Why wide skis

James Out There Instructor. Joined Dec 2, Posts 14, Why a helmet? Why put the bar down? Wilhelmson Out on the slopes Skier. Joined May 2, Posts 2, Where do you ski?

I have 95 because they were on sale but 86 was just about the perfect middle road for me. Last edited: May 2, Eleeski Making fresh tracks Skier. As one who learned on skinny straight skis, almost everything seems wide. While my SL race skis aren't very good in powder, my 74 wide all around skis work quite well in deep powder.

And the 85 wide skis were my first string powder skis a while back. With that said, some of the new wide skis carve better than some narrower skis on firm days. And of course, they rock in powder. Width is just one factor in ski performance. There are so many variables that you really need to try a ski to see if it works for you and the conditions you ski. Don't necessarily avoid trying a ski just because it is wide.

Specific skis: Goode 74, great all around skis that are fun in powder Goode 85, excellent in powder and OK in bumps but struggle on ice Praxis Backcountry, fat skis that are good all around skis that rock firm snow, bumps and powder Slant Skis not sure of the model , fat skis that rocked on the icy day that I demoed them Head SL race skis, ice only skinny skis Eric.

Dreams, fantasy and lack of a proper skill set. And it looks way cool in the lift line. Bad Bob old n' slow Skier. People buy them because they can. I have 4 pairs of ski pants, and only need one. Thread Starter. Eleeski said:. Click to expand My knees seems much happier in narrower skis in general.

Just a narrower or right-sized all-rounder for the dense chowder of the east for a petite fitness skier. I don't think you'll find true park skis wider than Half pipe is more like 85, and contrary to some beliefs, they want a ski that can carve.

You need speed to get air. So around 85mm and m at ish I believe for pipe. You want some width and not gobs of sidecut to land air. James said:.

CalG Out on the slopes Pass Pulled. The angle and the magnitude of GRF in the frontal plane remained the same throughout the experiment. The knee joint moment arm in the frontal plane the orthogonal distance from the GRF vector to the center of the knee joint also remained the same, despite the point of application of GRF between the narrowest 60 mm and widest mm ski width having a displacement of 3 cm.

This was only possible with the previously described knee kinematic changes. Obviously, in possible adverse biomechanical conditions such as using very wide skis on a hard snow base during turns , the body attempts to retain the unchanged alignment of GRF in relation to knee compartments.

This is done by adapting the knee kinematics. Perhaps this is also an attempt to limit the change of the external torque acting on the knee joint. The increment of activation of BF with the waist width increment is in accordance with the changes in the knee external rotation as biceps is also an external rotator of the knee Besier et al.

The magnitude and the ratio of the outer and inner hamstring muscle activations in our study were comparable with those of the average activation of these muscles in a previous field study Nemeth et al. Pronounced oscillatory patterns of lower limb muscle activation have been reported in real skiing situations Panizzolo et al.

The crucial concern is whether the laboratory settings sufficiently simulated real alpine skiing turns. The obvious mechanical difference is that the participants had no movement along the sagittal axis. However, taking into account that biomechanical parameters were only in the frontal plane, where at any specific moment in time there is also no movement in real skiing, the performed simulation seems to be suitable.

Furthermore, the simulation design allowed some field perturbations to be excluded, as well as provided more superior standardization of the measurement conditions compared with those in a previous study dealing with ski width Zorko et al. At first glance, it may seem that the limitation of the study was also the setting of the skier in a manner that their center of mass did not move during the simulation for different widths of the skis.

In other words, the strap giving lateral support to the participant remained unchanged during the sets of movements. One might conclude that all the kinematic and torque changes were merely the consequence of these setting changes. However, it was proven that such small changes of the moving foot relative to the fixed point of the side attachment had a negligible effect on the magnitude Figure 5 as well as on the alignment of the GRF Figure 6.

Consequently, this setting could not have any influence on the torques of the individual body segments. Perhaps the single leg stance in our experiment may represent an important difference compared with that in real skiing, where typically both legs are loaded. However, it was shown that the predominant load is normally shifted to the outer ski Vaverka and Vodickova, This still might have an impact on the knee torque situation Klous et al. Nevertheless, the loading of the outer leg in our experiment was comparable with the expected average loading of the outer leg during the turn in recreational skiing, if we assume force distribution between the outer and inner legs Vaverka and Vodickova, ; Scheiber et al.

The present study has demonstrated that skiers adapt knee joint kinematics with additional external rotation of the tibia against the femur when using wider waist width skis.

However, the valgus position of the knee remained independent of the ski waist width. The intention of these kinematical adjustments was probably to maintain alignment of the GRF of the loaded lower limb within close proximity to the joint center, thus minimizing the external torques acting on the joint. Such minimization of the external torques while using very wide waist skis resulted in the knee joint reaching its near end of the range of motion in the frontal and transversal planes combined with higher muscle activation.

The probable consequence of using skis with a very large waist width on hard frozen surfaces would be that the knee joint is continuously during numerous turning in an externally rotated position and femoral muscles becoming more activated with possible more compression forces acting on joint surfaces. However, whether this type of malalignment and additional muscle activation can lead to long-term knee joint consequences in skiing is yet unclear.

Nevertheless, very large waist widths are not permitted in most competitive alpine skiing disciplines, although International Ski Association regulations still have no upper waist width limit in slalom, which has already been pointed out as a potential risk factor Supej et al. This is the first study to investigate knee joint kinematics, kinetics, and muscle activation in alpine skiing as a function of the ski waist width. Rotation of the tibia against the femur was shown to be progressively influenced by the increment of the waist width of the outer ski during turning.

Therefore, increasing waist width potentially escalates uneven joint pressure distribution, while at the same time, this adaptation allows the external torque to remain unchanged. Future epidemiological studies are needed to further elucidate the potential relationship between ski waist width and the damaging effect on the knee joint.

Additionally, further improvements in the ski simulations are needed, possibly integrating dynamic movements for imitating turning as well as vibrations, to better simulate real skiing conditions. Publicly available datasets were analyzed in this study.

This study was carried out in accordance with the recommendations of the responsible Ethics Committee at the University of Ljubljana with written informed consent from all subjects. All subjects gave written informed consent in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki.

The protocol was approved by the responsible Ethics Committee at the University of Ljubljana. BN developed the software for 3D kinematical analysis. ZM and AO developed the skiing simulator and supervised the experimental process. All authors have contributed in the writing of the manuscript, proofread the manuscript, and approved the final version.

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. Bere, T. Mechanisms of anterior cruciate ligament injury in World Cup alpine skiing: a systematic video analysis of 20 cases. Sports Med. Besier, T. Muscle activation strategies at the knee during running and cutting maneuvers. Sports Exerc. Brucker, P.

Recreational and competitive alpine skiing. Typical injury patterns and possibilities for prevention. Der Unfallchirurg , 24— Federolf, P. Finite element simulation of the ski—snow interaction of an alpine ski in a carved turn.

Sports Eng. Lindinger, and T. Google Scholar. Gilgien, M. Mechanics of turning and jumping and skier speed are associated with injury risk in men's World Cup alpine skiing: a comparison between the competition disciplines. Grood, E. Limits of movement in the human knee. Effect of sectioning the posterior cruciate ligament and posterolateral structures. Bone Joint Surg. A joint coordinate system for the clinical description of three-dimensional motions: application to the knee.

Haaland, B. Injury rate and injury patterns in FIS World Cup Alpine skiing : have the new ski regulations made an impact? Hebert-Losier, K. What are the exercise-based injury prevention recommendations for recreational alpine skiing and snowboarding? A systematic review. Hermens, H. Development of recommendations for SEMG sensors and sensor placement procedures. Hildebrandt, C. Traumatic and overuse injuries among elite adolescent alpine skiers: a two-year retrospective analysis.

Sport Med. Klous, M. Sports Sci. Three-dimensional knee joint loading in alpine skiing: a comparison between a carved and a skidded turn. With less surface area and weight, you need to be a more technical skier — or deep in the backseat — to rip the that kind terrain the way you can on fat skis.

OK, quick physics lesson. Two factors are at play when it comes to increasing ski speed. First, a bigger ski spreads out the pressure on the surface of the snow, creating less friction. Second, bigger skis dampen vibration, enabling them to bounce around less and stay on the snow longer, minimizing air resistance that can slow you down. Thus, the larger the ski, the faster you go. And the quicker you get to the hot chocolate — or beer. In deep snow, additional surface area helps you float higher.

This makes skiing more fun and much safer. Floating near the top of the snowpack reduces drag, which means you are able to ski mellow terrain fast and maintain enough speed to still lay down GS turns.

For backcountry skiers, fatter skis let you still have fun while avoiding steep lines on days with high instability, keeping you out of avalanche danger. More importantly, it also helps you avoid snow sharks — hidden rocks and logs below the snow surface — that can tear ligaments and end a ski season quickly.

Bottom line: fat skis offer the same volume of face shots while skirting the hassle and danger of diet skis on a pow day. This creates less fatigue in your legs, so you can ski longer and conserve energy for an extra lap or two.