Another rookie question. Skill classificaiton?

Back40

New member
How does one go about classifying their ski skill? Intermediate vs advanced vs expert? I feel I am at least intermediate (skies parallel, quick turns through the entire run but stay primarily on groomed runs).
 
I have personally never skied on any of the SuperSport skis. If you are a strong, heavy guy I think the 5* would be OK for you. However, before sinking that much money into a ski, I'd highly suggest demo'ing a few skis and seeing what suits you best. For $40 or less you should be able to demo an unlimited number of high performance skis in a day.

Also note: If one of your goals is to get into more advanced terrain and ski crud / pow / bumps better / easier, I'd recommend looking at something that's a little wider underfoot. The extra girth really can make a world of difference. Earlier this season I was so discouraged when I everyone around me was ripping it up in the crud / early season slush ... it turned out that the ski I was on wasn't at all made for those conditions and it was pretty damn obvious after I tried some other skis. I like the the Dynaster Legend 8000 and the Volkl 724 Pro quite a bit. I ended up buying the 8000's.
 
Back40 says:
How does one go about classifying their ski skill? Intermediate vs advanced vs expert?

go to Jackson Hole for a week!

what's a green? what's a blue? what's a black? double black? east,
west, or rockies? find out where your level of confidence stops. it will all
be confirmed for you at JH.
 
Back40":1x992v7j said:
I'd rate myself at level 7. Do you feel Volkl 5Star would still be too much ski for me?

It'll be fine *IN THE APPROPRIATE LENGTH* for your weight and ability.

I'm about a 9 on a good day ( <spinaltap> This one goes to eleven. </spinaltap> ) and weigh 145. For the 5-star I wouldn't get longer than a 175 for myself, and a 170 is probably closer to ideal.

Unfortunatley Volkl's web site is useless for determining what size is right for what weight - talk to your retailer and knock off 1 size from what is recommended for your weight to compensate for your ability level.

FWIW, I really liked the Volkl 724AX2 which is more forgiving than the 5-star, but still offers quite high performance. I skied that model's predecessor for 2 years in a 168cm and rarely felt like I needed more ski. Being a down-line "intermediate" model it's also quite a bit less expensive. For that ski, I'd go with the chart-indicated size for your weight.
 
I hate how Volkl changes the names of their Vertigo series skis EVERY SINGLE FREAKIN' YEAR.

724EXS is about the same as the 724AX2 which would be about the same as the Vertigo G21, the Vertigo G20 and the Vertigo G2... 5 names for the same ski in 5 years...

The EXT is much softer and is suitable as a "first ski." Same as the 724AX1, G11, G10 and G1.

The EXP (AX3, G31, G30, G3) is more sidecutty and stiffer than the EXS and the Pro (AX4, G41, G40, G4, Vertigo, Snow Ranger, 7 names in 10 years) is the rock-star ski.
 
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