on shorter skis then it would be ridiculous to use longer ones just to look cool. And for all of you saying it's harder to ski longer skis, that isn't exactly true. It's definitely easier to spin on shorter skis, but you have to land far more centered that on a longer pair. I think you can find a correlation here with guys like henrik and casabon whose style relies heavily on being backseat a lot, using longer skis to compensate.
 
13891589:chicknfriedsteak said:
Why is this such a big deal? I get that skiing is 90 percent image, but if a rider can throw down and produce interesting content who cares how long of skis they like. This is the fucking Olympics, if you can ski better on shorter skis then it would be ridiculous to use longer ones just to look cool. And for all of you saying it's harder to ski longer skis, that isn't exactly true. It's definitely easier to spin on shorter skis, but you have to land far more centered that on a longer pair. I think you can find a correlation here with guys like henrik and casabon whose style relies heavily on being backseat a lot, using longer skis to compensate.
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Its certainly not a big deal but you can't deny that longer skis enhance grab aesthetics.
 
13891595:Puzzled said:
Its certainly not a big deal but you can't deny that longer skis enhance grab aesthetics.
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Wait, so size doesn't matter?? That means I should buy a pair of 151's and huck 1080's off of the little kids jumps?? What about 540 swaps?? Andri I'm coming for you! Imma get the first quintuple cork
 
It worries me that people actually care about the length of someones skis, people ride on what feels best for them
 
13891693:e_mac said:
It worries me that people actually care about the length of someones skis, people ride on what feels best for them
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It bothers people because when you see someone riding skis far too small for them for actual skiing you know they're putting skiing second and aerials first. It shows that they're pushing towards "who cares what I do on snow, it's all about what I can do in the air" which is exactly what aerials is. I can see how it can bother some people and I can see how others don't give a shit.
 
Little skis just make your style look worse. If Henrik used little bitch skis I wonder if he’d be even better in the air though.
 
13891703:VinnieF said:
It bothers people because when you see someone riding skis far too small for them for actual skiing you know they're putting skiing second and aerials first. It shows that they're pushing towards "who cares what I do on snow, it's all about what I can do in the air" which is exactly what aerials is. I can see how it can bother some people and I can see how others don't give a shit.
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posts like that have become rare on newschoolers, kudos to you! speaking the truth
 
hell yeah, i love this thread. some Athletes have the problem that their sponsor don't have longer skis than 178. And when you look closely to what's going to happen to Armadas 2019 lineup you'll see that long skis don't sell. I am 5'11 but because I'm skinny AF i look extremly tall. So i have to ski at least a 186 to make it look decent. But in that lengt range it is hard to find a good ski. Especially with alot of companys beeing not honest about sizing.

It's all our fault here in europe. We are trying to ski with math and not with our hearts and soul.
 
13891773:Marco_Guler said:
hell yeah, i love this thread. some Athletes have the problem that their sponsor don't have longer skis than 178. And when you look closely to what's going to happen to Armadas 2019 lineup you'll see that long skis don't sell. I am 5'11 but because I'm skinny AF i look extremly tall. So i have to ski at least a 186 to make it look decent. But in that lengt range it is hard to find a good ski. Especially with alot of companys beeing not honest about sizing.
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Nah I’m 5’ 11” and pretty skinny and I ski 180s mounted center, I think they look more than big enough. I find that in lift lines and stuff I have bigger skis than almost everyone that’s taller and heavier than me so there’s no way people can think they look too short.
 
13891782:mmccarthy81 said:
Nah I’m 5’ 11” and pretty skinny and I ski 180s mounted center, I think they look more than big enough. I find that in lift lines and stuff I have bigger skis than almost everyone that’s taller and heavier than me so there’s no way people can think they look too short.
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he is probably a ski jumper
 
13891413:ManesPhoney said:
Have you ever skied a camber ski with hard flex above body hight? It sucks.
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It has alot to do with weight as well. a stiff ski with 180lbs on it can be a very fun. Tons of snap off the lip.

How about haw big Dollo's skis are in the first pick of him haha, nice to see him killing it on something thats not a toothpic
 
13891781:murphyboiiii said:
We’ll they’re pro and we’re not, so clearly it works for them lol.
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What a stupid point. That's like saying "Geopper has plenty of experience smashing out car windows with rocks so we cannot criticize his ski length". Come on now.
 
Not just props to Dollo, but props to Colby Stevenson by keeping it real with the 180+ always

Long skis=better sty always. Sean Jordan, Kim Boberg, Hornbeck, Dylan Sondrup, are just a few with really good sty where I always notice/appreciate that they are riding on the longer whips
 
Ill just say that for us Taller skiers (most of us at least) we are using the longest ski sizes that our sponsors make. Not a lot of companies make larger than 184 max for most slope skis... I can't speak for the kids using skis around 175.. but the manufacture comes into the picture with us skiers above 6 foot.

Henrik is the most baller of all for proving you can do all the rail tricks and jumps with massive steezy looking skis.
 
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