How to choose the right pair of skis with Hawaiisurf Skishop

You have finally finished your lessons with an ES F instructor and you want to choose your pair of skis? With the fifty brands in the world, all offering a multitude of models in programs that for you are unknown thermal baths, it is difficult to make the right choice especially when it comes to your first purchase and investment in your quiver of ski package. Hawaii Surf offers you a quick guide to offer you the right advice to help you make the right choice, the one that will be best suited to your skier profile.

The choice of ski program.

Before rushing headlong into a ski model because you find it beautiful and it will go perfectly with your ski pants or your ski jacket, remember to look at the ski program, namely the favorite playground of the ski. At Hawaiisurf Ski Shop we have laid out a specific buying guide that explains which ski program to choose, which you can find by clicking here.

In summary we have made a classification in relation to our vision of specialists and practitioners.

Versatile-Piste skis

Skis for use on the piste but also capable, due to their shape and waist width, of seeking practice on the edges of the piste on less worked snow.

Versatile-Powder skis

Skis for practice both on piste and in powder snow with shapes close to piste skiing but offering more rocker, width in the waist to be able to ski off piste and float on powder snow, while maintaining grip and precision on groomed snow.

Versatile-Freestyle skis

Let your creativity speak with excellent skis on the piste as well as in a more freestyle practice with the realization of tricks in the snowpark as well as on the edges of the piste with natural bumps. There are also more technical and rigid 100% Freestyle skis for experienced skiers.

Freestyle-Backcountry skis

It is the most technical and spectacular discipline since it combines Freestyle skiing in off-piste spots with performing lines of tricks based on large rotations. Here we find pairs of wide skis with big rockers.

Freerando skis

The most modern practice of skiing, these are perfect skis to be able to climb quickly to the summits before being able to descend while having fun skiing freely. Skis that will combine lightness, maneuverability and stability on the slopes and in powder.

The choice of ski shape.

There are two types of shape in skiing. We talk about shape when we express the shape of the ski, namely that it can be unidirectional, with steering and maneuverability exclusively from the front, not being able to give the opportunity to the skier who chooses this type of ski to be able to back steps. Conversely, the skis that are classified in the bidirectional shape (bispatulate) offer a symmetry that offers an unrolling of the spatula both at the front and at the rear, which can allow you to go into reverse (switch position).

Traditional piste and all-purpose-powder skis often have a unidirectional shape, while skis with more Freestyle programs will offer bidirectional shapes.

The rocker's choice of skiing.

The rocker is a fairly modern name in the world of alpine skiing, it appeared with the evolution of skis when the terms Freeride, Freeski or Freestyle-Bakccountry began to settle in ski collections. The rocker is neither more nor less than the shape and the extension with more or less angle of the front tip or even rear according to certain skis. We thus find one with less flat spatulas, which ends several centimeters before the end of the ski.

Thus the area with rocker no longer offers direct contact with the snow (especially on hard, groomed snow), whereas in powder, the more rocker you have, the more your ski will rise to the surface and float. There is also greater ease when entering and exiting curves, with less grip on the edge and therefore greater ease in turning.