Shopping for Race Skis, Wondering What Skis to Buy for Your Aspiring Race? Please Read...

"What skis should I buy?" is likely one of the most common question I get asked throughout the season. ...a close second, "Can I take for a free run?"  To learn more about answering that question see the page, "About WIJARA Race Weekends" for insight into answering that question.

When prepping for the season, one topic that comes up repeatedly is what size skis should I buy for my aspiring racer.  It's a great question. But when you get down to it, there's only a handful of factors that determine the right size. Once you have a handle on those you can set about your search.  Here is a brief summary and discussion as to why these factors matter and what to look for in a race ski.

• Height and Weight: The first factor considered in sizing for skis is weight and height. Once you have this information you can narrow down your search.  The weight of the skier, in particular balances with the flex within the ski. The height of the skier has less to do with the overall process, thus a shorter heavier-set skier can get away with skiing longer ski length.  
  
  For those of you just looking for a straight forward modern scale defining the size of skis to height and weight...here it is:

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    For adults, reference the chart below...

    

• Ability Level: Ability has a lot to do with what size ski you're looking at acquiring. Shorter skis tend to be easier for beginners, where longer skis provide more stability especially at higher speeds. Discussing ski length without factoring ability can all become a bit semantic since really what we want to mix into the conversation is the quality of the ski's build and its characteristic profile in contrast to the skier's abilities and intentions, which has a much greater impact than the ultimate length of the skis.
   
• Ski Construction: Not all skis are alike! Not even close. A high quality race ski is laid-up by hand with every part of the construction process managed manually.  In general there are two types of skis available to consumers and racers, Capped Skis and Sidewall Skis. The best race skis are built using the Sidewall technique.  To read more about sidewall construction technique, follow the link below:
  • The Mechanic - Ski Construction
• Avoid Capped Skis!  For aspiring racers, my best advice is to tell you to avoid Capped Ski Construction.  Capped skis are mass-produced for the casual recreational skier market. Many brands outsource the production of the skis to factories located in China. Yes, they're a great deal for ski areas looking to stock their rental shops, but they simply do not have the performance necessary for developing racers beyond age 9 or 10. Note, capped skis are fine for young kids, under age 8 or 9, or ski sizes under 120 cm to 130 cm. In fact they're responsible for introducing a lot of young skiers into the sport, while saving us a lot of money, something we can all be thankful for.
   
• Be Extra Careful Buying skis online: Many brands, like Rossignol, use the same decals on both their Capped and Sidewall Skis.  So that GREAT deal might turn into a big disappointment.
   
• For part time skiers skis have become more accessible. 
  • Today, ski construction has come a long looong way to the point where the skis you can buy off the shelf out perform the skis used by FIS and World Cup racers globally. In order to reduce the risk of accidents, FIS, the governing body limited throttled-back the side cuts on race skis dimensions. 
    
    The Issue: Modern shaped skis have become SOOOO good at carving turns that all you have to do is really to get them to carve is add weight and hang on!  In fact, prior to the limits FIS imposed on race skis, racers caught off balance would find themselves being shot perpendicular from the fall line when they lost control. This resulted in several horrible accidents. Racers were suddenly crashing into tree lines, on trail segments, where such crashes prior had never been conceived possible. The Straight Skis we had access to up thru the 1980's and early 90's were nearly impossible to carve a complete turn on. We use to have to apply all sorts of Voodoo to get the race skis to pull off a turn. Thus, when you lost control, the only direction you were going to fall was the direction you were traveling. It's why today, we make sure we line as much the race trail as possible with Bnets, to intercept such random incidents from resulting in serious injury. 
     
• Ski Brands with Active Race Departments: The following Eight (now Six) Brands comprise the majority of the top quality race skis in production today. These ski brands are the companies that maintain active race development teams within their factories in Europe with dedicated engineers that design and develop and manually construct each set of race skis -- producing the best race skis in the industry.  
  • Rossignol & Dynastar (Same Company)
  • Atomic
  • Head
  • Salomon
  • Volkl
  • Elan and Nordica* (I believe both of these brands, as of 2025, have cut their race production and support for race departments.)
     
• Are YOU Looking for Your Next set of Recreational Skis: Are you searching or thinking of searching for a ski that has more performance, but is more affordable than a set of new race skis? Consider the All Mountain line-up from Rossignol!  Or in general shop from the brands above! The benefit to the consumer these brands offer is that much of their race ski engineering and experience -- their technology works its way into its "recreational" lines of skis they offer and commercially produce. 
   
• Understanding Side Cut: Finally, the last major consideration is side cut. Once a racer gets serious about the sport, the time comes when they have to invest in a set of Slalom and Giant Slalom skis. Side cuts help the skier carve shorter radius turns. Note, they don't determine the radius, just assist in the execution of the turn. It's possible to increase or decrease the radius of a turn by slowing down or speeding up the fore and aft pressuring of the skis, however that's a topic for another discussion. In the mean time good luck with your search for the next perfect race ski. 

• Width: Bonus round! If your interested in free skiing, powder skiing, or off-piste adventures in that fresh powder then your going to want a powder ski, a ski with a larger surface area under foot to help you float on the surface! These are skis that essentially are water skis adapted to powder skiing. In fact, my old friend Shane McConkey invented the powder ski by taking old wooden water skis and putting alpine bindings on them! 

If you have any further questions, I would suggest that you seek out assistance at Free Flight. Alternative sources or second opinions you're welcome to post a question on the the SRT forum or seek out one of our knowledgable coaches for outside advise. 

Enjoy Winter!