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fat or parabolic for Washington?

Original Post
eyesonice2014 · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Nov 2014 · Points: 140

We are intending to do a good mix of cross-country and downhill on some epic heavy WA snow. Any advise on Parabolic vs pow to use with skins and silvereta type bindings?

KevinCO · · Loveland, CO · Joined Mar 2006 · Points: 60

Fat, but not super fat. Early rise, or rockered instead of parabolic. In most cases, go longer with rockered than parabolic.

Rockered skis: make it easier to break trail; better flotation; quicker turn initiation; more foregiving; depending on the model, a more versatile ski...

Garrett R. · · Colorado · Joined Oct 2008 · Points: 25

It seems that there is a lack of understanding around the term parabolic...
That aside, being in Washington has little to do with what ski you need. Ski choice is dictated by style and preference. So, any advice given based on the info you provided is essentially worthless.

eyesonice2014 · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Nov 2014 · Points: 140

We are going to Seattle ski swap and trying to figure out what kind of skis we need for deep heavy snow. Approaches mostly . Do skins go on fats? I used parabolic 165 in Vail on plenty of blues. This snow is much different though.

eyesonice2014 · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Nov 2014 · Points: 140

Yes you still can buy some old school straight downhill skis.

marty funkhouser · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Dec 2007 · Points: 20

Actually, straight is no longer old skool. Parabolic is old school. Pick up some bitchin Oakley Blades if you go parabolic. Old school straight is super old school. I'm talking lime green fartbags and big hair old school. New skool straight is all about rocker......and waist width. Also, its not really straight. Its called something like delayed sidecut or something. I forget the exact term. Ok, back to waist and camber. Go 100mm and early rise. There's also reverse camber and reverse side-cut. These have been around for awhile but are still considered new skool. Actually, the new, new skool is a blending of new skool with the medium skool and the fact that it resembles the old school is purely coincidence. Actually, old school is narrow with a ton of rocker so there is a legitimate difference between old school and new, new skool. Also, Silverete's are crap.

Glad I could clear that up for you.

eyesonice2014 · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Nov 2014 · Points: 140

Awesome, Marty, you sound like an old timer who is trying to get a whiff of new school. Personally, I think it's all in the wax. But that concept is pretty old school.

Guideline #1: Don't be a jerk.

Pacific Northwest
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