Ski vocabulary question

Admin wrote:

OldAndy wrote:Any chance you could use something like this?

What ?????

I meant like Ally's borrowed graphic?

Forgive me if this has already been suggested but I think the phrase we are all searching for is.....

'suitable for a wide range of abilities', and in one word

versatility

Brucie wrote: and in one word

versatility

Yes!!

matr wrote:Interesting. So in a way, it is correct and understandable, but it's still not quite right. Basically I'm translating a whole website, including skis presentations. We have like criteria on each ski with scales, e.g. Versatility from 1 to 5, Reactivity from 1 to 5, and "Accessibilité" in french, which I would translate by Accessibility without being too sure it's right. I've asked some friends of mine from UK, but they said the same. They could understand, but I can feel it's not perfect. They couldn't come up with anything better though. So I thought I'd ask real skiers.
And yes OldAndy,you understood it well, accessible would mean suitable for skiers. Like a ski with an accessibility of 1/5 is difficult to ride, recommended to advanced level skiers. A ski with an accessibility of 5/5 is very accessible, anyone can ride it.
.

I think he's using versatility already. He's trying to express something else, but I'm not entirely clear what.

A versatile ski is normally described as a polyvalent ski in French.

I have heard the word accessible used in relation to skis. The contact length of a fully cambered ski remains constant no matter what the edge angle is.




Whereas the full contact length of a 'rockered' ski is only available at a high edge angle.




Many skiers don't have the ability to tip a 'rockered' ski to the angle required for the ski's edge to be in full contact with the snow, so the full contact length is not accessible.

Even that I am not a native speaker, but I've never heard the word "accessible" used in this context. The term often used is "forgiving" or for the opposite - "demanding", though it's not exactly the same. "Accessible" to me is very close in meaning to "available", "accessibility" - ease of access, ability to access, not ease of use. Could the word you are looking for be "usability"? At least when I search for user-friendly wiki redirects to "usability". Or maybe a more general term "handling"? With "1" being very demanding and "5" - least demanding? In ski reviews the most common characteristics that I met are: turn initiation, forgiveness, edge hold, short turns performance, long turn performance, performance in moguls.

BTW, I love Volkl skis They are on a stiffer side and little bit demanding but I find they reward a good effort while not being totally unforgiving.

While I like "versatility" but I often saw this term describing suitability for a range of conditions, and different terrain, not skiers. But it still seems closer to the idea than "accessibility".

User-friendly ?