I am a female, 5'5", weighing 145 lb, and late 50ish
Can you find a pair of the 155s? I'm 6', 200#, ski pretty hard, and I'm on the 170s, and the 165s probably would have been OK for me. The 160s might be OK for you, but if you're an easy going skier, shorter is better. Anyone here on the 155s or 160s with more input?
CP13 means that it comes with a Carve Plate 13 mm high. That is the same this year and last. The carve plate is predrilled for Tyrolia bindings...I think it'll take any except the Railflex line. Be sure you find a binding with the DIN setting low enough for you. I'm not sure I trust any binding set right at the bottom of the scale. Because the plate is predrilled, you can change your binding position fore & aft with little trouble. Try it at least 1 cm forward of the mark, and I'd try it 2 or 3 cm forward and see how you like that.
I think this year's and last are the same except for the graphics.
"i." in front of the name of the Head skis means, "The vision behind HEAD Intelligence Technology (originally developed for use in helicopter rotor blades) was to make a ski that delivers perfect performance relative to any terrain and in all riding modes. The success of Intelligence has proven us right. Intellifibers positioned at 45? in front of the binding transform mechanical impulses into electrical energy. The harder you ride, the more energy is produced. The electrical energy is led back to the Intellfibers. This causes them to stiffen up, putting more rebound and torsional stiffness into the ski. The stiffening up of the Intellifibers during high-performance skiing achieves two things:
1) Their 45? position in front of the binding increases the ski?s torsional stiffness, pushing the edge into the snow in hard turns.
2) Intelligence progressively stabilizes the entire ski at high speeds."
I don't feel that the Supershapes require any special attention. I like mine a lot. They are stable for a straight run, skid OK, and carve great. The only problem I've gotten into is with too much tip pressure and too much edge angle on soft pack. The tip dug in and flung me like a pole vaulter getting launched off his pole. That was just once, and no other bobble at all.
Ken