Carving straight skis

[h.harb]

This is more representative of good skiing than the hacking we saw at Val d'Isere and the crap course setting of resent races, and it's on straight skis. Who said you couldn't carve on straight skis?
Judge for yourself!

I swear he could still win today!

[jclayton]

Very bumpy course , wow , one of the best runs I've seen on any skis . Perfect touch .

[Max_501]

Truly amazing.

[h.harb]

While on the ski shape thing, I keep coming back to Super Shapes. I had a student today, with an Atomic wide ski about 73mm or 75mm. I call them wide because compared to SS they are wide. Didn't get the results I was looking for from the skier. So I got them on some SS demos. Within a few runs this skier was making arcs that would never be realized on the Atomics. The SS demos I had were 15cm longer as well.

Super Shapes may not be the end all ski everyone will ski on all the time, but there is no ski that will teach you how to tip and feel the ski pulling you through a radius, more quickly, than a Super Shape.

[HeluvaSkier]

Super Shapes may not be the end all ski everyone will ski on all the time, but there is no ski that will teach you how to tip and feel the ski pulling you through a radius, more quickly, than a Super Shape.

The tools that skiers have available to them these days are impressive. It is a shame that more people do not use skis like the SS for training purposes. A lot can be learned on such a comparatively little ski.

[jbotti]

The 3 skis that changed my skiing most were in order: the Head ISL chips (165), the Head SS's 170 and the Head ISL RD. The ISL chips were the first tight turn radius skis that I owned. These were the skis that I learned to carve on and eliminate any pivot or tail pushing. 2 seasons later I got the SS's. Still the single best learning technical ski made, and just fun all the time. When I got the ISL RD's I realized that there are ceratin things that a race ski can and will do that a recerational ski can't and won't. The power and the speed with which it will relase turn is just amazing and being able to take advanthge of this brought my skiing to another level.

Another great Head ski for learning and improving is the IM 78!! What the SS does for on piste skiing (with regard to moving one up the technique curve) the IM 78 does for off piste skiing. A great learning tool and a super fun ski!!

[h.harb]

I'm now skiing the Icon TT 80 and my Super Shape Speed 177cm. Really fun skis both. I'v e got the Speeds to carve tight radius on steep, it's all about bending the tip.

[HeluvaSkier]

it's all about bending the tip.

Yep! I bumped up to a 188 in GS this year. I imagine I will spend a lot of time bending the tip of those beasts!

[Hacski]

This comment was on another forum

That video brings a smile to my face and a tear to my eye. Beauty, art, power, grace and balls of steel all wrapped up with a classic 80's soundtrack somehow moves me in a very primal way and gives me another reminder that I was born to ski.

I can't believe how bumpy that course was, its almost like skier cross.

[h.harb]

Good comments, if you have ever raced, sounds like this poster did, skiing that well, on this rough a course, is simply brilliant. Racing a World Cup GS is a thrilling experience, I raced in four WC GS races. I was happy to make it down with legs trembling, not from fear, from exertion. GS to me anyway, was the most physically demanding event, totally anaerobic. Sure, downhill burned the legs, but you could kind of sit on them. In GS you have to constantly react. Slalom is all adrenaline, over before you have time to think about what happened.

[fisherskionsnow]

I love my super shape speed with my head boots. Just received them last week. Probably the best carving ski I've been on, besides my ISL that I got from Diana.
The super shape speed made sure that I stayed centered. No back seat driving with these. Also to my great surprise they did well in bumps that were hard surface ( for Montana). I was quite hesitant about taking them in the bumps, because I usually use my softer skies for bumps, usually my IM 70's.

[h.harb]

I got in another day on my SS Speeds 177cm, getting into the hang of stronger pull back, and carving from the tips. They even make short radius carves.
On 165cm slaloms and 170cm SS, you don't have to do much pull back and if you get too much the tails get light.

[fisherskionsnow]

With my supershape speed 163cm it really made me focus on pulling back my feet, which I've been lacking at with my other skis. And if I didn't keep centered with my boots lined up under my hips I got a fair amount of chatter in the last 1/3 of the arc (almost typed turn). Some of the chatter was due (I think) to keeping the stance leg extended to long in the last 1/3 of the turn instead of slowly releasing the stance leg to relieve some of the pressure (over pressured my stance ski). I find that if I keep extending and pressuring the stance ski the more chatter I get. There seems to be a fine line with pressure management for me. More isn't always better.
Fun ski. Highly recommended SS speed.

[Hacski]

This comment was on another forum

BTW, that other forum wasn't that other forum but our local, social one.