Skiing Tip - Choosing The Length Of Your Skis

Determining the appropriate length of your skis has little to do with your height and weight - unless your goal is to ski fast. If you are an aging Baby Boomer, selecting the length of your skis should be a function of two things: your age and the number of days you ski each year. The older you are and/or the fewer number of days you ski each season are all arguments for shorter skis.

Now "short" is a relative term. Skiers who used to ski on 210cm skis and who now ski on 180cm skis think they are on short skis. But, when we say short, we mean short. If you are skiing in-bounds in a ski area, with today's ski technology, we find that there is little penalty for skiing shorter skis. You gain much more manueverability and because a shorter ski length typically correlates with a smaller turn radius, a shorter ski spends less time in the fall line, which means that the skier is not going as fast and, which, in turn, lowers anxiety. These are all desirable benefits if you are a Boomer skiing in moguls and powder.

Let's re-calibrate your thinking about ski length. For aging Boomers (age 50+) we are seeing great results with mid-fat skis in a 150cm - 160cm length for men and 146cm - 150cm for women.

For more information on ski length read our four part series on choosing ski length.

To your success in becoming a better mogul and powder skier.